THE
MUNICIPALISTS
By Seth
Fried
Penguin
Books
264 pgs
Henry
Thompson has a deep abiding love for cities. He sees them as the true salvation
of mankind with each giant Gotham moving progress forward via both science and art.
That is why he works in Suitland, home to the United States Municipalities
Survey, an organization devoted to the improvement of cities. When the biggest
of them all, Metropolis, comes under the attack of a maddened terrorist,
Thompson is sent there find the villain and stop him by any means possible.
Before he
can adequately come to grips with the assignment itself, he then learns he will
have a partner named Owen to accompany on his mission. All well and good until he discovers Owen is
the name for the company’s computer A-I and has no corporeal physical being.
Owen is connected to Henry via a sophisticated tie-clip which can project both
Owen’s voice and an image construct allowing other people to both see and hear
him. Only Henry knows Owen really isn’t there…for real.
In “The
Municipalists” author Seth Friend has created a humorous action buddy story
that envisions a world where machines are gradually taking over the world in
very subtle ways. Enough so that the underlying foundations of the futuristic
utopias Henry has always applauded may actually conceal a corrupt core adept at
exploiting the poor and downtrodden. In the course of their adventure
throughout the super city after the fanatical terrorists, Henry’s naïveté
experiences a soul shaking education; one that will leave him changed forever.
“The
Municipalists” is both eye-opening and entertaining. Two traits every good
science fiction novel should contain. This one has them both in abundance.
No comments:
Post a Comment