Moxyland by Lauren Beukes
Dec. 8th, 2014 11:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
There is no blurb on the back, instead you get the following quotes:
Charles Stross
Andre Brink
Paul Cornell
NAG Online
It’s the near future in Capetown, South Africa.
Kendra is a photographer who’s agreed to receive a nanobot injection that will alter her genetic structure, improving her health and senses but also leaving her with a luminescent mark on her skin in the shape of the corporate sponsor’s logo and leaving her thirsty for their product. Toby is a blogger and occasional professional gamer with mummy issues who’s chronicling the activities of Tendeka, a community worker for the poor and disadvantaged whose frustration with the disparity between rich and poor is taking him down an increasingly radicalised route. Finally there’s Lerato, an ambitious coder for Communique (one of the major corporates who rule modern society) who plans to go places but isn’t above helping out old boyfriend, Toby, from time to time.
The lives of all four intersect as tensions rise within the city and revolution threatens everything they have ...
Lauren Beukes’s debut SF novel is a dystopian cyber-thriller with some great ideas that makes interesting use of its Capetown location and South Africa’s history but ultimately can’t rise above its two-dimensional characters. I loved the way Beukes uses phone disconnection as a literal means of cutting people off from society and how companies trawl orphanages and camps looking for young talent to mould into their corporate image. Unfortunately, none of the characters came alive for me – Tendeka is a cardboard cut-out angry revolutionary, keen to create social justice but blind to the motives of his supporters. Toby is a deeply unpleasant product of trust-fund privilege who slags off his uncaring mother while exploiting others to achieve fame on his own terms. Lerato and Kendra were more interesting given their backgrounds and how both have fought to overcome disadvantaged backgrounds to make it in their respective fields but neither show any savvyness when it counts and both are defined by their victimhood. I wanted to know more about Lerato’s relationship with the nanobots injected into her and Kendra’s views on corporate life but the book doesn’t examine this in any depth. I also found the ending downbeat and predictable, although there is potential there for a sequel. I’m a big fan of Beukes so it’s interesting to read her first book, but for anyone starting with her work, I’d recommend ZOO CITY or THE SHINING GIRLS as a more satisfying starting point.
The Verdict:
Lauren Beukes’s debut SF novel is a dystopian cyber-thriller with some great ideas that makes interesting use of its Capetown location and South Africa’s history but ultimately can’t rise above its two-dimensional characters. I loved the way Beukes uses phone disconnection as a literal means of cutting people off from society and how companies trawl orphanages and camps looking for young talent to mould into their corporate image. Unfortunately, none of the characters came alive for me – Tendeka is a cardboard cut-out angry revolutionary, keen to create social justice but blind to the motives of his supporters. Toby is a deeply unpleasant product of trust-fund privilege who slags off his uncaring mother while exploiting others to achieve fame on his own terms. Lerato and Kendra were more interesting given their backgrounds and how both have fought to overcome disadvantaged backgrounds to make it in their respective fields but neither show any savvyness when it counts and both are defined by their victimhood. I wanted to know more about Lerato’s relationship with the nanobots injected into her and Kendra’s views on corporate life but the book doesn’t examine this in any depth. I also found the ending downbeat and predictable, although there is potential there for a sequel. I’m a big fan of Beukes so it’s interesting to read her first book, but for anyone starting with her work, I’d recommend ZOO CITY or THE SHINING GIRLS as a more satisfying starting point.
There is no blurb on the back, instead you get the following quotes:
”The larval form of a new kind of SF munching its way out of the intestines of the wasp-paralysed caterpillar of cyberpunk.”
”A technicolour jazzy rollercoaster ride into a dazzling hell.”
”I recommend it highly.
”Think V For Vendetta, but with third world angst, an outrageously narcissistic trust-fund blogger, and a township soccer team with an insurrectionist agenda. Tell your teacher you want to read Moxyland or you’ll shoot up your school.”
It’s the near future in Capetown, South Africa.
Kendra is a photographer who’s agreed to receive a nanobot injection that will alter her genetic structure, improving her health and senses but also leaving her with a luminescent mark on her skin in the shape of the corporate sponsor’s logo and leaving her thirsty for their product. Toby is a blogger and occasional professional gamer with mummy issues who’s chronicling the activities of Tendeka, a community worker for the poor and disadvantaged whose frustration with the disparity between rich and poor is taking him down an increasingly radicalised route. Finally there’s Lerato, an ambitious coder for Communique (one of the major corporates who rule modern society) who plans to go places but isn’t above helping out old boyfriend, Toby, from time to time.
The lives of all four intersect as tensions rise within the city and revolution threatens everything they have ...
Lauren Beukes’s debut SF novel is a dystopian cyber-thriller with some great ideas that makes interesting use of its Capetown location and South Africa’s history but ultimately can’t rise above its two-dimensional characters. I loved the way Beukes uses phone disconnection as a literal means of cutting people off from society and how companies trawl orphanages and camps looking for young talent to mould into their corporate image. Unfortunately, none of the characters came alive for me – Tendeka is a cardboard cut-out angry revolutionary, keen to create social justice but blind to the motives of his supporters. Toby is a deeply unpleasant product of trust-fund privilege who slags off his uncaring mother while exploiting others to achieve fame on his own terms. Lerato and Kendra were more interesting given their backgrounds and how both have fought to overcome disadvantaged backgrounds to make it in their respective fields but neither show any savvyness when it counts and both are defined by their victimhood. I wanted to know more about Lerato’s relationship with the nanobots injected into her and Kendra’s views on corporate life but the book doesn’t examine this in any depth. I also found the ending downbeat and predictable, although there is potential there for a sequel. I’m a big fan of Beukes so it’s interesting to read her first book, but for anyone starting with her work, I’d recommend ZOO CITY or THE SHINING GIRLS as a more satisfying starting point.
The Verdict:
Lauren Beukes’s debut SF novel is a dystopian cyber-thriller with some great ideas that makes interesting use of its Capetown location and South Africa’s history but ultimately can’t rise above its two-dimensional characters. I loved the way Beukes uses phone disconnection as a literal means of cutting people off from society and how companies trawl orphanages and camps looking for young talent to mould into their corporate image. Unfortunately, none of the characters came alive for me – Tendeka is a cardboard cut-out angry revolutionary, keen to create social justice but blind to the motives of his supporters. Toby is a deeply unpleasant product of trust-fund privilege who slags off his uncaring mother while exploiting others to achieve fame on his own terms. Lerato and Kendra were more interesting given their backgrounds and how both have fought to overcome disadvantaged backgrounds to make it in their respective fields but neither show any savvyness when it counts and both are defined by their victimhood. I wanted to know more about Lerato’s relationship with the nanobots injected into her and Kendra’s views on corporate life but the book doesn’t examine this in any depth. I also found the ending downbeat and predictable, although there is potential there for a sequel. I’m a big fan of Beukes so it’s interesting to read her first book, but for anyone starting with her work, I’d recommend ZOO CITY or THE SHINING GIRLS as a more satisfying starting point.
