EMMA

Emergent Movement of Militant Anarchists

By: Michael Segedy

Narrated by: BT Stephenson

Finalist in 2013 Foreword Book Award for best thriller/suspense and Silver Medal Winner of the 2013 Readers' Favorite International Book Award.

Imagine a couple of young hacktivists, both former members of the internet freedom fighters group Anonymous, and one of them an ex-black ops officer, breaking away and creating a militant group of anarchists committed to social change. But social change is precipitated by acts of violence against CEOs of major corporations responsible for crimes against humanity.

Their group, Emergent Movement of Militant Anarchists, or EMMA, believes the power elite will never listen to hollow threats or become intimidated by pranksters like Anonymous. They will listen only when they are forced to live in a state of terror.

A black-ops-officer-turned-terrorist is not the story of a renegade NCS commando gone bonkers. Rather, the novel tells of a young man, Brent Cossack, accepted into Georgetown University, who decides to forgo college and join the military. As a CIA operative in Iraq, he discovers an ugly truth and resigns. He returns home and falls in love with a beautiful political activist. Everything seems just swell, until a terrible event in his life pushes him over the edge.

FBI agent Rick Clark finds himself in the middle of an investigation that forces him to relive the saddest time in his life. Since his divorce, he has lived alone, avoiding relationships, except those established at work out of necessity, and one established at home, out of choice, with his commiserating dog, Thomas. Marty Robins, a psychologist involved in the investigation, helps resuscitate life into Rick, but his real savior comes later, in the form of an unexpected hero that restores hope and meaning in his fragmented life.

©2013 Michael Segedy (P)2021 Michael Segedy

Intriguing, Captivating, and Frightening

This is a complex story with an overarching storyline about Brent Cossack, a young man who leaves college to join the military. As a CIA operative assigned to Iraq, he quickly becomes disillusioned and returns home where he falls in love with a political activist. During all this, members of Anonymous, internet freedom fighters, go to war domestically to create social change by use of deadly violence. Now the FBI, Cossack, a father, and others must act to prevent further deaths and calamity.

Michael Segedy is a master wordsmith creating situations and characters that are gripping and terrifying at the same time. The blending of stories into one another is well done and adds to the richness of the story. Each character is given a depth that only adds to the suspense. Segedy is skillful at capturing small details that grab at the listeners' heartstrings and he plays them like a maestro. The plot twists were perfectly executed and unexpected.

The narrator, BT Stephenson gives another fine performance. His performance is delivered smoothly and with just the right amount of inflection. His narration is impactful and effective in drawing the listener into the story and holding them there. His voice is clear and smooth yet resonates throughout the performance.

This book is interesting and whether it is intended or not, makes the listener think about the world and social changes that need to be made and the consequences if it is taken out of our hands.

There were no issues with the quality or production of this audiobook, it was well done.

Disclaimer: This Audiobook was provided free of charge by the author, narrator, and/or publisher in exchange for a non-bias, honest review.

Wonderful thriller, got me engaged throughout!

Loved it! And so will you if you enjoy political thrillers with intricate plots and memorable characters. I was surprised to read a review that the novel was supposed to be about espionage. I don’t know where that idea came from. Also the idea that the author was confused about hitmen and Silk Road. Not only were hitmen contacted through Silk Road but it’s been alleged that the founder of Silk Road even hired one. Also, it is more than clear that EMMA was a leftist group. I don’t see how anyone could miss that. The former black ops officer Brent Cossack was recruited into EMMA because of a personal tragedy he experienced that was connect to a rightwing militia group. Perhaps the plot is a bit too intricate for readers of pulp thrillers and techno claptrap. In any event, I highly recommend this book. It certainly captures the ugly side of covert operations that have little to do with a country’s national interests but much more to do with corporate profits. And it does so in a suspenseful, heart wrenching way.

Missed a lot of points

Reading the synopsis really hit all the interest points for me: techno-thriller, espionage, hacking, detective, anarchism. It also starts the story off strong. Unfortunately, it is a very middle-of-the-road novel that doesn't really take any of those tasks through in an interesting way.

It doesn't show a Hackers/Kevin Mitnick knowledge of anything cyber-related. The espionage is a bad guy that doesn't really show until the last 10 pages of the book with no real motive and no real need to take the route he did. The detective story pretty much boils down to the suspect calling the detective and giving him all the details. As for anarchism - either right or left - I couldn't tell where the author was coming from. At certain points, it seems like some of the characters (and therefore the author) supports a left-center viewpoint but then there's a very big misstatement about Silk Road. Silk Road never had child photos or hitmen available as the founder had a non-aggression principle as the basis for it.

It's not all bad but it didn't really deliver on any one of the genre points. It was also difficult to tell who's POV the audience was suppose to follow and the flipping between past and present didn't really do much to endear any character in reading it. There is an interesting character with a more than photographic memory but then she disappears from the story towards the end; really a shame she wasn't fleshed out more. Final Grade - D