(no subject)
Mar. 30th, 2015 06:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsSo the initial premise for Kelley Eskridge's Solitaire is that the world has joined as a united government, and to celebrate this all the babies born in the very first second of OFFICIAL UNIFIED WORLD PEACE are officially government-designated celebrities called Hopes and targeted to play some kind of major role in the government once they become old enough.
Our Heroine Jackal is the Hope for the world's only corporate nation-state. (I keep wanting to write 'dystopian corporate nation-state,' but it's not, like, that much more explicitly dystopian than the present day really unless you think the idea of corporate nation-states is inherently dystopian, which I pretty much do. BUT DECIDE FOR YOURSELVES, I guess.)
JACKAL: Great! So what do you want me to grow up and do for our society when I take up my important government position? Should I become a brilliant scientist, a great artist, like, what is the master plan here?
HER CORPORATE MASTERS: Actually what we have decided will be of the most benefit to a.) our giant corporate nation-state and b.) the world at large is if we give you all the special training we can to become the world's. GREATEST. PROJECT MANAGER.
JACKAL: ....OK, sounds good to me! Project managers get all the real work done anyway!
I have to admit I was a little bit disappointed that the plot of the book did not then move forward into Jackal ruling the world and the other Hopes via excellent project management techniques. Instead, Jackal's life takes a SHARP left turn due to a series of really unfortunate events, culminating in a very well-drawn and thus very distressing stay in virtual reality solitary confinement, followed by a long, careful period of self- and life-rebuilding, occasionally while utilizing her mad project management skills, while navigating interactions with dangerous persons and potential corporate conspiracies.
The book felt very reminiscent of nineties cyberpunk to me -- do people still write cyberpunk, by the way? This is the most recently published variant on the theme that I've read (though, I mean, 'recent' is relative; now that I check I see it was written in 2002, so I guess not really far from the nineties at all.) Anyway, I tend to be moderate to lukewarm on cyberpunk, but I liked this much more than most I've read. The plot has sort of an odd shape (weirdly, it's not actually that important in the long run that Jackal is a Hope at all?) and the ending is a bit rushed, but the bits that were meant to be distressing were VERY EFFECTIVELY DISTRESSING and I do really like reading about people rebuilding their lives after they get taken apart.
Also, would not have been better with lesbians, because it already has lesbians! Jackal's most important relationship is with her girlfriend Snow.
(Would have been better with even more project management, though.)
Our Heroine Jackal is the Hope for the world's only corporate nation-state. (I keep wanting to write 'dystopian corporate nation-state,' but it's not, like, that much more explicitly dystopian than the present day really unless you think the idea of corporate nation-states is inherently dystopian, which I pretty much do. BUT DECIDE FOR YOURSELVES, I guess.)
JACKAL: Great! So what do you want me to grow up and do for our society when I take up my important government position? Should I become a brilliant scientist, a great artist, like, what is the master plan here?
HER CORPORATE MASTERS: Actually what we have decided will be of the most benefit to a.) our giant corporate nation-state and b.) the world at large is if we give you all the special training we can to become the world's. GREATEST. PROJECT MANAGER.
JACKAL: ....OK, sounds good to me! Project managers get all the real work done anyway!
I have to admit I was a little bit disappointed that the plot of the book did not then move forward into Jackal ruling the world and the other Hopes via excellent project management techniques. Instead, Jackal's life takes a SHARP left turn due to a series of really unfortunate events, culminating in a very well-drawn and thus very distressing stay in virtual reality solitary confinement, followed by a long, careful period of self- and life-rebuilding, occasionally while utilizing her mad project management skills, while navigating interactions with dangerous persons and potential corporate conspiracies.
The book felt very reminiscent of nineties cyberpunk to me -- do people still write cyberpunk, by the way? This is the most recently published variant on the theme that I've read (though, I mean, 'recent' is relative; now that I check I see it was written in 2002, so I guess not really far from the nineties at all.) Anyway, I tend to be moderate to lukewarm on cyberpunk, but I liked this much more than most I've read. The plot has sort of an odd shape (weirdly, it's not actually that important in the long run that Jackal is a Hope at all?) and the ending is a bit rushed, but the bits that were meant to be distressing were VERY EFFECTIVELY DISTRESSING and I do really like reading about people rebuilding their lives after they get taken apart.
Also, would not have been better with lesbians, because it already has lesbians! Jackal's most important relationship is with her girlfriend Snow.
(Would have been better with even more project management, though.)
