Skip to main content
book cover for The Black Swan Event

The Black Swan Event

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.

Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Book 1 of The America, Inc. Saga

Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app


1

To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.

2

Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.

Pub Date Jun 1 2022 | Archive Date Feb 27 2026


Talking about this book? Use #TheBlackSwanEvent #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

The next great battle between liberty and tyranny is about to begin…

Award-winning author Mikael Carlson brings the government surveillance and public manipulation of Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 and weaves in the twists and turns of Game of Thrones. The Black Swan Event is the action-packed first novel of this epic speculative fiction saga showing the world’s terrifying post-apocalyptic future.

When an underground group of dissenters detonates an explosion that causes problems with trading on the world’s sole stock exchange, a series of events are set in motion that threatens to unravel the fabric of society. Egos clash as bureaucrats, corporate executives, and wealthy elites play politics amid an unprecedented threat to their corporatist economic system. Are these black swan events the harbinger of another great collapse, or is it the spark needed for the light of liberty to shine once more?

Welcome to the corporate state: a terrifying look at a future where people are dependent on fascist, totalitarian corporations for everything.

Following a global economic collapse in 2039 that brought governments to their knees, brutal violence and chaos spread across the globe. To fill the power vacuum, giant multinational corporations, backed by wealthy benefactors, seized the reins of power and began oppressing the masses. Nearly fifty years later, there is no crime, no unemployment, no homelessness, and no war. All that progress came at a price – individual freedom.

People are now cogs in the corporate machine whose sole purpose is to enrich the elite. Every employee is monitored for any hint of subversion and subjected to the harshest penalties for even minor transgressions. Most of the world’s population has accepted this new reality. Not all of them have. The corporations call them “terrorists.” They call themselves humanity’s last, best hope for liberty.

Liberty or Tyranny? A great struggle is erupting, and the long-forgotten meaning of freedom hangs in the balance. Prepare for a roller-coaster ride filled with unexpected twists and dramatic events. When the rebellion clashes with the surveillance state, the future of human society will hang in he balance.

The next great battle between liberty and tyranny is about to begin…

Award-winning author Mikael Carlson brings the government surveillance and public manipulation of Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984...


Advance Praise

"The Black Swan Event is unapologetic in its honesty about how the world works but Mikael Carlson adds a Big Brother element to enshrine control, cripple the masses, and make the illusion of safety a pretext for what has the terrifying appearance of martial law and a military dictatorship in corporate form." -- Asher Syed for Readers’ Favorite ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"The Black Swan Event brings to life a masterfully detailed array of characters with diverse viewpoints that establish an intricately mesmerizing, yet alarmingly grim, reality."--Review by Book Excellence ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

* SILVER MEDAL - The BookFest, Dystopian-Society & War

* SILVER MEDAL - Global Book Awards, Military

* Pinnacle Book Achievement Award

* FINALIST - American Fiction Awards, Thriller - Political

* FINALIST - Page Turner Book Awards, Best Thriller

* Page Turner Awards Longlist

"The Black Swan Event is unapologetic in its honesty about how the world works but Mikael Carlson adds a Big Brother element to enshrine control, cripple the masses, and make the illusion of safety a...


Available Editions

EDITION Ebook
ISBN 9781944972141
PRICE $4.99 (USD)
PAGES 363

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Reader (EPUB)
NetGalley Shelf App (EPUB)
Send to Kindle (EPUB)
Send to Kobo (EPUB)
Download (EPUB)

Average rating from 3 members


Featured Reviews

5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars

I really enjoyed reading The Black Swan Event by Mikael Carlson. The plot was great and the cover is gorgeous as well.

5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
Was this review helpful?
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars

THE AMERICAN, INC. SAGA:
THE BLACK SWAN EVENT, #1 - Interesting and immersing story lines with an interesting variety of characters and events. Better than I expected for this topic. Source: NetGalley, Warrington Publishing, and My Kindle library. 4*

BOUNDED RATIONALITY, 2 - Picks up where Event stopped. Continued interesting story lines with an interesting variety of characters. Source: NetGalley, Warrington Publishing, and My Kindle library. 4*

4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
Was this review helpful?
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars

This complex and gripping tale of a corporate domination of the world’s politics, commerce and culture will keep the reader riveted to the page. Alternating viewpoints illuminate a struggle between oligarchs, a completely corporate-driven government, security agencies and municipal police organizations employing technology to control everything from public policy to the stock market.
A scion of a prominent family falls, through his own naïve actions, into the hands of an underground (literally) group of economic revolutionaries bent on destroying the corrupt ruling class. He witnesses the fight from a side opposite to that in which he was brought up, having been “educated” by corporate-skewed teachers of history, finding a tentative enlightenment while experiencing near-mortal peril at the hands of the violent and dogmatic freedom fighters.

Throughout the story, the machinations of the often-opposing factors who each have individual prerogatives not to the benefit of the others complicates the action and outcome. With plenty of sinister motives and personal selfishness the actors in the plot frequently find themselves at odds, adding to the chaos which must inevitably occur.

Lovers of techno-thrillers and sci-fi tales will find this a satisfying and exciting read.

4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: