Mr. Winters has won major awards in both the mystery and speculative-fiction genres. The brain-teasing Golden State exists in a space where those two forms coexist. As a consequence, a sympathetic reader’s imaginings may persist long after the book’s puzzles have been solved.
Winters has a knack for creating appealing detective fictions that skew reality in thought-provoking ways, producing a hybrid of the familiar and the uncanny ... For the first two-thirds of Golden State, Winters pulls it off again. The novel is in equal measure a gripping detective story and a disquieting work of speculative fiction. Winters brilliantly imagines the quotidian manifestations of a truth-obsessed culture ... However, the last third of Golden State fails to deliver on the promise of its first two hundred pages. Winters paints himself into an imaginative corner ... How I wish that all of Winters’s novel had produced [an ecstatic] effect in me.
Another thought-provoking, genre-bending SF thriller ... Winters seems to have a real affection for unusually compelling premises—the events of the Last Policeman trilogy take place as an asteroid is bearing down on the earth, and the annihilation of humanity is a certainty—and he certainly knows how to bring those premises to life in a way that keeps readers flipping pages. Another fine novel from a writer whose imagination knows no bounds.
In many ways, Golden State is a reflection on contemporary preoccupations about fake news and alternative facts. ... recalls 1984 in its emphasis on surveillance, obsessive record-keeping and bureaucracy, although the sunshine and acres of marijuana fields make Winters's vision considerably more attractive ... Winters is an expert at combining social commentary with gripping mystery plots, and the novel never slows down enough to be accused of didacticism. With rich characters, frequent twists and tense set pieces, Winters always nails the hardboiled basics. And even as Ratesic's unquestioning faith in his society erodes, it remains a provocative and compelling alternative to the uncertainty that can seem to undergird modern life.
Winters is well aware of the tropes of dystopian noir, and it is fun to watch him mix and match them to good effect ... Winters concocts twisted phraseology that points out the difficulty in speaking about what is Objectively So, and he does a good job of stoking the engines of futuristic paranoia. The detective plot works well, but it is in its questioning of the nature of truth and falsehood that the novel excels ... Smart, intricate and propulsive, Golden State is proof that Winters deserves our continued attention as one of crime fiction’s most inventive practitioners.
... it’s apparent from the outset that Winters has taken great care fashioning a reality with texture and depth ... What adds that final coat of authenticity, what makes this feel like a lived world, is that we see everything through the eyes of a man who takes for granted the peculiarities of his society, who never doubts for a moment the morality of imprisoning people who make false claims or exiling those who have lost their grip on reality ... Ben Winters’s writing just keeps getting better and better – and it started out pretty dang good to begin with ... a remarkable blend of detective tropes, solid worldbuilding, humor, and heart ... What’s most amazing about Golden State is how many balls Winters keeps in the air simultaneously.
... engaging ... Winters uses a lot of familiar tropes and turns.. that undoes a lot of the interesting world-building and timely themes that dazzle in the book’s first two-thirds. But the real nuance of Golden State lie in the author's imaginative details ... Where the book really shines, though, is in tackling the idea of truth, and if there is such a thing as 'absolute' truth, underneath the overarching mystery ... Golden State is, no lie, a fascinating examination that takes fidelity and correctness down a freaky Orwellian path.
With Golden State... Ben Winters has created a fascinating and oddly familiar world ... Golden State is science fiction at its finest, a propulsive narrative filled with complex ideas that are expressed by engaging characters who occupy a rich and detailed world. It’s an immersive and thought-provoking work, one that challenges as much as it compels.
In some details, Winters’ story might have fallen out of a forgotten file drawer at Philip K. Dick’s pad, though Winters takes a less bleak view of humankind than the master of bad-vibes future California; though somewhat less surprisingly inventive than the author’s Underground Airlines, it’s still a skillful and swift-moving concoction ... For those who like their dystopias with a dash of humor.
Disappointing ... While the story, in which every second of the populace’s lives is meticulously recorded, is tonally comparable to Orwell’s 1984, the thematic impact simply isn’t there. Some of the societal elements seem contrived, such as how every citizen must archive every single life event in a journal, and the reveal at the end is too nebulous to be completely effective. Winters’s exploration into the nature of truth will grip many readers, but this ambitious novel misses the mark.
