Othmer: _The futurist

Othmer, James P. The futurist: a novel. New York: Doubleday, 2006. ISBN 0-385-51722-X.

Summary: For many years, the protagonist has made a good living by giving advice about trends and coming events to corporations, governments, and media pundits. He goes from one global business-leadership conference to another, charging considerable speaker's fees for offering his speculations to adulatory audiences. Now he has grown a shade too cynical and desperate about his chosen profession and a shade too dependent on alcohol to protect him from the realization that he's a clever fraud. So he gives a speech that is too candid, gets himself in enough trouble that some covert-operations group tries to blackmail him into becoming their agent. He struggles with this for a while and manages to work out a sordid compromise, and ultimately to escape.

The plot is depressing and the characters are unlikable, but there are some nice satirical touches:

He once told the board of a pharmaceutical company being investigated by the SEC Plato's line that the rulers of the republic may sometimes be required to tell noble lies for the good of its citizens. He once was conscripted by the inner circle of a failing presidential campaign to brainstorm ways to make their female candidate seem less detestable to rednecks without alienating her liberal base. He once spoke before the graduates of a Bible college in Virginia about the future of God and one week later delivered the keynote address to the Adult Video Distributors Conference in Vegas about the future of porn, and received standing ovations at both.