Lauren Beukes
Mulholland Books
August 16, 2016 (Re-issue)
Four characters collide in a corporate apartheid world.
Kendra is an art school dropout photographer who has decided to brand herself with an addicting corporate technology that makes her a walking advertisement for biotech. Lerato has grown weary of her corporate life, and plans to defect. Tendeka is an anti-corporate activist, and is getting louder, more daring. Toby is a jaded, drug addled blogger who finds out the games he plays for money aren’t all they seem.
This trendy, drug fueled and corporate controlled vision of the future (replete with genetically engineered police attack dogs and cell phones that deliver punitive taser-like shocks) is reminiscent of titles like Blade Runner, Jennifer Government, and Snow Crash. Beukes has a dab hand with snappy dialogue and quirky characters, resulting in a book that leverages the genre to make the book as much about people as it is about technology twisting society.
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.