Malka Ann Older
Tor
June 7th, 2016
ISBN: 0765385155 (ISBN13: 9780765385154)
The world has transitioned to something called ‘micro-democracy’, a system where small geographic areas containing 100,000 people called ‘centenals’ operate according to the laws established by their governing political party. Some parties are corporate entities (Mitsubishi is one mentioned) that provide the majority of jobs in the centenal, some are regular policy based parties that simply own much of what goes on in their centenals. Walking a matter of a few miles could take a traveler through the territory of multiple governments, and people vote on their choice of government once every 10 years. The party with the most votes wins the super majority, and wields the most power and influence.
Everyone gets their news and facts from Information, which is an entity all its own, operating like a curated internet service. Rumors abound in subtly worded propaganda, war may be brewing, and the chaotic, fragile micro democracy could be in jeopardy.
Infomocracy is about an idealistic representative for a micro government, an Information operative, and an anarchist. Its an advanced information age political thriller, reminiscent of Snow Crash and Jennifer Government with a dash of the natural chaos that people bring. Beautiful debut novel, it’ll be interesting to see what Older does next.
JL Jamieson is a strange book nerd who writes technical documents by day, and book news, reviews, and other assorted opinions for you by night. She is working on her own fiction, and spends time making jewelry to sell at local conventions, as well as stalking the social media accounts of all your favorite writers.