The Year 200

The Year 200 is a science fiction novel written by Cuban author Agustin de Rojas. The setting of the book is in the future, two hundred years after a bitter war between the Communist Federation and Capitalist Empire. Communism has prevailed and created a new society. However, everything isn’t as good as it seems, as there are robots who infect the world’s citizens with the minds of past capitalist rulers after completely erasing their own minds. At the center of the story is nine-year-old Bennie, who has been injected with the mind of a sadist who lived hundreds of years ago after touching a robot that has surfaced from underground. Bennie’s parents are also infected with the new virus, and the infection spreads like wildfire throughout most of the society’s citizens. However, there are those to whom the infection has little to no effect, namely Alice, a Communist spy, and Maya, whose cybernetic powers are immune from the virus. Now Alice and Maya must work together to bring down the virus and hopefully restore the seemingly peaceful society.

The Year 200 was written in 1990 by a Cuban science fiction author. The plot is very abstract and extremely convoluted with lots of details. There are big philosophical ideals presented in the book that leave the reader thinking throughout the story. What I also found was a gratuitous use of sexual descriptions and innuendos. In addition, I felt that the character development was quite shallow for a philosophical story.

All in all, I feel like The Year 200 isn’t for everyone. Granted, it is written by a Cuban author, so there are elements of the book that are foreign to the American reader.