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Tim Maughan, 1973-

Book - 2019

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Subjects
Genres
Dystopias
Published
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2019.
Language
English
Main Author
Tim Maughan, 1973- (author)
Edition
First edition
Item Description
"MCD x FSG Originals."
Physical Description
pages cm
ISBN
9780374175412
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Sometime in the near future, an act of sabotage does the unthinkable shut down the internet. It is a catastrophic event, throwing the world into chaos. In (roughly) alternating chapters set in the period before the catastrophe and in the period afterward, this crisply written novel explores our dependence on the internet and speculates about how we might respond if we were suddenly without it. Maughan's central thesis that the global society would shatter into small pieces without online connectivity is carefully presented and seems chillingly plausible. The novel says something important and thought provoking about such hot-topic issues as privacy, the interconnectedness of the world's population, and class structure; but, thanks to Maughan's rigorously developed characters and his ability to tell a compelling story, the book is never preachy. A seriously good page-turner with plenty of meat on its bones.--David Pitt Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Maughan's dynamic, sprawling, post-postmodern cyberpunk debut is split between the prelude to, and the aftermath of, a worldwide technological apocalypse that has left mankind without an internet, resources, luxury, or the ability to travel internationally as they scrabble through now-treeless wastelands. The novel follows two story lines, both centered on the People's Republic of Stokes Croft ("the Croft"), an anarchist-minded Bristol, England, neighborhood that, pre-crash, opted voluntarily to go offline, "a two-mile-long digital no man's land... part hippyster commune, part permanent art installation, and part political protest." In the "before" scenes, readers meet the Croft's infamous cofounder Rushdi Manaan as he travels to an ultra-futuristic New York saturated with information networks and corporate control to meet his boyfriend, only to wind up witnessing firsthand the initial blackouts and the advent of the virus (directed against hypermodernity by an unknown cabal called "DRONEGOD$") that, in the "after" sections, has decimated life as we know it. There, in the remains of the Croft, readers meet 14-year-old Mary, a supposed medium who draws the faces of people believed dead, and her associates Grids, a powerful black marketeer, and Tyrone, who is haunted by the memory of Melody, a pop star who seemingly exploded mid-concert. Add to that mix Anika, a mysterious newcomer who will come to share her secrets-of the Croft, the crash, and Manaan-and one begins to get the idea of just how vast the novel really is. Maughan handles it beautifully with maximalist daring and depth; the result is an energetic novel about civilization as it races toward the ultimate overload. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

When a young iconoclast unleashes a destructive algorithm, a group of vagabonds in Bristol struggles to come to terms with the world that follows.You never know quite what you're going to get with journalist Maughan's thoughtful dystopian debut novel, which offers a blush of cyberpunk, a shakerful of Neal Stephenson, and a dash of Cory Doctorow's speculative fiction. The book's time frame is split in half, alternating by chapters. In "Before," our main protagonist is hacker-turned-activist Rushdi Manaan, who's built an alternative community in Bristol, England, called the Croft, completely cut off from the internet and outside communicationmostly artists doing their thing. He's gone to New York to visit his boyfriend, Scott, but he's also working on an algorithm that could change the world, for better or worse. In "After," the Croft is barely holding together after a group of cyberterrorists unleashes what they call a "reboot," completely destroying every network, every cellular device, and essentially switching off the internet itself. The occupants of the Croft are a pretty ragtag group by this point, connected to the past only by artist Anika, who bridges the gap between stories. Elsewhere are Grids, who runs the black market, Tyrone, who trades in old music cassettes, and Mary, who sees ghosts through her glasses, although she's unable to communicate with them. As a backlash against the connected world and an indictment of internet culture, it's a terrifying scenario rife with terrorist attacks and a movement whose mantra reads in part, "With zero bandwidth opportunity is our only weapon." The story is a bit fractured in structure, but the characters are compelling, and it's worth reaching the end just to find out how Maughan wraps up this Byzantine puzzle box.An original and engaging work of kitchen-sink dystopia. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.