Infomocracy

A Novel

By: Malka Older

Narrated by: Christine Marshall

Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

It's been 20 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?

Infomocracy is Malka Older's debut novel.

©2016 Malka Older (P)2016 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"A fast-paced, post-cyberpunk political thriller.... 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 Last First Snow

"Smart, ambitious, bursting with provocative extrapolations, Infomocracy is the big-data-big-ideas-techno-analytical-microdemoglobal-post-everything political thriller we've been waiting for." (Ken Liu, author of The Grace of Kings)

"In the mid-21st century, your biggest threat isn't Artificial Intelligence - it's other people. Yet the passionate, partisan, political and ultimately fallible men and women fighting for their beliefs are also Infomocracy's greatest hope. An inspiring book about what we frail humans could still achieve, if we learn to work together." (Karl Schroeder, author of Lockstep and the Virga saga)

Good story, bad narration

I found the story very engaging and enjoyed it a lot, however I never could quite get immersed in it, mostly because of the narrator's constant mispronunciation of the Japanese names (which make up about half of the characters), as well as fairly poor attempts at various accents.

If you thought current elections are bad...

Malka Older's Infomocracy: A Novel presents a dystopic vision of the future where all the problems with current political elections are combined with the online convenience of voting and the world has somehow been transformed into one giant entity with continuously changing gerrymandered districts. The premise is a world with dozens to hundreds of political parties and corporate governors who vie every decade for a slice of the ruling pie. The resulting largest winner gets "supermajority" status and receives special powers. Overseeing the integrity of the exercise is group known as Information. The plot revolves around a dispersed group of individuals working this space who come to a realization that someone is "rigging" the election.

The sci-fi elements are mainly expanding digital technology and flying cars. The actual function of all this choice is never clearly articulated, nor is the origin for this societal organization. In other words, exactly how existing nations voluntarily ceded their sovereignty and what they received in exchanged is ignored. At the same time, why the planet would place the integrity of the process, selection for decadal rule to an unelected, and unsupervised entity: Information, is also a mystery. Finally, why no ones objects to a member of one political party becoming involved with the vote tampering investigation is a bit surprising. While the action is engaging, the societal structure in which events occur is nearly entirely driven by extrapolating current trends to unreasonable levels.

The narration is solid with a reasonable range of voices with good pacing and mood that aligns well with with the plot. Close attention is required as while not a complex story, the arbitrary nature of the society requires close inspection.

A world where Google is bigger than most nations

We should all be thinking about the future world where your opinions about new pants fashions are worth more than the textiles and labour needed to make pants for you. What will governments be like in such a world? This book gives some theories. The characters and story and language of the book are not fabulous enough to make this book live on for more than a couple years.

Keep Listening, It Gets Better

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This book might be better for hard cop. It is very convoluted and you almost have to take notes to keep up with the names and relationships. Pay attention to the character "Domain" (hope I'm spelling that right) because who he is matters in the end. But half way through, the characters/plot/setting all take shape and you don't want to stop listening.

What three words best describe Christine Marshall’s performance?

Articulate, varied, interesting.

Do you think Infomocracy needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No thank you.

very enjoyable.

the political concept use in this story is thrilling and the characters are likeable. i would give this book to anyone who enjoys politics

non stop thriller

older takes you on a wild unforgettable ride! best book of the summer! str8 up!

Politics In The Future Continue To Bore Me

While this book includes all the elements that I look for, I had trouble staying awake. There are interesting characters, action and a unique story, but still, this is a book about politics.

Not really a good example of cyberpunk

The editor's/author's choice to classify this book/series as cyber punk feels like a huge disservice, and is the main reason this is not a 5 star review.

I have mixed feelings about this book being cyberpunk, as if it weren't listed as cyberpunk I would not have listened to it, but at the same time there are certain expectations that come along with the classification, and it was a letdown that almost none of these tropes made an appearance. It feels like the little that does address cyber punk tropes were thrown in as an after thought just so the book could fit into a relatively small collection of cyberpunk literature on auditable.

The book/series was a fun listen overall, but it is a huge stretch to call it a cyberpunk novel. It is more of a spy thriller set in the future. There is little in the way of the traditional cyberpunk staples: there are corporate governments, but the overall tone is bright and cheerful.

Probably the most cyberpunk tech described in the book would be the minor bio mods that simulate goose flesh on the back of the neck when it senses something out of place (this makes appearances in the 1st and 2nd novel). The characters are jacked unto the net and use projections as a display that can be projected at eye level or pushed further away so others can also view the image. These projectors may be implants, but the author does not spend much time detailing the tech. It is easy to imagine the projectors being some type of VR/AR glasses or contacts.

Overall, I enjoyed the books. and had this been correctly identified as a thriller set in the near future (almost all of the tech in this book feels like it is maybe 10 years out) then it would be a 5 star review across the board. I just feel like people should know what they are getting.

Pattern Recognition-Snow Crash Remix. So good!

Feels like diving headfirst into a mash-up of early Neal Stephenson (think Snow Crash) and William Gibson (think Neuromancer or Pattern Recognition). Good fast clean cyberpunk fun with just enough twistiness and interesting reality to get your brain going.

Obvious at times, but interesting concept.

The world building is pretty interesting, but doesn't quite hit verisimilitude... The writing is a little flat, but not unbearably so. While some scenes were reminiscent of darker Cyber Punk, others were written like someone's blog, so it's a little hit & miss.