Book Thoughts: Infomocracy
I saw the book Infomocracy listed as a "hopepunk" novel on some forum recently and it piqued my interest. As a fan of other modern alt-punk settings (solarpunk being of particular interest), the word "hopepunk" leapfrogged the novel to first-place on my reading list. As we rapidly arrive at the dystopian future predicted by so many cyberpunk novels, the hopepunk genre apparently aims to tell stories of non-dystopian futures and the challenges that come with obtaining or maintaining them.
The story takes place in a future where national borders have been dissolved, and the world is now cut up into micro-democratic sentinels, with many different parties vying globally for votes. These parties range from corporate-led to policy-led, and a central (neutral) group that provides information, or essentially is the internet.
A lot of the novel's configuration was reminiscent of one of my favourite sci-fi series: Terra Ignotia, though this was somewhere closer to the modern world and reality than Palmer's series was. It felt attainable, like it could be the world in 50 years if things don't continue to go to shit.
-That said, it isn't a perfect world, and the book explores this thoroughly through two primary characters, both Japanese for some reason: Ken and Mishima. Ken's an aspiring political worker for the "Policy First" party, and Mishima is some kind of Information worker with action-spy skills. The two are both independently investigating some suspicious activity of a third party. They eventually run into each other and have a bit of a romance thing going on.
The action bits of the book, which mostly involved Mishima doing badass things with katanas and knives, were easily my least favourite aspect. Why the heck is there action in this otherwise purely political-intrigue novel? And why is it so japanese flavoured? These parts honestly smelled a lot like Snow Crash, and made no sense to me in the grander context of the story.
The romance aspect was also something I didn't really expect, but honestly didn't hate and didn't feel forced. I don't end up reading a lot of novels with a traditional romance through-line, and it definitely added some dynamics to the storyline and character interactions.
The ideas were interesting, the characters cared (even if Ken was boring as hell), and the intrigue was decent. I found the end of the story rather limp, however, as what felt like a build-up to an epic ending fizzled out early and dragged itself across the finish line.
I was also confused by the inclusion of Domaine's character - an anarchist who is against microdemocracy. While they acted as a counter-viewpoint and helped a little bit with the world-building aspect they really weren't that valuable to include as an entire viewpoint with dedicated chapters, and didn't contribute much to the overall story or integrate with any of the interesting threads being woven. Perhaps they're relevant in the sequels?
Overall it was a decent enough read. It explored some great concepts and I think also made some criticisms of a centrally controlled internet, the failings of people to explore the info available to them. The concept of microdemocacy acts as a good lens for inspecting the failings and challenges of today's democracy, while the overall story managed to keep a positive overall spin on the democratic process.
I don't think I'll bother with the sequels, but I do definitely have an appetite for other hopepunk stories to see what they have in store.