Infomocracy: A Novel

Description

It's been twenty years and two election cycles since Information, a powerful search engine monopoly, pioneered the switch from warring nation-states to global microdemocracy. The corporate coalition party Heritage has won the last two elections. With another election on the horizon, the Supermajority is in tight contention, and everything's on the line. With power comes corruption. For Ken, this is his chance to do right by the idealistic Policy1st party and get a steady job in the big leagues. For Domaine, the election represents another staging ground in his ongoing struggle against the pax democratica. For Mishima, a dangerous Information operative, the whole situation is a puzzle: how do you keep the wheels running on the biggest political experiment of all time, when so many have so much to gain? All three begin to realize that not everyone plans to play fair at the next election. The Liberty party is ascending on the back of subtle promises of warfare, and Heritage will do anything to keep itself in power. A perfect storm is brewing, one that might bring the new world order to its knees.

Malka Older is a writer, humanitarian worker, and PhD candidate at the Centre de Sociologie des Organisations studying governance and disasters. A 2015 Senior Fellow for Technology and Risk at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, she has over eight years of experience in humanitarian aid and development, and has responded to complex emergencies and natural disasters in Uganda, Darfur, Indonesia, Japan, and Mali. Infomocracy is her first novel.

Kinetic and gripping, the plot hurtles toward an electoral climax that leaps off the page. --NPR Futurists and politics geeks will love this unreservedly. --The New York Times Review of Books This brilliant book is unquestionably one of the greatest literary debuts in recent history. --The Huffington Post Far too messy to be utopian or dystopian, Older here raises all sorts of critical questions. I love this book; can't wait to see what else she writes. --Ian Bremmer, author of The End of the Free Market and Superpower Smart, ambitious, bursting with provocative extrapolations. --Ken Liu, author of The Grace of Kings If you always wanted to put The West Wing in a particle accelerator with Snow Crash to see what would happen, read this book. --Max Gladstone, author of Four Roads Cross An inspiring book about what we frail humans could still achieve, if we learn to work together. --Karl Schroeder A futuristic world with eerie parallels to current events... [an] uncanny political thriller. --The Washington Post A frighteningly relevant exploration of how the flow of information can manipulate public opinion...timely and perhaps timeless. --Kirkus Starred Review Older's sparkling debut, the first full-length novel from the novella-focused Tor.com imprint, serves as both a callback to classic futurist adventure tales by the likes of Brunner and Bester and a current examination of the power of information. --Publishers Weekly Micro-democracy has several things to recommend it, but the biggest strength of Older's writing is how clear-eyed she is on the fact that no system we can imagine will fix the problems of human nature, whether apathy or lust for power. --RT Reviews After sweeping you into a fascinating new world, Infomocracy will leave you with helpful ideas about what's happening in this one. --Annalee Newitz for Ars Technica Infomocracy has the slick language of Snow Crash, the complex global politics of Persona, and the chaotic storytelling of Moxyland. It's bold as hell and never boring, practically dizzying. --Lightspeed Good science fiction delves not just into explorations of technology and the limits of human innovation, but the political implications of same, and Infomocracy does that extremely deftly. --XOJane With roots in noir and heels firmly planted in the present, Infomocracy shows a world that really isn't too different from today. Malka Older has created a thrilling, breakneck novel with fully human characters. And it asks tough questions. --Electric Literature It's a rare thing to find a book that accurately captures the mundane and insidious absurdity of politics, but Infomocracy gets it absolutely right. --B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog Older's universe is fascinating, with its believable if cynical view of how politics might evolve in the information age. The pace is brisk with enough action for fans of political thrillers, but with plenty of futuristic touches for sf lovers. --Library Journal Science fiction for election nerds and for media geeks. I highly recommend it. --BookRiot