I read a good book recently, Jennifer Government by Max Barry. It's funny, and it's fast-paced, and it's AH.
It says in the legal waiver bit at the beginning that the book is set in the future (so please don't sue me for using your company name) but reading the book, it isn't - it's set in a plausible alternative present - a left-winger's nightmare and a neo-conservative's dream where the government has stopped providing social security and contracted out practically everything - including policing and defence. As a result, no-one has to pay any taxes. Oh yes, and the book is set in Australia, which is part of the USA. It doesn't say how this world came about.
Jennifer, the heroine, is an FBI agent who is determined to investigate a serial killing even though there's no money in it (the victims were all lower-class, so their families can't afford to pay for an investigation). This is set against the backdrop of increasingly violent competition between two rival loyalty card schemes. The book is a satire on capitalism, of course, but the scary thing is how close it seems to the world we're already living in. It reminded me of Bull by Douglas Rushkoff.
I should warn that I lent it to a friend and she didn't like it - she said it was too much like a running joke that gets boring after a while. But it's the best book I read for a long time so I thought I'd recommend it here.
It says in the legal waiver bit at the beginning that the book is set in the future (so please don't sue me for using your company name) but reading the book, it isn't - it's set in a plausible alternative present - a left-winger's nightmare and a neo-conservative's dream where the government has stopped providing social security and contracted out practically everything - including policing and defence. As a result, no-one has to pay any taxes. Oh yes, and the book is set in Australia, which is part of the USA. It doesn't say how this world came about.
Jennifer, the heroine, is an FBI agent who is determined to investigate a serial killing even though there's no money in it (the victims were all lower-class, so their families can't afford to pay for an investigation). This is set against the backdrop of increasingly violent competition between two rival loyalty card schemes. The book is a satire on capitalism, of course, but the scary thing is how close it seems to the world we're already living in. It reminded me of Bull by Douglas Rushkoff.
I should warn that I lent it to a friend and she didn't like it - she said it was too much like a running joke that gets boring after a while. But it's the best book I read for a long time so I thought I'd recommend it here.
