I very much enjoy Barnes' descriptive abilities, especially his technically fluid and realistic fight scenarios, as well as his ability to convey the athleticism of his characters. However, this book, the first in a three part series, is very much a read for those with a staunchly politically correct mindset, imbued as it is with reverse racism and a need to portray America as a failed state. As is usually the case in modern media, people of color play the role of the downtrodden and exploited,

I very much enjoy Barnes' descriptive abilities, especially his technically fluid and realistic fight scenarios, as well as his ability to convey the athleticism of his characters. However, this book, the first in a three part series, is very much a read for those with a staunchly politically correct mindset, imbued as it is with reverse racism and a need to portray America as a failed state. As is usually the case in modern media, people of color play the role of the downtrodden and exploited, but also more emphatically, a self-empowered and soulful moral underground, while a decadent, impotent (with emphasis on impotent) and parasitic White dominant culture controls the nation and the world. And Aubry Knight, former Null Boxer, what we would call an M.M.A. fighter whose arena is a zero-gravity sphere, is (seemingly) presented as the potential of all African Americans and other people of color who were not crushed by the malignant White dominant culture. I know how all this sounds and I'll probably be stoned or burned at the stake for writing all this, but while everyone is free to create their own mythologies, that doesn't mean others are required to subscribe to their beliefs. Like most mythologies, political correctness has a core of truth, but the degree to which it is carried makes it nothing more than attempt to create a new dominant culture, or as some have said, "a new majority," and there's no moral superiority in that, just a naked grab for power and dominance. And this book is just another expression of that, even though I did enjoy reading it.