QualityLand

By: Marc-Uwe Kling

Narrated by: Patricia Rodriguez

Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

Everything in QualityLand is geared towards optimising your life.  

QualityPartner identifies your ideal mate, earworm personal assistants get you where you need to go and android drones know you need a six pack of beer at the end of a long day even before you crave one. Humans, robots and algorithms coexist; everything is seamlessly corporatised, stratified and monetised. Your very name reveals much of what we need to know about you, and your profile discloses the rest.  

Peter Jobless is a down and out metal press operator, dumped by his long-term girlfriend when she is alerted to a better option on her QualityPad. But Peter has another problem - he seems to be the only one noticing that his fellow QualityLand robot citizens are experiencing an existential crisis. There is a drone who's afraid to fly. A sex droid with erectile dysfunction. A combat robot with PTSD. Instructed to destroy these malfunctioning AI, Peter starts to suspect the technology that rules us all has a flaw, perhaps a fatal one.  

Not only that, these robots might be his only friends....

©2019 Marc-Uwe Kling (P)2020 Orion Publishing Group

Just one problem with it

The only problem was that I couldn't stop listening to it. Amusing and still starts interesting thoughts.

The dystopian novel of this generation

1984, Fahrenheit 451, brave new world.
This German novel feels like the successor to the classic dystopian novels. A new cynical view of the future with well researched storylines and references.
Recommended especially for those who are averse to big data.

Great Listen

Good story, funny take on a possible future.

Really good performance brings all the characters too life.

Unique black comedy dystopia

The novel is full of amazing and funny ideas. It touches many contemporary unintentional problems caused by technology in a similar way as Black Mirror.

Sadly, it's a bit too partisan and one sided in its mocking of American right wing. The dumbest jokes and characterizations are caused by this. There's no nuance. Progressives are perfect. Traditional are inbred racist rednecks. Oh, well...

sitcom

It is not science fiction. It is a sitcom. It is full of cheap jokes.