Louis, and then grew up a bunch more, in various ways, in places like Chicago, New York, Cambridge, MA, and Indianapolis, IN.

Ben was born in Washington, D.C., grew up in Maryland, educated in St. His reviews appear frequently in the New York Times Book Review. He is the author of four “Audible Originals”– Stranger, Inside Jobs, Q&A, and Self Help - and several plays and musicals. He has contributed short stories to many anthologies, as well as in magazines such as Lightspeed. Previously he was a producer on the FX show Legion, and on the upcoming Apple TV+ drama Manhunt. He is the creator and co-showrunner of Tracker, forthcoming on CBS. Dick award in science fiction, the Sidewise Award for alternate history, and France’s Grand Prix de L’Imaginaire.īen also writes for film and television. Ben has won the Edgar Award for mystery writing, the Philip K. His first novel, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, was also a Times bestseller. He is also the author of the novel Golden State the New York Times bestselling Underground Airlines The Last Policeman and its two sequels the horror novel Bedbugs and several works for young readers. Winters is the author most recently of the novel The Quiet Boy (Mulholland/Little, Brown, 2021). And when those in control of the truth twist it for nefarious means, the Speculators may be the only ones with the power to fight back.īen H. To monitor, verify, and enforce the Objectively So requires a veritable panopticon of surveillance, recording, and record-keeping. In its service, he is one of the few individuals permitted to harbor untruths-to 'speculate' on what might have happened in the commission of a crime.īut the Golden State is far less a paradise than its name might suggest.

Stopping those crimes, punishing them, is Laz's job. There, surrounded by the high walls of compulsory truth-telling, knowingly contradicting the truth-the Objectively So-is the greatest possible crime. Laz is a resident of The Golden State, a nation resembling California, where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life, and governance, increasingly impossible.

This is how Laz must, by law, introduce himself, lest he fail to disclose his true purpose or nature, and by doing so, be guilty of a lie. Lazlo Ratesic is 54, a 19-year veteran of the Speculative Service, from a family of law enforcement and in a strange alternate society that values law and truth above all else.

Golden state by ben h winters