Face-Lift 1504

Guess the Plot

Take the Power Back

1. You, yes YOU, have given up enough freedom to THE MAN, corporate America, billionaires, trillionaires, earth and air and sea in global warming. It's time to acknowledge this is YOUR PLANET, clean it up, and TAKE YOUR POWER BACK.

2. New superhero The Vakum has the ability to strip away superpowers. Of course he only uses it on villains. But now they've figured out a way to reverse the process. Chaos ensues as supervillains fight over acquiring each others abilities. Meanwhile, the superheroes make popcorn and watch.

3. The city-states of the world can only exist with the Palola power source. Recently someone stole the Palola of Tsiki, the home of Fini. Will Fini find the thieves or will he have to move?

4. Scammed by a billionaire genius, penniless Shelby decides to take him down by stealing his greatest invention and proving it's junk. Which she does, but he's still a billionaire, and she's still broke.

Original Version 

TAKE THE POWER BACK (93,000 words, speculative) is an adult speculative heist novel pitting a Lupin style thief against tech billionaires. I am a traditionally-published speculative [That's the third time you've used the word "speculative already.] fiction author with a Master’s degree in [Speculative] English  literature. I am querying you because this novel resonates with [YOUR MSWL]

Shelby is a security professional struggling with catastrophizing OCD. It is a gift in her line of work – helping her hyper-focus on flaws in security systems – but a torment to her mental health. When catastrophe hits close to home and her brother begins suffering an illness that conventional medicine can’t cure, Shelby falls down the rabbit hole and becomes convinced the only treatment for her brother is a drug invented by a genius billionaire named Leader Zenden – the creator of a hyper-capitalist island utopia. [A sentence with "hyper-focus" followed by a sentence with "hyper-capitalist."] [Sorry if it seems I'm being hyper-critical.]

Shelby spends all her money to journey to Zenden’s island to buy the drug – only to learn it is a scam. She swears to take revenge, and what better way to do so than by stealing Zenden’s greatest invention yet and prove [proving] to the world that it’s a fake. [You can prove that the side panels of a Tesla fall off when you slam the doors, but that doesn't make Elon Musk a pauper. Also, unless she already has proof that the invention is fake, wouldn't it be better to show the world that his drug is a scam?] Her revenge plot soon throws her into the middle of a power struggle for Zenden’s island. Shelby encounters a tantalizing thief, an old flame with ulterior motives, and Zenden’s most ardent zealot, while fighting the pull of Zenden’s cult upon her psyche. As her heist barrels toward its own catastrophe, ["Catastrophe" is your new favorite word.] Shelby must decide who she trusts – and maybe even learn whether her brother is truly beyond saving.

TAKE THE POWER BACK is a recipe for activism about how an everywoman can [shows how one determined woman] beats the 1%. It asks big questions about who we really can rely on in times of catastrophe, saving the biggest for its audacious finale. The novel blends the timely satire of Alderman’s The Future with the mysterious, utopia-hiding-dystopia of The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton (May 2024, Sourcebooks Landmark).

This is my second novel picking apart corporate power and oppressive tech through a speculative lens; my first [NOVEL] [was a speculative hyper-catastrophe.] I have spoken as an author panelist at [LITERARY CONFERENCES] and have forthcoming pieces in [LITERARY MAGAZINES].

 Sincerely,

Notes

Is his "greatest invention" already available? If not, it would be better if she stole his greatest invention, patented it, mass-marketed it, became a billionaire, bought up his company, and squeezed him out. Or you can explain how proving one of his inventions is fake leads to his ruin. Is she somehow going to end up with his island? 

If her brother isn't beyond saving, I would expect Shelby to be looking for a drug trial that might find a cure. She can seek her revenge and struggle for power after her brother's dead. In other words, what is her revenge plot, and how will it help her brother?