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Six Books About Being A Cog in the Dystopian Machine

the lost cause by cory doctorowIf the word “dystopia” broken down into its Greek roots literally means a “bad” “place,” what could be a worse place than the soul-sucking bureaucracy of a totalitarian state? Well, the cold truth that dystopia’s in the modern age aren’t as fictional as the books we like to read. But here’s good news: fiction can help us understand the hard edges and complexities of our world, including the thornier emotional truths that underlay everything else. 

Cory Doctorow’s work often speaks truth to power, combining his extensive technological and sociological insight with a skill for teaching, and translating esoteric technologia into entertaining narrative. Enter The Lost Cause, his new near-future novel that grapples with the twin dangers of climate change and a movement of people who cling to a gilded and distorted view of the past that never really existed as they recall, and definitely never will in an increasingly unstable future.

Here are six more books about dystopian bureaucracies and the characters who make them work, and sometimes end up bringing them down.

By Yvonne Ye


Falling lineart sparrow and cover text for When the Sparrow Falls by Neil SharpsonWhen the Sparrow Falls by Neil Sharpson

Neil Sharpson’s debut novel (now available in trade paperback!) opens with StaSec (“State Security”) agent and cog-in-the-totalitarian-machine Nikolai South eking out a miserable existence in the Caspian Republic, where atrocities are mundane and fear the general state of being. The Caspian Republic remains the last bastion of “true” humanity in a world that has succumbed to the siren song of uploaded consciousness. Both Party ideology and South’s beliefs will be challenged when he is assigned to escort the lovely Lily Xirau, a recent widow of a virulently anti-AI journalist, for the duration of her visit to the Caspian Republic.

The first catch: both Lily Xirau and her husband are actually AI. 

The second catch: Lily Xirau bears an uncanny resemblance to South’s own wife, who drowned twenty years ago. 

As state secrets and South’s past begin to unravel with Lily Xirau’s arrival, South is forced to grapple with his beliefs and his grief as he helps Lily search for the truth behind her husband’s death. When the Sparrow Falls examines the question of what it means to be human through the lenses of AI, transhumanism, grief, and totalitarian dystopia, all buttoned up sharply in the suit of a Cold War-era spy thriller reminiscent of le Carré and Orwell.

Placeholder of  -59Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

Autonomous explores another world where humanity is threatened by the acceleration of the various systems that govern it, though the forces in Autonomous are pharmaceutical and capitalistic rather than organic supremacist and dictatorial. The residents of Newitz’s world are trapped by a late-capitalistic regime where Big Pharma owns everything, from patents to people. The novel follows three primary characters: Jack, an anti-patent drug pirate on the run; Eliasz, a desperately fanatical and deeply damaged military agent hunting her down; and Paladin, a robot who is navigating his own profoundly human journey of self-discovery.

Both Nikolai South in When the Sparrow Falls and Eliasz in Autonomous struggle with their own humanity while working for profoundly tyrannical regimes that attempt to stomp the soul out of them. Trapped by the drudgery of work and the necessities of survival, South and Eliasz must grapple with their complicity in oppressive systems and the cost it takes to do the right thing.

Place holder  of - 85The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi

The Oubliette could be a Martian paradise, if you only have the time. The currency of Rajaniemi’s world is measured not in dollars, but in seconds—and time can be stolen. In order to expose the hidden conspiracy of cryptarch governors in the panoptical society of the Oubliette, the mysterious Mieli calls upon gentleman thief Jean Le Flambeur. After all, who better to perform an impossible heist than a legendary thief?

While Rajaniemi’s world of constant surveillance in the Oubliette relies on high-technology to manipulate the fabric of human society, the Caspian Republic in When the Sparrow Falls uses good old-fashioned methods from the Cold War—bugs and brainwashing. South continually hears the voice of “the Good Brother,” an insidious mouthpiece of paranoia and party propaganda urging him to report his neighbors and deny the humanity of Lily, the AI he has been tasked to protect. Both Rajaniemi and Sharpson fabricate fantastically fanatical societies in visions of our alternate presents and alternate futures.

Image Place holder  of - 30Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan

In Morgan’s cyberpunk future, human consciousness can survive indefinitely by being “re-sleeved” in new flesh bodies. Takeshi Kovacs, an ex-elite soldier turned criminal turned private eye, is hired to investigate the death of Laurens Bancroft, a wealthy man whose trail leads to a virus that has the potential to contaminate the cortical stacks that store human consciousness and cause permanent death.

Humanity in Morgan’s world happily re-sleeves itself in new bodies whenever death comes knocking, but the populace of the Caspian Republic has not yet attained the same blasé attitude about human existence. Both Lily Xirau and Nikolai South in When the Sparrow Falls grapple with the question of what makes someone human, and come to find that the answer has nothing at all to do with the body one wears, and everything to do with the heart one follows.

Image Placeholder of - 44Infomocracy by Malka Older

Malka Older’s groundbreaking cyberpunk political thriller series begins with Infomocracy, set in a world where results of the upcoming election are poised to change everything. A powerful search engine called Information shapes every aspect of human life, from social interaction to research to political campaigning. While traveling around the world as a campaign agent for the idealistic Policy1st party, Ken meets and hooks up with Mishima, an operative of Information. Mishima fights—literally—to keep the search engine as accurate and non-partisan as possible. Meanwhile, the mysterious dissident Domaine pursues his own anti-campaign against the whole system of microdemocracy.

Nikolai South shares struggles with Ken and Mishima as agents of and players within a machine that is both personal and political. Whether the system will remain standing is an open question throughout both books—and whether these characters are the key to bringing the system down is another.

Poster Placeholder of - 31The Laundry Files series by Charles Stross

When IT tech worker Bob Howard accidentally stumbles across mathematical equations that can summon Lovecraftian monsters from alternate dimensions, he is forcibly drafted into the Laundry, a British government agency that specializes in dealing with occult threats. Between combating dimension-hopping terrorists, protecting lovely logic professors performing reality-bending research, learning the secret history of the world, and—worst of all—attending committee meetings, Bob Howard has his hands full with the fieldwork and paperwork required to defend the world from ancient, eldritch powers.

Spy thriller? Check. Science fiction? Check. Bureaucratic humor? Check. Nikolai South’s dry humor could give Bob Howard’s a run for its money, and the two of them could certainly share a drink (or five) over the dreary horrors of bureaucracy.

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$2.99 Ebook Sale: Infomocracy by Malka Older

Placeholder of  -5The ebook edition of Infomocracy by Malka Older is on sale now for only $2.99! This offer will only last for a limited time, so order your copy today. The third book in the series, State Tectonicswill be available on September 11th.

About Infomocracy: 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 micro-democracy. 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?

Order Your Copy

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This sale ends October 1st.

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6 Fascinating Books to Read While Awaiting Season 2 of Westworld

Where will artificial intelligence take us? And what existential questions will the rise of AI pose? These six reads explore the potential for robots and artificial intelligence to save — or destroy — us all… perfect to tie you over until Season 2 of Westworld.

Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

Image Place holder  of - 28 It’s the future (it’s always the future) and drug pirate Jack — known as a pharmaceutical Robin Hood — is giving poor people the medicines they need but can’t afford. All admirable until Jack’s the cause of many lethal overdoses. Eliasz, a military agent, and his robotic partner, Paladin, are tracking her down. While doing so, they form an unusually close bond… sound familiar? Newitz is a master storyteller, and this book is especially powerful because it probes philosophical topics like property, identity, and — of course — autonomy.

Made to Kill by Adam Christopher

Image Placeholder of - 85 Raymond Electromagnet is a detective. He’s also a robot. Programmed to always work to make a profit and with a memory tape limit of only 24 hours, Ray would do just about anything to get some cold hard cash, and he’s sure as hell good at keeping secrets. Hired to find a missing movie star, Ray the robot gets into some serious trouble… making the novel a thrill to read.

Infomocracy by Malka Older

Placeholder of  -43 Infomocracy was on tons of 2016 Best Books lists, and Huffington Post called it “one of the greatest literary debuts in recent history.” It deserves the praise! Political parties spar during an election cycle, twenty years after Information — a powerful search engine — ended international wars and introduced global micro-democracy. How often do you hear about awesome political thrillers?

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Place holder  of - 53 This one is really reminiscent of Westworld because it tackles the same fascinating (and scary) topic: consciousness in robots. In All Systems Red, a self-aware android on a mission in space has hacked its governor module and now refers to itself as “Murderbot,” scornful of humans. But when a neighboring mission goes dark, even the robot wants to find out what happened. This novel is especially frightening because it poses the question of what happens when robots outsmart humans… which seems to be very plausible in the near future.

The Boost by Stephen Baker

Poster Placeholder of - 12 What happens when artificial intelligence gets installed into the brains of 99% of the human population? For one, a serious breach of privacy. In The Boost, Ralph notices that the new update to their brain chips will open a surveillance gate that could leave Americans extremely vulnerable… but in an attempt to expose this flaw, Ralph experiences resistance that threatens his life. His chip has been ripped out of his head, so now he has to fight back with his only analog tool: his brain.

Chasing Shadows by David Brin

We’re switching it up with a short story collection — and this anthology is hyper-realistic. Collected by David Brin (a legend) and written by other SF luminaries, Chasing Shadows examines the present-day increase in video surveillance and the state of technological transparency… ultimately revealing what the world might look like down the line (spoiler: dystopia).

If you’re looking for a quick yet horrifying non-fiction read, check out this 2-part article.

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Cyber Week eBook Deals

Get ready to fill your ereaders with these great deals, starting at $1.99!

For $2.99:

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

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Twin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.

This is the story of what happened first…

Jacqueline was her mother’s perfect daughter—polite and quiet, always dressed as a princess. If her mother was sometimes a little strict, it’s because crafting the perfect daughter takes discipline.

Jillian was her father’s perfect daughter—adventurous, thrill-seeking, and a bit of a tom-boy. He really would have preferred a son, but you work with what you’ve got.

They were five when they learned that grown-ups can’t be trusted.

They were twelve when they walked down the impossible staircase and discovered that the pretense of love can never be enough to prepare you a life filled with magic in a land filled with mad scientists and death and choices.

Order Your Copy of Down Among the Sticks and Bones for $2.99:

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Infomocracy by Malka Older

Image Place holder  of - 78It’s been twenty years and two election cycles since Information, a powerful search engine monopoly, pioneered the switch from warring nation-states to global micro-democracy. 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?

Order Your Copy of Infomocracy for $2.99:

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Night Embrace by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Poster Placeholder of - 56Dear Reader,

Life is great for me. I have my chicory coffee, my warm beignets, and my best friend on the cell phone. Once the sun goes down, I am the baddest thing prowling the night: I command the elements, and I know no fear. For centuries, I’ve protected the innocent and watched over the mankind, making sure they are safe in a world where nothing is ever certain. All I want in return is a hot babe in a red dress, who wants nothing more from me then one night.

Instead, I get a runaway Mardi Gras float that tries to turn me into roadkill and a beautiful woman who saves my life but can’t remember where she put my pants. Flamboyant and extravagant, Sunshine Runningwolf should be the perfect woman for me. She wants nothing past tonight, no ties, no long-term commitments.

But every time I look at her, I start yearning for dreams that I buried centuries ago. With her unconventional ways and ability to baffle me, Sunshine is the one person I find myself needing. But for me to love her would mean her death. I am cursed never to know peace or happiness-not so long as my enemy waits in the night to destroy us both.

Talon of the Morrigantes

Order Your Copy of Night Embrace for $2.99:

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Night Pleasures by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Place holder  of - 50Dear Reader,

Have you ever wanted to know what it’s like to be immortal? To journey through the night stalking the evil that preys on humans? To have unlimited wealth, unlimited power? That is my existence, and it is dark and dangerous. I play hero to thousands, but am known to none. And I love every minutes of it.

Or so I thought until one night when I woke up handcuffed to my worst nightmare: a conservative woman in a button-down shirt. Or in Amanda’s case, one buttoned all the way up to her chin. She’s smart, sexy, witty, and wants nothing to do with the paranormal–in other words, me.

My attraction to Amanda Devereaux goes against everything I stand for. Not to mention the last time I fell in love it cost me not only my human life, but also my very soul. Yet every time I look at her, I find myself wanting to try again. Wanting to believe that love and loyalty do exist.

Even more disturbing, I find myself wondering if there’s any way a woman like Amanda can love a man whose battle scars run deep, and whose heart was damaged by a betrayal so savage that he’s not sure it will ever beat again.

Kyrian of Thrace

Order Your Copy of Night Pleasures for $2.99:

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Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

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John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army.

The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-and aliens willing to fight for them are common. The universe, it turns out, is a hostile place.

So: we fight. To defend Earth (a target for our new enemies, should we let them get close enough) and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has gone on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.

Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity’s resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force, which shields the home planet from too much knowledge of the situation. What’s known to everybody is that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You’ll serve your time at the front. And if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.

John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine-and what he will become is far stranger.

Order Your Copy of Old Man’s War for $2.99:

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Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

Order Your Copy of Vicious for $2.99:

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For $1.99:

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

Order Your Copy of All Systems Red for $1.99:

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Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti’s stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself — but first she has to make it there, alive.

Order Your Copy of Binti for $1.99:

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This offer ends December 1st.

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New Releases: 8/8/17

Happy New Release Day! Here’s what went on sale today.

City of Saviors by Rachel Howzell Hall

Place holder  of - 85 After a long Labor Day weekend, seventy-three-year-old Eugene Washington is found dead in his Leimert Park home. At first blush, his death seems unremarkable—heatwave combined with food poisoning from a holiday barbecue. But something in the way Washington died doesn’t make sense. LAPD Homicide Detective Elouise “Lou” Norton is called to investigate the death and learns that the only family Washington had was the 6,000-member congregation of Blessed Mission Ministries, led by Bishop Solomon Tate.

But something wicked is lurking among the congregants of this church.

NEW IN PAPERBACK:

Ghost Talkers by Mary Robinette Kowal

Image Placeholder of - 46 Ginger Stuyvesant, an American heiress living in London during World War I, is engaged to Captain Benjamin Harford, an intelligence officer. Ginger is a medium for the Spirit Corps, a special Spiritualist force.

Each soldier heading for the front is conditioned to report to the mediums of the Spirit Corps when they die so the Corps can pass instant information about troop movements to military intelligence. Ghost Talkers is a brilliant historical fantasy novel from acclaimed author Mary Robinette Kowal featuring the mysterious spirit corps and their heroic work in World War I.

Infomocracy by Malka Older

Poster Placeholder of - 99 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 micro-democracy. 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.

NEW IN MANGA

Devils and Realist Vol. 13 Story by Madoka Takadono; Art by Utako Yukihiro

Not Lives Vol. 6 Story and art by Wataru Karasuma

Servamp Vol. 10 Story and art by Strike Tanaka

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On the Road: Tor/Forge Author Events in May

Tor/Forge authors are on the road in May! See who is coming to a city near you this month.

Robyn Bennis, The Guns Above

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Saturday, May 6
Borderlands Café
San Francisco, CA
6:30 PM
Also with Megan E. O’Keefe.

Sunday, May 7
American Bookbinders Museum
San Francisco, CA
6:30 PM
SF in SF Reading Series – also with Ellen Klages and David D. Levine, books provided by Borderlands Books.

Marie Brennan, Within the Sanctuary of Wings

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Monday, May 8
Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale, AZ
7:00 PM

Tuesday, May 9
Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA
7:30 PM

Thursday, May 11
University Bookstore
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM
Also with Todd Lockwood.

W. Bruce Cameron, A Dog’s Way Home

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Sunday, May 14
Alamo Drafthouse
Kansas City, MO
4:00 PM
​Film screening of A Dog’s Purpose and book signing, Books provided by Rainy Day Books.

Tuesday, May 16
Book Passage
Sausalito, CA
6:00 PM

Thursday, May 18
Tattered Cover
Littleton, CO
7:00 PM

Monday, May 22
Alamo Drafthouse
Dallas, TX
6:30 PM
​Film screening of A Dog’s Purpose and book signing. Books provided by Half Price Books.

Tuesday, May 23
Off Square Books
Oxford, MS
5:00 PM

Jacqueline Carey, Miranda and Caliban

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Tuesday, May 23
Schuler Books & Music
Lansing, MI
7:00 PM

Cory Doctorow, Walkaway

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Monday, May 1
Cambridge Public Library
Cambridge, MA
6:30 PM
In conversation with Joi Ito.

Tuesday, May 2
Politics and Prose
Washington, DC
7:00 PM
In conversation with Amie Stepanovich.

Wednesday, May 3
New York Public Library – Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
New York, NY
7:00 PM
Celeste Bartos Forum

Thursday, May 4
Fountain Books
Richmond, VA
6:30 PM

Friday, May 5
Flyleaf Books
Chapel Hill, NC
7:00 PM

Saturday, May 6
Joseph-Beth Booksellers
Cincinnati, OH
7:00 PM

Sunday, May 7
The Royal George Theater
Chicago, IL
7:00 PM
In conversation with Max Temkin. Books provided by Volumes Bookcafe.

Tuesday, May 9
Tattered Cover
Denver, CO
7:00 PM

Wednesday, May 10
Book People
Austin, TX
7:00 PM

Thursday, May 11
Brazos Bookstore
Houston, TX
7:00 PM

Friday, May 12
Doubletree Hilton
Scottsdale, AZ
7:00 PM
In conversation with Brian David Johnson.  Books provided by the Poisoned Pen.

Saturday, May 13
Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA
4:00 PM
Mysterious Galaxy Birthday Bash, with ticketed book signing.

Sunday, May 14
Powell’s City of Books
Portland, OR
7:30 PM
In conversation with Andy Baio.

Monday, May 15
Neptune Theatre
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM
In conversation with Neal Stephenson. Books provided by the University Bookstore.

Tuesday, May 16
Village Books
Bellingham, WA
7:00 PM

Saturday, May 20
Dark Delicacies
Burbank, CA
2:00 PM

Sarah Gailey, River of Teeth

Friday, May 19
Borderlands Café
San Francisco, CA
6:00 PM

Malka Older, Infomocracy

Tuesday, May 9
Charmington’s
Baltimore, MD
7:00 PM
Writers and Words Reading Series – also with Kondwani Kidel, Nathan Hollaway, and Tecla Tesnau.

Veronica Rossi, Seeker

Tuesday, May 16
Kepler’s Books
Menlo Park, CA
7:00 PM
Also with Evelyn Skye.

Jenni L. Walsh, Becoming Bonnie

Saturday, May 13
Newtown Bookshop
Newtown, PA
1:00 PM

Tuesday, May 16
Barnes & Noble
Princeton, NJ
7:00 PM
Also with Lee Kelly.

Wednesday, May 17
Doylestown Bookshop
Doylestown, PA
6:30 PM

Wednesday, May 24
Narberth Bookshop
Narberth, PA
6:30 PM

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Is a real utopia possible?

Is a real utopia possible and do we want to achieve one? We interviewed three political science fiction authors about the future societies they create in their novels.

Infomocracy, the debut novel from humanitarian worker Malka Older, is a post-cyberpunk thriller that envisions a future where elections play out on a worldwide scale. 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 micro-democracy. The corporate coalition party Heritage has won the Supermajority in the last two elections. With another election on the horizon, the Supermajority is in tight contention, sabotage is threatened, and everything’s on the line, testing the limits of the biggest political experiment of all time.

Too Like the Lightning, historian Ada Palmer’s first novel, is set in a peaceful, affluent future where superfast transportation makes it commonplace to live on one continent while working on another and lunching on a third. Antiquated “geographic nations” have been replaced by borderless governments whose membership is not determined by birth, but by individuals choosing the nations which reflect their identities and ideals, while rulers and administrators of inestimable subtlety labor to preserve the delicate balance of a world where five people affected by a crime might live under five different sets of laws.

From Robert Charles Wilson, the author of the Hugo-winning Spin, The Affinities is a compelling science fiction novel about the next ways that social media will be changing everything. In the near future people can be sorted by new analytic technologies—such as genetic, brain-mapping, and behavioral—and placed in one of twenty-two Affinities. Like a family determined by compatibility statistics, an Affinity is a group of people most likely to like and trust one another, the people one can best cooperate with in all areas of life: creative, interpersonal, even financial. It’s utopian—at first. But as the differing Affinities put their new powers to the test, they begin to rapidly chip away at the power of governments, of global corporations, of all the institutions of the old world. Then, with dreadful inevitability, the different Affinities begin to go to war with one another. His most recent novel is Last Year.

How do you draw the lines of political division in your novel?

Malka Older: Because Infomocracy is set during an election, the actors spend a lot of time drawing the lines of division themselves—with political advertising, in debates, in their informal discussions. But the setting of micro-democracy, which in the book has existed for decades, also allowed me to show some of the ways that these different political approaches might play out in practice. As characters move from one centenal—a geographic unit with a population of 100,000 people—to another, which in a dense city could be every couple of blocks, they see changes in laws, cultures, and commerce. It’s a fun place to hang out, at least for political geeks and writers.

Ada Palmer: Because my governments are based on choice instead of birth, the divisions are based on identity, and on what kinds of underlying principles people want their governments to have. For example, there is one group that focuses on warm and humanitarian activities, education, volunteerism, and attracts the sort of people who want to be part of something kind and giving. There is another group that has stern laws and an absolute monarchy, which attracts people who like firm authority and strong leaders, but it can’t get too tyrannical since, if the monarch makes the citizens unhappy then no one will choose to join that group; so the leader has to rule well to attract subjects. There’s another group that focuses on progress and future-building, imagining better worlds and sacrificing the present by toiling to build a better future. So the differences aren’t liberal vs. conservative really, or one policy vs. another, but what people feel government is for in the first place, whether it’s about strength, or about helping people, or about achievement, or about nationhood, or about being a good custodian of the Earth, the big principles which underlie our thinking before we start judging between candidate 1 and candidate 2.

Robert Charles Wilson: In a sense, the lines are drawn by my novel’s premise. Over the course of the story we get a look at the personal and internal politics of the Affinity groups, the politics of inter-Affinity alliance-making, and the relationship of the Affinities to the conventional political and cultural institutions they attempt to co-opt or displace.

Why did you choose your main character as the narrator and how do they engage the audience?

Robert Charles Wilson: Adam Fisk is a young man facing a broad set of the familiar problems the Affinity groups claim to address—a less-than-perfectly-functional birth family, money woes, a stalled career path, a social isolation he can’t quite climb out of. He embodies a certain longing we all feel from time to time: the sense that a better, more fulfilling, more meaningful way of life must be possible. Like many of us, he’s looking for a door into a better world. Unlike most of us, he becomes convinced he’s found it.

Ada Palmer: Mycroft Canner is a very peculiar narrator, based closely on 18th century memoirs and philosophical novels, especially Diderot’s Jacques the Fatalist. This kind of narrator has very visible opinions, often interjecting long tangents about history or philosophy and using direct address, “Gentle reader, don’t judge this frail man too hastily, for you see…” I wanted to write in this Enlightenment style because authors of that era, like Voltaire and Montesquieu, loved to ask big questions about things like government, law and religion, questioning whether elements people thought of as “natural” and “universal” like aristocracy, or retributive justice, or gender segregation, might not be so natural and universal.

Modern science fiction is very much in that tradition, of course, imagining other ways society might be set up and using them to make us question our assumptions about our own world, but I love how Enlightenment narrators voice the questions overtly instead of having them be implicit, because the narration is like a time capsule. When we read an Enlightenment novel like Candide or Jacques the Fatalist today, we don’t have the same questions about the events that the authors ask in their narration, because we come from a different time and have different big questions on our minds. We’re at a different stage in the history of social class, gender equality, monarchy vs. democracy, religion, so the questions Voltaire or Diderot ask about these issues, preserved in the time capsule of their narration—are often more surprising and delightful to us than the stories themselves.

Malka Older: Infomocracy shifts among the points of view of multiple main and secondary characters. This reflects the multi-polar nature of the world and the multiple layers of information and misinformation, but it also serves to engage the readers across multiple competing but valid perspectives. Most of the main characters are working hard for an outcome they honestly believe in; allowing them each a voice gives the reader a chance to identify with each and, hopefully, engage more deeply on these difficult questions.

Would you describe the society in your book as a utopia? Why or why not?

Robert Charles Wilson: The Affinities is a book about the utopian impulse, of which (I feel) we should be skeptical but not dismissive. Part of the book’s premise is that the advance of cognitive science has made possible a practical utopianism, a utopianism that derives from a genuine understanding of human nature and human evolutionary history rather than from the imagined dictates of divine will or pure reason. And the Affinity groups aren’t the last word in that struggle. The book holds open the possibility of even newer, more radical communal inventions.

Ada Palmer: I think Bob’s characterization applies well to all three of these books, that none is a strict “utopia” in that none of them is trying to portray a perfect or ideal future, but they are all about utopia and utopianism, about human efforts to conceive and create a new, better society. In that sense they’re all addressing hope, not the hope that a particular set of institutions would solve all humanity’s problems, but the hope that humanity will move forward from its current institutions to try new ones that will work a bit better, just as it moved to the current one from earlier ones. There is a lot of anti-utopian science fiction, in which we are shown a world which seems utopian but turns out secretly to be achieved through oppression or brainwashing etc. It’s refreshing to me to see a cluster of books which aren’t that, which are instead about new ways the world could be run which would be a step forward in some ways, if not in others. My book’s future especially I think of as two steps forward, one step back: poverty has been dealt with but censorship has come back; religious violence has ended but at the cost of lots of religious regulation; current tensions about race and gender have evolved into new different tensions about race and gender. Looking at real history, that is how historical change tends to work, improvements on some fronts but with growing pains and trade-offs; for example, how industrialization let people own more goods and travel more freely, but lengthened the work week and lowered life expectancy, gain and loss together. I think all three of our books suggest—against currents of pessimism—that that kind of change is still valuable, and that “better” is a meaningful goal even if “perfect” is off the table. Certainly it’s meaningful to discuss; this kind of thought experiment, exploring alternate ways of living, is so much of what science fiction is for.

Malka Older: It sounds like we’re all on the same page in terms of utopias. As Ada says, I think it’s a very positive step not only to be writing with hope, but also writing stories that move away from the absolutes of utopias and dystopias (as a side note: it’s interesting how trendy the dystopia label has become recently; among other things, it means the bar for calling something a dystopia is far lower than that for labeling a utopia < \pet peeve>). Imagining a perfect society can be paralyzing: as a narrative function it requires a kind of stasis that’s not very exciting, and as a policy prescription it becomes the enemy of incremental, imperfect solutions. At the same time, without expecting perfect, we need to keep demanding better, and better, and better.

Robert Charles Wilson: Seems to me that utopia—if we define utopia as a set of best practices for enabling justice, fairness, freedom, and prosperity across the human community in its broadest sense—is more likely a landscape of possibilities than a single fixed system. Maybe utopia is like dessert: almost everybody wants one, but not everyone wants the same one, and only a generous selection is likely to satisfy the largest number of people.

What do you want readers to take away from your novel?

Robert Charles Wilson: I wanted both to validate the discontent Adam feels—yes, we should want better, more generous, more collaborative communities than those we currently inhabit—and to offer a warning against what one of the characters calls “walled gardens,” communities that thrive by exclusion.

Malka Older: It’s easy to assume that the particular configurations of our specific place and time are part of the landscape: decided, almost invisible in their unquestioned existence, all but immutable. I hope Infomocracy brings readers to question their assumptions about democracy, nation-states, and government in general, to think creatively about all the other possible systems out there and the ways in which we might tinker with ours to make it more representative, equitable, informed, and participatory. For me, Infomocracy is a hopeful story, because even if the new systems don’t always work out as planned, the people who care about them keep trying to make them better.

Ada Palmer: Lots of new, chewy ideas! I love when readers come away debating, not just “Which political group would you join if you lived in this world,” which is fun, but debating the different ways of thinking about what social institutions like government or organized religion are, or are for, in the first place. Real world politics often gives us space to debate the merits of different policies, but it doesn’t often invite us to go past “Should farming be regulated X way or Y way” or “Should there be separation of Church and State?” to the more fundamental question of what the purpose is of regulation, government, Church, or State in the first place. What I love is when readers first debate which government they would chose, and move from that to debating how having a choice of governments in the first place would change the way we participate, and the way we do or don’t think of national identity as part of ourselves.

Malka Older is a writer, humanitarian worker, and Ph.D. candidate at Sciences Po, studying governance and disasters. Buy her novel Infomocracy at AmazonBarnes & NobleiBooksIndiebound

Ada Palmer is a professor in the history department of the University of Chicago, specializing in Renaissance history and the history of ideas. She is also a composer of folk and Renaissance-tinged a capella music, most of which she performs with the group Sassafrass. Buy her novel Too Like the Lightning at AmazonBarnes & NobleiBooksIndiebound

Robert Charles Wilson was born in California and grew up in Canada. He has won the John W. Campbell and Philip K. Dick awards, as well as the Hugo Award for Spin. His most recent novel is Last Year. Buy his novel The Affinities at AmazonBarnes & NobleiBooksIndiebound

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On the Road: Tor/Forge Author Events for November

Say No More by Hank Phillippa Ryan Alien Morning by Rick Wilber Extreme Makeover by Dan Wells

Tor/Forge authors are on the road in November! See who is coming to a city near you this month.

Shannon Baker, Stripped Bare

Tuesday, November 15
New Life Presbyterian Church
Alburquerque, NM
7:00 PM

Tina Connolly, Seriously Shifted

Monday, November 7
Powell’s Books
Beaverton, OR
7:00 PM

Monday, November 14
University Bookstore
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM

Tuesday, November 15
Corvallis-Benton County Library
Corvallis, OR
4:00 PM

Wednesday, November 16
Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA
7:30 PM

Todd Fahnestock, The Wishing World

Saturday, November 12
Second Star to the Right Bookstore
Denver, CO
2:00 PM

Leanna Renee Hieber, Eterna and Omega

Monday, November 14
Little City Books
Hoboken, NJ 07030
7:00 PM
Also with Nisi Shawl

Mary Robinette Kowal, Ghost Talkers

Tuesday, November 8
University Bookstore
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM

Wednesday, November 9
Murder by the Book
Houston, TX
6:30 PM

Thursday, November 10
Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA
7:30 PM

Sunday, November 13
Borderlands Café
San Francisco, CA
3:00 PM

Michael Livingston, The Gates of Hell

Sunday, November 20
M. Judson Booksellers
Greenville, SC
4:00 PM

Seanan McGuire, Every Heart a Doorway

Monday, November 21
University Bookstore
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM
Also with Dan Wells

Malka Older, Infomocracy

Saturday, November 12
The Harvard Coop
Cambridge, MA
7:00 PM

Hank Phillippi Ryan, Say No More

Tuesday, November 1
Brookline Booksmith
Brookline, MA
7:00 PM

Wednesday, November 2
Murder on the Beach
Delray Beach, FL
7:00 PM

Thursday, November 3
Vero Beach Book Center
Vero Beach, FL
6:00 PM

Friday, November 4
Concord Festival of Authors
Concord, MA
7:30 PM
Also with Peter Swanson, Thomas O’Malley, and Douglas Graham Purdy, moderated by Kate Flora

Sunday, November 6
Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale, AZ
2:00 PM

Monday, November 7
Tattered Cover
Littleton, CO
7:00 PM
Also with Laura DiSilverio

Wednesday, November 9
Mystery to Me Bookstore
Madison, WI
7:00 PM

Thursday, November 10
Mystery Lovers Bookshop
Oakmont, PA
7:00 PM

Thursday, November 17
New Bedford Art Museum
New Bedford, MA
6:00 PM
Also with Peter Abrahams and Hallie Ephron
Hosted by the New Bedford Free Public Library

Friday, November 18
Jabberwocky Bookshop
Newburyport, MA
7:00 PM

Monday, November 28
Bookends
Winchester, MA
6:00 PM
Also with Jerry Thornton

Nisi Shawl, Everfair

Saturday, November 12
Book Riot Live
New York, NY
2:30 PM

Monday, November 14
Little City Books
Hoboken, NJ
7:00 PM

Dan Wells, Extreme Makeover

Tuesday, November 15
Little Professor Book Center
Homewood, AL
5:30 PM

Wednesday, November 16
Volumes Bookcafe
Chicago, IL
7:00pm
Also with Mary Robinette Kowal and Wesley Chu

Thursday, November 17
Jean Cocteau Cinema
Santa Fe, NM
7:00 PM
Also with Bracken MacLeod and Robert Brockway

Friday, November 18
The King’s English Bookshop
Salt Lake City, UT
7:00 PM

Saturday, November 19
Borderlands Books
San Francisco, CA
5:00 PM

Sunday, November 20
Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA
2:00 PM

Monday, November 21
University Bookstore
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM
Also with Seanan McGuire

Rick Wilber, Alien Morning

Friday, November 4
Books at Park Place
St. Petersburg, FL
5:00 PM

Friday, November 12
University of South Florida – St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg, FL
6:00 PM
Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading

Sunday, November 13
American Bookbinders Museum
San Francisco, CA
6:30 PM
SF in SF – also with Nick Mamatas

Monday, November 14
Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale, AZ
7:00 PM

Wednesday, November 16
Old Firehouse Books
Fort Collins, CO
6:00 PM
Also with Kevin Anderson

Thursday, November 17
Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA
7:30 PM
Also with Gerald Brandt

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On the Road: Tor/Forge Author Events for August

Eterna and Omega by Leanna Renee Hieber Repo Madness by W. Bruce Cameron Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine

Tor/Forge authors are on the road in August! See who is coming to a city near you this month.

Levi Black, Red Right Hand

Wednesday, August 3
Orlando Public Library
Orlando, FL
6:30 PM

Robert Brockway, The Empty Ones

Tuesday, August 30
Powell’s City of Books
Portland, OR
7:00 PM

W. Bruce Cameron, Repo Madness

Tuesday, August 23
Grand Rapids Public Library
Grand Rapids, MI
7:00 PM

Thursday, August 25
Darcy Library of Beulah
Beaulah, MI
7:00 PM

Saturday, August 27
Saturn Booksellers
Gaylord, MI
11:30 AM

Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston, The Swarm

Friday, August 5
Barnes & Noble
Orem, UT
7:00 PM

S. B. Divya, Runtime and Greg Van Eekhout, Pacific Fire

Saturday, August 6
Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA
2:00 PM

Leanna Renee Hieber, Eterna and Omega

Tuesday, August 9
Barnes & Noble
West Chester, OH
7:00 PM

Thursday, August 11
Morris-Jumel Museum
New York, NY
7:00 PM

Wednesday, August 17
KGB Bar
New York, NY
7:00 PM

Mary Robinette Kowal, Ghost Talkers

Tuesday, August 16
Volumes Bookcafe
Book Launch Party
Chicago, IL
7:00 PM

Wednesday, August 31
Boswell Book Company
Milwaukee, WI
7:00 PM
Also with Ada Palmer, Too Like the Lightning

David D. Levine, Arabella of Mars

Saturday, August 13
Writers with Drinks
San Francisco, CA
7:30 PM

Sunday, August 14
American Bookbinders Museum
SF in SF
San Francisco, CA
6:30 PM
Also with Cecil Castellucci and Ben Loory

Tuesday, August 30
SFWA Reading
Wilde Rover Irish Pub and Restaurant
Also with Sandra Odell and Django Wexler
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM

Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Hex

Monday, August 1
Quail Ridge Books & Music
Raleigh, NC
7:00 PM

Malka Older, Infomocracy

Thursday, August 4
Internal Matter
Books provided by Brookline Booksmith
Also with Liz Hauck, Caitlin FitzGerald, and Allana Tarnto
Boston, MA
6:30 PM

Wendy N. Wagner, Pathfinder Tales: Starspawn

Tuesday, August 16
Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing
Beaverton, OR
7:00 PM

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On the Road: Tor/Forge Author Events for July

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt Arabella of Mars BY David D. Levine Clear to Lift by Anne A. Wilson

Tor/Forge authors are on the road in July! See who is coming to a city near you this month.

Levi Black, Red Right Hand

Wednesday, July 27
Eagle Eye Books
Decatur, GA
7:00 PM

Max Gladstone, Four Roads Cross

Wednesday, July 27
Porter Square Books
Cambridge, MA
7:00 PM
Also with Malka Older.

Neal Griffin, A Voice from the Field

Thursday, July 21
Barr Memorial Library
Fort Knox, KY
12:00 PM

Thursday, July 28
Book Passage
Corte Madera, CA
10:00 AM

Thomas Olde Heuvelt, Hex

Monday, July 11
Brookline Booksmith
Brookline, MA
7:00 PM
Also with Joe Hill and Paul Tremblay.

Tuesday, July 12
Bear Pond Books
Montpelier, VT
7:00 PM
Also with Paul Tremblay, Kristin Dearborn, and Daniel Mills.

Wednesday, July 13
University Bookstore
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM

Friday, July 15
Old Firehouse Books
Fort Collins, CO
6:00 PM
Also with Stephen Graham Jones.

Sunday, July 17
American Bookbinders Museum
San Francisco, CA
6:30 PM
SF in SF – also with Richard Kadrey.

Tuesday, July 19
Dark Delicacies
Burbank, CA
7:00 PM

Wednesday, July 27
Eagle Eye Books
Decatur, GA
7:00 PM
Also with Levi Black.

Saturday, July 30
Malaprops
Asheville, NC
5:00 PM
Also with Jeff VanderMeer.

Jon Land, Strong Light of Day

Tuesday, July 19
Perks & Corks
Hosted by Savoy Bookshop and Café
Westerly, RI
7:00 PM
In conversation with Avram Noble Ludwig.

David D. Levine, Arabella of Mars

Wednesday, July 13
Powell’s Books
Beaverton, OR
7:00 PM

Friday, July 15
Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA
7:30 PM

Saturday, July 16
Bearded Lady’s Mystic Museum 
Hosted by Shades & Shadows.
Burbank, CA
8:00 PM

Wednesday, July 20
KGB Bar
New York, NY
7:00 PM
Also with Helen Marshall.

Thursday, July 28
Eagle Harbor Book Co
Bainbridge Island, WA
7:30 PM

Friday, July 29
University Bookstore
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM

Avram Noble Ludwig, Shooting the Sphinx

Tuesday, June 28
Barnes & Noble
New York, NY
7:00 PM

Tuesday, July 19
Perks & Corks
Hosted by Savoy Bookshop and Café
Westerly, RI
7:00 PM
In conversation with Jon Land.

Malka Older, Infomocracy

Wednesday, July 27
Porter Square Books
Cambridge, MA
7:30 PM
In conversation with Max Gladstone.

Ada Palmer, Too Like the Lightning

Monday, July 11
RiverRun Bookstore
Portsmouth, NH
7:00 PM
Also with Jo Walton.

Tuesday, July 12
Harvard Book Store
Cambridge, MA
7:00 PM
Also with Jo Walton.

Wednesday, July 13
WORD Bookstore
Brooklyn, NY
7:00 PM
Also with Jo Walton.

Ralph Peters, The Damned of Petersburg

Saturday, July 9, 2016
Barnes & Noble
Alexandria, VA
3:00 PM

Tuesday, July 12
E. Shaver Booksellers
Savannah, GA
5:00 PM

Wednesday, July 13
Magnolia Hall
Bluffton, SC
6:30 PM

Sunday, July 31
Southampton Books
Southampton, NY
5:00 PM

Katie Schickel, The Mermaid’s Secret

Thursday, July 7
BookTowne
Manasquan, NJ
6:30 PM

Jo Walton, Necessity

Monday, July 11
RiverRun Bookstore
Portsmouth, NH
7:00 PM
Also with Ada Palmer.

Tuesday, July 12
Harvard Book Store
Cambridge, MA
7:00 PM
Also with Ada Palmer.

Wednesday, July 13
WORD Bookstore
Brooklyn, NY
7:00 PM
Also with Ada Palmer.

Anne A. Wilson, Clear to Lift

Tuesday, July 12
Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale, AZ
7:00 PM

Thursday, July 14
Barnes & Noble
Scottsdale, AZ
7:00 PM

Saturday, July 16
Bookworks
Albuquerque, NM
3:00 PM

Tuesday, July 19
Warwick’s Books
San Diego, CA
7:30 PM

Wednesday, July 20
Book Carnival
Orange, CA
7:30 PM

F. Paul Wilson, Panacea

Monday, July 11
Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale, AZ
7:00 PM

Tuesday, July 12
Dark Delicacies
Burbank, CA
7:00 PM

Thursday, July 14
Norcross Cultural Arts Center
Hosted by the Gwinnett County Public Library. Books provided by Eagle Eye Books.
Norcross, GA
7:30 PM

Thursday, July 21
BookTowne
Manasquan, NJ
6:00 PM

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