paperback, 384 pages
Published March 5, 2019 by MCD x FSG Originals.
BEFORE: In Bristol’s centre lies the Croft, a digital no-man’s-land cut off from the surveillance, Big Data dependence, and corporate-sponsored, globally hegemonic aspirations that have overrun the rest of the world. Ten years in, it’s become a centre of creative counterculture. But it’s fraying at the edges, radicalising from inside. How will it fare when its chief architect, Rushdi Mannan, takes off to meet his boyfriend in New York City - now the apotheosis of the new techno-utopian global metropolis? AFTER: An act of anonymous cyberterrorism has permanently switched off the Internet. Global trade, travel, and communication have collapsed. The luxuries that characterised modern life are scarce. In the Croft, Mary - who has visions of people presumed dead - is sought out by grieving families seeking connections to lost ones. But does Mary have a gift or is she just hustling to stay alive? Like Grids, who runs the …
BEFORE: In Bristol’s centre lies the Croft, a digital no-man’s-land cut off from the surveillance, Big Data dependence, and corporate-sponsored, globally hegemonic aspirations that have overrun the rest of the world. Ten years in, it’s become a centre of creative counterculture. But it’s fraying at the edges, radicalising from inside. How will it fare when its chief architect, Rushdi Mannan, takes off to meet his boyfriend in New York City - now the apotheosis of the new techno-utopian global metropolis? AFTER: An act of anonymous cyberterrorism has permanently switched off the Internet. Global trade, travel, and communication have collapsed. The luxuries that characterised modern life are scarce. In the Croft, Mary - who has visions of people presumed dead - is sought out by grieving families seeking connections to lost ones. But does Mary have a gift or is she just hustling to stay alive? Like Grids, who runs the Croft’s black market like personal turf. Or like Tyrone, who hoards music (culled from cassettes, the only medium to survive the crash) and tattered sneakers like treasure. The world of Infinite Detail is a small step shy of our own: utterly dependent on technology, constantly brokering autonomy and privacy for comfort and convenience.
What would you do if the world you were dependent upon evaporated in front of your eyes one day?
This is a very high tech savvy book about a not-too-distant-future in which some group - not entirely specified - has got hold of and repurposed a computer virus of sorts that's able to gain access to any smart device connected to the internet, and then use that to launch a massive scale DDoS on, well, everything, but particularly the DNS servers and global internet backbone. The result is that every smart device from computers to toasters becomes dedicated to destroying the internet as we know it - and the entire world drops offline in a matter of hours.
Those of us who grew up before the internet may be thinking "so what", but Maughan illustrates very clearly that it's not a case to going back to the '70s or '80s. Now we're SO reliant on internet connectivity for absolutely everything from supply chains to traffic monitoring to emergency services …
This is a very high tech savvy book about a not-too-distant-future in which some group - not entirely specified - has got hold of and repurposed a computer virus of sorts that's able to gain access to any smart device connected to the internet, and then use that to launch a massive scale DDoS on, well, everything, but particularly the DNS servers and global internet backbone. The result is that every smart device from computers to toasters becomes dedicated to destroying the internet as we know it - and the entire world drops offline in a matter of hours.
Those of us who grew up before the internet may be thinking "so what", but Maughan illustrates very clearly that it's not a case to going back to the '70s or '80s. Now we're SO reliant on internet connectivity for absolutely everything from supply chains to traffic monitoring to emergency services that the world is brought to a screeching and very chaotic halt. Millions die, many of starvation since manufacturing and supply chains simply cease to function. A new generation starts to grow up without the constant connectivity we've become accustomed to. Most of the story revolves around The Croft, an artist/counterculture enclave in Bristol, England, where a small group tried to maintain an independent local network. The story touches on various members of The Croft both past and present, looking at their role in and reaction to the events that unfolded.
The writing is a bit dense and lecture-y at times, at one point an entire manifesto going on for multiple pages. It's absolutely very smart writing about some very potentially real possibilities, but not always presented in a very approachable way. Several of the characters are somewhat interesting, one of the most interesting being a gay love story, but the book fails to resolve most of the various characters' stories in any satisfactory way by the end - instead the characters seem to just wander off at the end of the book, their outcomes mostly unresolved and open-ended, or in some cases entirely forgotten (I'm looking at you, can-recycling-man). It felt as if the author was far more interested in the tech lessons he is delivering than the actual characters and their lives, which is unfortunate, because they could both have been interesting.
at the moment I can't read 'dystopian'/too-close-to-reality sci-fi, because.... am tired. only exception is when Maughan is writing, because of the underlying politics which strikes just perfectly.
3.5 stars
Interesting near-future dystopia, the story kind of ambles on, but in a nice way. The plot's loose and can feel inconsistent but still a fun read, overall.
Jagged melange of futures coming at you.
I'm sorry that this is a bit mean spirited. But the book read like the author wants to show us that he has a real nice thesaurus. The premise of the book is great! But I couldn't get over the writing style. I did not finish this book.
