Title: The City Inside
Author: Samit Basu
Publisher: Macmillan-Tor/Forge, TorDotCom
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy
Release Date: 7th June 2022
BLURB from Goodreads
“They'd known the end times were coming but hadn’t known they’d be multiple choice.”
Joey is a Reality Controller in near-future Delhi. Her job is to supervise the multimedia multi-reality livestreams of Indi, one of South Asia’s fastest rising online celebrities—who also happens to be her college ex. Joey’s job gives her considerable culture power, but she’s too caught up in day-to-day crisis handling to see this, or to figure out what she wants from her life.
Rudra is a recluse estranged from his wealthy and powerful family, now living in an impoverished immigrant neighborhood. When his father’s death pulls him back into his family’s orbit, an impulsive job offer from Joey becomes his only escape from the life he never wanted.
But as Joey and Rudra become enmeshed in multiple conspiracies, their lives start to spin out of control—complicated by dysfunctional relationships, corporate loyalty, and the never-ending pressures of surveillance capitalism. When a bigger picture begins to unfold, they must each decide how to do the right thing in a world where simply maintaining the status quo feels like an accomplishment. Ultimately, resistance will not—cannot—take the same shape for these two very different people.
Goodreads Link
PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon US
Amazon UK
REVIEW
It was the book title placement on the cover that initially caught my attention and made me go on to read the blurb which captured my curiosity. I guess you’d say the cover sort of did its job well as it made me learn more about the book.
The book is set in a futuristic area in Delhi, India where almost everything seems to depend on your online persona. The book is more concentrated of two characters though I’d say the main character is Joey who despite having her own flat still stays over regularly at her parent’s apartment, where her younger Rono also lives. The apartment used to be in a rather affluent area, though it is still considered a decent area and is safer than most as at least it is what I would describe as a somewhat gated community that has security on hand whenever it should be needed. The state of society means that this type of security is becoming needed more and more often, which is another reason Joey likes to check in with her parents regularly. Joey’s parents, Avik and Romolo had well paid jobs and only found themselves pushed out of their upper-class work place when they became more liberal with their own views that are not perfectly inline with those in power. The family still have enough money to be able to afford a housekeeper, called Laxmi, who has been with the family and has been a maternal figure to Joey. Laxmi is well aware of the dangers of the less secure areas of the neighbourhood, and doesn’t really seem to be in dire need of the job as housekeeper as her boyfriend, Kalkaji owns a cyber bazaar shop and seems to be a person with a rebellious power who may be working behind the scenes against those in power that are trying to silence everyone with an opinion that does not match their own.
The society within this book is ruled by governments and those behind computers in large corporations mostly out of plain sight with the majority of life being carried out online.
What I guess we would call “posts/streams” are referred to as Flows and those we would call Instagram/Social Media stars are referred to as Flow Stars. Joey has a fairly decent job working for her ex-boyfriend Indi who is a online/social media star. It may seem odd that Joey would work for an ex-boyfriend but to be honest I think Indi would probably date her again given the chance.
I would say the secondary main character is Rudra, whose family is quite a large, wealthy, successful in business and is increasingly powerful within society. Rudra seems to be somewhat of a black-sheep and lives in stark contrast to the luxurious surroundings his family is used to. Instead, he lives in an underprivileged, deprived area of Delhi inhabited by a large amount of immigrant families. To say Rudra’s family, look down on him is an understatement, however, I think they also realise he is their weak spot and when a significant death occurs in the family and Rudra chooses to turn up uninvited to the mourning rituals and ceremonies the family is holding, they have little option but to appear to welcome him back into the family fold. In fact, they go slightly further, perhaps in an attempt to keep him under their control and steer him into being in line with the family expectations they offer him a job. Rudra goes from no real job prospects to having two job offers, both with decent potential, but which should he take?
The writing style I will openly admit was not to my usual preferred flowing style of read. At times both the writing style and pace of the book felt stilted and honestly a bit odd. However, on occasion, this kind of fitted rather well with the strange meandering plot. At other times I found it infuriating!
I think the plot was quite in the realms of believability as a future prospect for society, which is perhaps what made me want to continue reading it. When I finished the book I kind of looked back at how far the characters/plot had travelled and though it did move some, maybe it wasn’t as much as what I would expect from a complete book. This felt more like the very beginning of something, the preliminary stirrings of a society starting to organise an initial rebellion against those in power. I couldn’t find it stated anywhere if this a standalone book or the beginning of a series, so felt a bit confused and as if I had been left a little high and dry at the end of the book with no real clear conclusions arrived at. After struggling at times with this book would I even read another book if this was a series? You know, I think the society and the characters still have my attention and curiosity so it would be difficult as difficult to say no as it would yes at this stage.
My immediate thoughts upon finishing reading the book were, What an odd read! How to describe the indescribable? I truly didn’t know what to think, so had to leave writing my review for a few days more than usual to sort of think about what I had read and formulate my thoughts.
Summing up, I am still somewhat perplexed as to how to thoroughly describe this book. There were times and certain parts where I found it interesting. Then there were other parts of the book where I felt the plot, the writing style etc were really quite slow and would say I really had to slog through. Having said all that, throughout the book I did have this weird urge, or compulsion to read it to the very end. Would I read a book two? Errm, honestly, I’m not sure either way!
No comments:
Post a Comment