Moxyland

Moxyland debuted in South Africa in 2008 and was then picked up by Angry Robot in 2009. It takes place in 2018, just four years away from this reader, and it feels close--not in that "this is in our near future" way, but in the "this is happening somewhere right now" way. Which is all the more terrifying. Much of the novel riffs on things technology is already able to do--the cell phone you can use to unlock the door to your house, the automated payment systems that allow you to buy things like train tickets on the same phone, the tracking of criminals through their phone GPS and sim cards--and since its publication several things that Beukes describes have come to pass (something you can read more about in Beukes' end note to the Angry Robot addition of the book).

Though the novel feels decidedly cyberpunk, it is because we are living in a cyberpunk age, and not because there is anything particularly stunning about the extrapolated technology. As Beukes herself says, "The thing is that it's all possible, especially if we're willing to trade away our rights for convenience, for the illusion of security. Our very own bright and shiny dystopia is only ever one totalitarian government away."

I loved Beukes' writing style from page one. Short sentences, smart references (some real, some invented), and a "throw 'em in the deep end and hope they don't drown" approach to introducing the reader to this piece of fictionalized Cape Town. I read the first page several times--I was disoriented, but then again, I was supposed to be--and after a round with each of the novel's pov characters (there are four) I had slid irretrievably into the style and the world. What do you mean I need to get some sleep because I have to work in the morning? MORE MOXYLAND. What do you mean I have to stop reading because my commute is over, and I'm at work now. HOOK ON THE MOXYLAND IV. And etc.

Read the rest of the review here: http://www.bookpunks.com/moxyland-lauren-beukes/