After going through the Proust Questionnaire and talking about markets with me, Brian Leni and I turned our attention to SPECULATOR, an exciting novel co-authored by Doug Casey.

Brian and I have both written reviews of the book here and here, and it was fun to talk at length about the book. You can even get a free copy by signing up to Brian’s free newsletter here

P: You’ve read the novel “SPECULATOR” by John Hunt and Doug Casey and even wrote a review of it. You had some good things to say and I would like to start by asking: did you have any major criticisms?

B: The only criticism I have is that I wanted to know more. I want to see how the story ends. I’ve read some criticism, but I’m not sure that the book would still have been a fictional novel if it was written differently. I think it does a lot more than it could if it was a non-fiction book.

P: Maybe I’ve been living under a rock, but I haven’t heard too many criticisms of the book. Apparently someone on Amazon wrote that it had too many sex scenes. That didn’t make any sense to me.

P: Does Charles Knight really come out the other side of the story as a winner?

B: To be determined! Or, maybe a matter of perspective.

P: I would say he doesn’t, really. He was left facing a pretty large tax bill and he didn’t have the home-run that he thought he could have.

B: This comes back to our prior conversation – I think about the life experience. This was an amazing experience for Charles, no matter how he made out financially. I’m sure that what he learned from it will pay multiples over in the future.

P: (laughs)

B: The second book is DRUG LORD and it will be interesting to see how he uses what he’s learned as his adventure moves forward.

P: I found it was so well-written. It had some moralizing – there were excerpts that read almost like a textbook. They did a good job of spreading them out and integrating them into the story as it was happening. It read more like an adventure novel than anything to me.

B: Agreed. That’s good because there will be people who have no interest in speculation at all, but they can still enjoy it as an adventure novel.

P: And they’ll get it! They will get what they’re looking for. So, we have some sense of what’s going to happen with the DRUG LORD title, but I feel like I have no idea what’s going to happen with the character development. Is Xander going to be in there? What about that woman? And the broker -- remember the broker that she works with in San Diego there?

B: The characters are fascinating. Each one seems to be a composite character of different people that Doug knows, but I wonder which part is based on which real-life person.

P: The whole thing where the broker is talking about conducting an experiment with Sabina? Wow. That was not like anything else I’ve ever read about. Normally, if someone is conducting an experiment on another person, then they are an evil genius in a Bond movie. To have him there as a neutral character, who wasn’t clearly good or bad – just running his own storyline. The depth of the character there was amazing!

B: Super interesting part of the book and maybe telling into who Doug really is. We get parts of it here and there, but that added a lot to my sense of who he is.

P: And the depth of the IRS Agent. Remember the story where he’s at an automobile repair shop facing down some gangster? The guy has the agent down on his hands and knees, staring down the barrel of a gun, taking money, and agreeing to make the problem go away. Striking, visceral vignettes throughout the whole novel. And The rebels in the jungle, what an adventure.

B: Africa is definitely a place that I would like to visit. It is probably the only remaining frontier.

P: He’s been pounding the table on that for as long as I’ve been around. Saying that’s the place to go, in terms of adventure and opportunity. I think he’s said “you can be there a week and end up sitting down with the President if you’re sufficiently well-heeled and capable of these kinds of adventures.”

P: To your earlier comment – I don’t look to that novel for any actual, direct instructions about how to live. I know he has some sections where he spells out a theory of speculation versus investment and there’s some good material in there, but it’s a fictional story.

B: It’s the philosophical undertones that really hit home with me. When I was first introduced to Doug Casey ten years ago, it was the philosophy that changed my life. I’m quite serious, it changed my life – changed the way I look at the world in all aspects - personal and financially. The free market philosophy was a huge influence for me. I hear all of that reverberating through that book.

B: You’re right, it doesn’t necessarily tell you the step by step on how to speculate, but those philosophical undertones are very strong. If your mind is open to it, then I think you will find a lot of benefit in the book.

P: And how much do we learn from the stories of other people? It’s one thing to read a textbook on something, but it’s another to hear the story of someone’s success or failures.

B: A famous quote from Warren Buffett is that “You need to learn from mistakes, but they don’t have to be yours.” If you can actually do that, then you’re way ahead of others. I try to do it myself, but still make my fair share of mistakes, for sure.

P: It’s tough in this case because we are talking about learning from a fictional character. You could say that the story is not realistic, it’s just an imagined storyline and the lessons in it are not real.

B: Everybody’s story is always going to be different. Whether you’re learning about a real situation or a fictional one, there is probably only a limited amount of material that you can pull from any of them.

P: Yes, I’m with you on that. The impression I had from the Charles Knight character was that he is really just beginning to find himself.

B: Absolutely, and at a young age.

P: He seemed to be pretty naïve, optimistic, even idealistic in his own way. The events seemed to disabuse of him.

B: I think death or the fear of death does that.

P: Well, it reminded me how sheltered my life has been.

B: For most of us, really. Especially in western society, where even our lower class is well above anything in some parts of the world. Africa would be an eye opener, especially when you go there and are put to the test.

P: I thought I had travelled a bit and sought out adventure, but it was humbling to read SPECULATOR.

P: One of the final scenes I remember was Sabina going through Washington in a private car when she looked out the window and saw the Federal Reserve building. Did you notice that line?

B: Afraid to say I’ve forgotten.

P: I was live-blogging about the book on CEO.CA as I was reading it, and it really stuck with me as a great example of all the foreshadowing that happens in the book. Sometimes that seems like the authors are laying it on a little heavy. I rolled my eyes a few times thinking “come on, this isn’t a soap opera”, but maybe it is! How much do we need a counter-culture soap opera right now?

B: (Laughs) I don’t think it would be very popular, though.

P: Everybody I’ve talked to about the book, it’s a pretty small audience, but they’re dedicated fans.

B: I would agree with you, but I think the majority still doesn’t want to hear that stuff.

P: Well, I wonder if it’s not an inconvenient truth for them. I think there were a few examples of inconvenient truths and characters encountering inconvenient truths in the novel – on both sides of the line! The good guys and the bad guys all seemed to have some change within themselves. The book was great in terms of showing the different ways that they responded to the change and what it led them to next.

P: I love the old guy, Xander, walking around hunched over and sick. The next time you saw him, he was spry and running around. The deception and how you project yourself was very interesting.

B: Never underestimate someone. There’s a lesson there, for sure.

P: What a gift to the world, really. I remember, years ago, hearing Doug talk about how he was going to write seven novels! OK, I thought, that’s cool but it’s a huge undertaking. Writing a good novel is not easy, let alone one that conveys serious ideas. I don’t know quite what John did in the background, but I suspect he is responsible for so much of it being a page-turner.

B: It’s a big step going from non-fiction to fiction.

P: And you mentioned the Jack Reacher novels and Michael Crichton earlier, I wonder – how would you categorize SPECULATOR?

B: There are definitely parallels to the Reacher novels, but SPECULATOR has financial subject matter. Reacher’s character is smart, but his physicality is what makes him really stand out. Charles clearly uses his head, maybe the physical is coming (Laughs)

P: And Crichton. His books are always page-turners, but high-brow page-turners.

B: For sure, the sources he cites for his novels are just incredible.

P: His novel on ebola way back – that felt so well researched and authentic.

B: Right, The Andromeda Strain – that was one of my favourite novels. I think that was the first novel of his that I ever read. I may have been in Grade 7 or 8 when I read it.

P: He did a good job researching those novels and I would point out that Doug did a good job researching his novel, SPECULATOR, but I think they researched them in very different ways. Michael Crichton would be more inclined to research something as an academic, whereas the stuff that Doug and John are writing about seemed to be researched by their life spent doing things.

B: That makes sense as Crichton was a Doctor. Their backgrounds are very different – an academic researcher versus someone who has learned by experience. The best is probably a combination of both, which Doug really has, if you think about it.

P: Absolutely. The best researchers know how to access the research done by others and integrate it into their own world view.

P: Stay tuned for the next novel in the High Ground Series coming out in 2017!

B: Looking forward to it.

P: I want to see a dramatic reading from some of the scenes of speculator. I feel like there are so many cool things you can do there.

B: Have they done it on audible? It would be interesting to even hear Doug do it.

P: They have an audible. I told the publishers the same thing and they said “us too!” To do the whole book is too much, but it may be possible to have him do a few excerpts. To hear him riff on the book would be interesting. We can read the book and interpret it for ourselves, but who knows what stories he has with the things in the book.

B: Indeed. As I say, I'm looking forward to the next book and whatever other cool stuff they can put out.  It may prove to be a great way to get more people interested in our space, which would be great.

P: Agreed.  Thanks very much for talking with me about it.  I look forward to connecting with you again soon!  All the best. 

B: Thanks, Peter.  You too!