Hey, d’ya feel rushed for time? Better make some money, cuz before you know it your pension’ll be as obsolete as the government–or so predicts Jim Munroe’s new novel, Everyone in Silico. It’s Vancouver, 2036, and assuming you’ve survived the Harmless Crank rebellion and the 2023 takeover of the world by the United Corporate Interests Council (formerly the IMF), you’ll be keen to escape the unpalatable air and rabid, ubiquitous marketers of the analog city for Frisco, a digital paradise owned by Self Technologies. For a fee, Self will store your carcass–though they won’t tell you how or where–and move your spirit to the E-city. In Frisco, your virtual body need never sleep, pee, or even whip out a cash card, as everything’s deducted automatically from your bank account. The catch is that nothing’s cheap, and after you run out of money you’ll get relocated to a real-world sweatshop of Self’s choosing. You could stay in your skin and cower in a gated community, but the freelance adslingers and coolhunters will probably get you anyway.
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Munroe pulls off smooth point-of-view switches between the half dozen or so protagonists, and his compassionate rendering of his many characters provides a detailed view of the terrorscape. Thanks to his delicious, unobtrusive prose, the anticonsumerist warnings that sound throughout the novel eventually get under your skin–you’ll be lucky to finish some chapters without hacking up your PepsiCo products, and if you get telemarketed while reading you may not sleep that night. “The growing anxiety in the book is how I see the future going,” says Munroe. “Not exploding in a ball of flame, but the quality of life disintegrating, like a hole in a sweater that just gets bigger and bigger.”
