The Pystead Group: Daring to Be by James Pryor

A sharp-tongued satire on progressive utopias and species salvation, The Pystead Group: Daring to Be by James Pryor is a thought-provoking prophecy for the coming generation.

Thirty years in the future, the foundations of global society are fracturing, but a secretive cabal of researchers, dreamers, and futurists working for The Pystead Group has a plan for humanity’s redemption. Philip Russell unexpectedly lands a job with this enigmatic organization on its Caribbean island base, plunging him into a conspiratorial tangle of allegiance, advancement, and the intellectual dishonesty of American culture. Navigating the high-stakes battlefield of this philosophical playground and pseudo-utopia, Philip soon discovers that the Group’s ambitious vision for the future comes at a staggering cost.

The writing in this acerbic novel is precocious and philosophical, particularly Philip’s acrobatic internal monologues. Occasionally echoing both Kafka and Vonnegut, the prose is provocative, subtle, and sardonic, delivering its wisdom with razor-sharp timing and knowing winks to more radical readers. Questions of survival and revolution are baked into this psychologically thrilling read, as it boldly probes into themes of human cognition, theology, police states, platonic relationships, mysticism, capitalism, and much more, but it doesn’t overshare or spoon-feed readers the novel’s well-woven messages.

Timely in its allegorical criticism of the savior mindset, this eye-opening novel asks a blistering set of questions about both the present and future, while delivering invaluable answers.