2013 Philip K. Dick Award Special Citation of Excellence
Orwell, Vonnegut, and Douglas Adams are felt on every page, though
Magnason is never derivative. His satire and insightful social
commentary sweeten the pot and the sheer wackiness of Magnason's
oversized imagination is invigorating.--Publishers Weekly, starred
review
LoveStar, the enigmatic and obsessively driven founder of the LoveStar
corporation, has unlocked the key to transmitting data via birdwaves,
thus freeing mankind from wires and devices, and allowing consumerism,
technology, and science to run rampant over all aspects of daily life.
Cordless modern men and women are paid to howl advertisements at
unsuspecting passers-by, REGRET machines eliminate doubt over roads not
taken, soul mates are identified and brought together (while existing,
unscientifically validated relationships are driven remorselessly
asunder), and rocketing the dead into the sky becomes both a status
symbol and a beautiful, cathartic show for those left behind.
Indridi and Sigrid, two blissfully happy young lovers, have their
perfect worlds threatened (along with Indridi's sanity) when they are
"calculated apart" and are forced to go to extreme lengths to prove
their love. Their journey ultimately puts them on a collision course
with LoveStar, who is on his own mission to find what might become the
last idea in the world.
Steeped in influences ranging from Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, and
Kurt Vonnegut to George Orwell, Douglas Adams, and Monty Python, Andri
Snær Magnason has created a surreal yet uncomfortably familiar world,
where the honey embrace of love does its utmost to survive amid
relentless and overpowering controls.
