Lauren Beukes's frighteningly persuasive, high-tech fable that follows
four narrators living in a dystopian near-future.
Kendra, an art-school dropout, brands herself for a nanotech marketing
program. Lerato, an ambitious AIDS baby, plots to defect from her
corporate employers. Tendeka, a hot-headed activist, is becoming
increasingly rabid. Toby, a roguish blogger, discovers that the video
games he plays for cash are much more than they seem.
On a collision course that will rewire their lives, these characters
crackle with bold and infectious ideas, connecting a ruthless
corporate-apartheid government with video games, biotech attack dogs,
slippery online identities, a township soccer school, shocking cell
phones, addictive branding, and genetically modified art. Taking
hedonistic trends in society to their ultimate conclusions, Lauren
Beukes spins a tale of a utopia gone wrong, satirically undermining the
idea of progress as society's white knight.