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Book Review: Infinite Detail by Tim Maughan
Publishers: MCD x FSG Originals
Genre: Speculative, Near Future Dystopia (I got an e-ARC from Netgalley)
This book is a near future technology dystopia, and though the story mentions issues like privacy, autonomy, fake news, it is about the society and the effects a society has in presence and absence of such a technology. And what’s more, the technology here is the internet that has been plugged out by an act of cyber-terrorism, and the pre-internet world gets resuscitated that is filled with anxiety and have characters who eke out living in the unwired age.
The future dystopian world is back to the days of DVDs, Bluerays, VHS, CDs, and Tapes. Swaps possible, but no Credit. Local brigandage in the form of land army exists whose members are, “bored farmers and starving country kids, trying to stay alive.” And then there are the labor camps where the starving children are being put.
There is liberal use of names of existing big players of the internet and social media. Being a journalist in real life, the author has written a book like an investigation where given the scope of the book, the details multiply at each point. In some ways, the story aims to achieve many things all at once, and that not only creates a complexity, but even hampers the narrative.
If as a reader, one wants characters and flow of story, then this is not the book for such things. It would be liked by those who are too much into existing technologies and like reading about the doomsday near-future dystopian society in a story set up.
I would say, this book is an interesting insight.
Copyright © Anup Mukherjee
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