Zed

A Novel

By: Joanna Kavenna

Narrated by: Elliot Hill

Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

"Kavenna is a diligent scholar of her form, melding a massively complex plot à la Thomas Pynchon and the wicked social satire of Evelyn Waugh with a healthy dose of Gogol's absurdist dysphoria thrown in for good measure." (Kirkus, starred review)

A blistering, satirical novel about life under a global media and tech corporation that knows exactly what we think, what we want, and what we do - before we do.

One corporation has made a perfect world based on a perfect algorithm. Now, what to do with all these messy people?

Lionel Bigman is dead. Murdered by a robot. Guy Matthias, the philandering founder and CEO of the mega-corporation Beetle, insists it was human error. But was it? Either the predictive algorithms of Beetle's supposedly omniscient "lifechain" don't work, or, they've been hacked. Both scenarios are impossible to imagine and signal the end of Beetle's technotopia and life as we know it.

Dazzlingly original and darkly comic, Zed asks profound questions about who we are, what we owe to one another, and what makes us human. It describes our moment - the ugliness and the beauty - perfectly. Kavenna is a prophet who has seen deeply into the present - and thrown back her head and laughed.

©2020 Joanna Kavenna (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Kavenna is a diligent scholar of her form, melding a massively complex plot à la Thomas Pynchon and the wicked social satire of Evelyn Waugh with a healthy dose of Gogol’s absurdist dysphoria thrown in for good measure. Complex, funny, prescient, difficult: Kavenna's novel tackles nothing less than everything as it blurs the lines between real and virtual." (Kirkus starred review)

"[A] tangled, riveting parable of the modern surveillance state.... Kavenna delivers this gripping narrative with wit and dark humor, leaving readers both entertained and a little paranoid." (Publishers Weekly starred review)

"Kavenna's scathing indictment of the dangers of technology gone awry, tech conglomerates left unchecked, and the silencing of the free press is a smart and timely work of cautionary speculative fiction." (Booklist)

Very Enjoyable Listen, Story Runs out of Gas

There is a lot to like here. The pacing and absurdity are reminiscent of Catch-22, which is my all time favorite book. This was made all the more enjoyable by the narrator, who's British accent adds to the silliness. The author has some marvelous takes on a world where an Amazon or Google becomes all consuming. I did not find the book strong on plot and found myself a bit bored by the end. If there was a climax to the story, I missed it. There was also a plot point surrounding golden beetles turning up everywhere that was never quite explained. There were also plot points around the manipulation of language and conviction of future crimes that were so close to elements of 1984 and Minority Report that the author should have given a passing attribution in the narrative.