Author: Alena Graedon
Published: 2014
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3/5- Good. Read it, have a good time and move on. Or not.
Book Source: I received this book as a publisher's through Netgalley, free of cost, in exchange for an honest review.
Recommended if you like: Distopian Fiction
What Its About:
Its a futuristic New York City and cell phones have taken over. Well, not cell phones exactly, but computer electronics called Memes which utilize micro-chips and cellular biology to communicate, or integrate, with your brain to relieve you of the pesky and time consuming work of thinking.
The problem is that, like all computers, Memes are susceptible to virus. And via the micro-chips and cellular pathways they create, these viruses are *supposedly* accidentally transferred to the brains of its users.This "flu" causes failures in speech and communication, randomly replacing words with gibberish when user speak.
The other problem is, while human intelligence levels might change, human nature hasn't and greed-fueled evil still exists. Anticipating the human need to connect with others and be understood, Synchronic, Inc (a psuedo Apple corporation) has essentially put dictionaries out of business by purchasing the legal rights to words, all of them, and offering a "pay-as-you-go" option called the Word Exchange, where the futuristic non-thinkers can pay to retrieve such needed information.
Anana Johnson, the daughter of the well-known lexicographer Douglas Johnson (the last editor of the North American Dictionary of the English Language (NADEL) who just happens to have gone missing) is tasked with the job of discovering this diabolical scheme and saving the day.
The Bottom Line:
An interesting read. Not my typical genre, but interesting just the same.
A bit hard to follow, but that perhaps adds to the fun.
1 comments:
Sounds like an intriguing premise. But the thought of having to pay for words to use them? Scary!
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