Stealing Worlds

By: Karl Schroeder

Narrated by: Nancy Wu

Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

From Karl Schroeder, author of Lockstep, comes the near-future, science fiction, hacker's heist, Stealing Worlds.

Sura Neelin is on the run from her creditors, from her past, and her father's murderers. She can't get a job, she can't get a place to live, she can't even walk down the street: the total surveillance society that is mid-21st-century America means that every camera and every pair of smart glasses is her enemy.

But Sura might have a chance in the alternate reality of the games. People can disappear in the LARP game worlds, into the alternate economy of Notchcoin and blockchains. The people who build the games also program the surveillance networks - she just needs an introduction, and the skills to play.

Turns out, she has very valuable skills, and some very surprising friends.

©2019 Karl Schroeder (P)2019 Recorded Books

The future you want to live in

Stealing World's is a sweeping vision of the future founded on change happening today. It shows how current technologies like AR, IoT, Blockchain, & Big Data could combine with gamification into new transformative economic and social systems. This isn't just a great story with intriguing characters. This is a blueprint for a vastly different and better future

Schroeder stuck the landing!

Times being what they are, with the coronavirus attacking the world, and so many of
us being affected in so many ways, it was a bit surreal listening to this book on Audible. I wouldn't call this dystopian, although it is set in a world where global warming has devastated the Earth, and the promise of capitalism is shown to be an empty vessel. Aside from using an eff bomb repeatedly as a character contrivance, Stealing Worlds is an absolutely spectacular novel. Virtual and Mixed Reality, Live Action Role Playing (LARP), block-chain technology, politics, and revolution all have a place in this thriller by Karl Schroeder.

Sura Neelin is on the run after her father is murdered and she doesn’t even know who she is running from. The society has evolved into one of complete and constant surveillance, but she might have a chance in the virtual game world, using smart glasses and block-chain tech. His characters are distinctive and well-drawn, and as the plot moves along, I liked Sura more and more. Her first mentor, Compass, turns out to be a broken, but gifted young woman, and Nancy Wu, who is the reader for this audiobook, brings Compass to life. The evolution of the game world economy and the smart tech of the world, with its " Internet of Things," is brilliantly conceived and makes for a mind-stretching read.

With all of the political gyrations I wondered how he would pull off the grandiose plot, but he stuck the landing, very satisfying. This is my first Karl Schroeder book, even though I've had some of his books on TBR pile for several years. It definitely won't be the last.

Highly recommended!

There are better Schroeder novels

Got partway through and just did not care enough about the protagonist or the plot to continue. Also, this was simply a case of bad timing. I had just finished reading a book where most of the action took place in virtual reality and I could not bear the thought of reading something so similar again right away. I generally love anything written by Schroeder so maybe I will give this another try at a later date but right now it did not catch my interest.

[I listened to this as an audio book performed by Nancy Wu, somewhat uninspiring]

Not compelling

This book got off to a great start. The first few chapters were engaging and had some interesting ideas, but after that I just lost interest and couldn’t keep going.