NOTE: I posted this review on Amazon.com. I wanted to go ahead and post it here to. This is an incredible book and a great read! I highly recommend it.
It has been a long time since I’ve been so excited about a book. I picked it up on a whim at the bookstore. I don’t usually pay full price for a new hardcover, but I was desperate for something to read. I have to say that this book was easily worth every penny I paid. I started reading it while grabbing dinner before class and ended up late to class because I couldn’t put it down.
Quick summary: Billionaire CEO Justin Cord has himself frozen, and is awakened 300 years later into a world where every person is a corporation with shares. The Government owns 5% of everybody and the measure of success is managing to own 51% or more of your own stock. Justin, having been born before Individual Incorporation, has no stock and is owned by nobody.
I love the way this book makes great arguments on both sides of the story. As I read I couldn’t decide if I was for or against Individual Incorporation.
The writing was fantastic and easy to read. These guys have a great imagination and managed to envision a future that somehow manages to both match our wildest dreams about what the future could be like, while still feeling like it is a genuinely possible future for humanity.
Though it is set in the future and marketed as science fiction, I’d describe it as a “social/political/philisophical thriller set 300 years in the future”. Jeff asked me if it was like Snowcrash. I’d have to say it’s much less cyber-punk with less tongue-in-cheek humor than Snowcrash. It does involve nano-technology which plays a part in the story, but the primary focus is on the affect the main character has on a society that has changed significantly in 300 years since he was frozen.
Bravo to the authors on this first novel. I’m eagerly awaiting more from Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin.
