Laz S Perfect State Machine

Meet Laz Ian Ventor, a Lazy Inventor. Hes house sitting for his friend when disaster strikes! In an attempt to solve his problem he creates a machine that makes everything perfect. Lazs machine helps out a number of people, including the queen, things are happening that are beyond Lazs wildest dreams and everything is perfect! That is, until theres a problem with the machine. Its obvious that something drastic must happen to put the world to rights once more. Will this Lazy Inventors only ever working machine have to be destroyed? Should he have never made it in the first place? And what will his friend say when she gets back to all that mess?

From award-winning, New York Times bestselling novelist Ben H. Winters comes a mind-bending novel set in a world governed by absolute truth, where lies are as dangerous as murder. In a strange alternate society that values law and truth above all else, Laszlo Ratesic is a nineteen-year veteran of the Speculative Service. He lives in the Golden State, a nation standing where California once did, a place where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life and governance impossible. In the Golden State, knowingly contradicting the truth is the greatest crime -- and stopping those crimes is Laz's job. In its service, he is one of the few individuals permitted to harbor untruths, to "speculate" on what might have happened. But the Golden State is less of a paradise than its name might suggest. To monitor, verify, and enforce the truth requires a veritable panopticon of surveillance and recording. And when those in control of the facts twist them for nefarious means, the Speculators are the only ones with the power to fight back.