Moxyland
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Product Description
Review
“full of unselfconscious spiky originality, the larval form of a new kind of SF munching its way out of the intestines of the wasp-paralysed caterpillar of cyberpunk.”
- Charles Stross
"This fast-paced sci-fi trip has intriguing characters, big ideas, a new lexicon… and serves as a global warning."
- GQ
"A TECHNICOLOR JAZZY ROLLERCOASTER RIDE INTO A DAZZLING HELL."
- André Brink
“Tell your English teacher you want to read Moxyland or you’ll shoot up your school.”
- NAG Online
Review
Bold, inventive, believable, deeply engaging and overtly, sublimely political, Moxyland will draw to itself a wide and appreciative audience
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
One of the main themes of this book is summarized by a character we never meet, a name on a web message board:
"Call it mass-scale compassion fatigue or selfish genes or the obvious conclusion capitalism has always been headed for, but the reality is people don't give a flying f**k, they've seen all the old strategies before, they're tired and worse, they're boring, and if there's one thing our culture doesn't stand for...it's boredom". (p126)
Couple a shallow, hedonistic society with the 'Politics of Fear', a dystopian near-future reminiscent of more recent William Gibson; set the whole thing in South Africa and you've pretty much got the scene.
Told in the first person by four characters - Tendeka the revolutionary, Lerato the disaffected programmer, Toby the post-punk would-be reporter and Kendra, photographer and 'trend-setter', I thought it was going to be a bit of a grind as the narrative switched back to cover the same events from each character's point of view. But it doesn't. Instead, each character takes up the story from the point at which the previous character left off. That's great - keeps the narrative going nicely - but it also seems to mean that the characters are, by and large, fairly interchangeable. Although each uses language in his/her own way, they're not really fully formed people.
The technology is, for the most part, scarily believable and I can easily imagine social control agencies (such as the SAPS - 'South African Police Service') very much wanting some of the gadgets portrayed. But in some ways, the book also looks back. Although one of the characters is quite rude about Joseph Conrad, there is a kind of 'Secret Agent' theme going too.
Saying all that, it is a really good read. But, finally, I have to admit I found it pretty depressing, in very much the same way that Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four doesn't leave much room for optimism. Maybe that was the aim - maybe that is the most realistic view to take in our dawning 'Brave New World'. All in all, though, this is an author to watch.
"Call it mass-scale compassion fatigue or selfish genes or the obvious conclusion capitalism has always been headed for, but the reality is people don't give a flying f**k, they've seen all the old strategies before, they're tired and worse, they're boring, and if there's one thing our culture doesn't stand for...it's boredom". (p126)
Couple a shallow, hedonistic society with the 'Politics of Fear', a dystopian near-future reminiscent of more recent William Gibson; set the whole thing in South Africa and you've pretty much got the scene.
Told in the first person by four characters - Tendeka the revolutionary, Lerato the disaffected programmer, Toby the post-punk would-be reporter and Kendra, photographer and 'trend-setter', I thought it was going to be a bit of a grind as the narrative switched back to cover the same events from each character's point of view. But it doesn't. Instead, each character takes up the story from the point at which the previous character left off. That's great - keeps the narrative going nicely - but it also seems to mean that the characters are, by and large, fairly interchangeable. Although each uses language in his/her own way, they're not really fully formed people.
The technology is, for the most part, scarily believable and I can easily imagine social control agencies (such as the SAPS - 'South African Police Service') very much wanting some of the gadgets portrayed. But in some ways, the book also looks back. Although one of the characters is quite rude about Joseph Conrad, there is a kind of 'Secret Agent' theme going too.
Saying all that, it is a really good read. But, finally, I have to admit I found it pretty depressing, in very much the same way that Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four doesn't leave much room for optimism. Maybe that was the aim - maybe that is the most realistic view to take in our dawning 'Brave New World'. All in all, though, this is an author to watch.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Writing successful near-future SF is a tricky business. You risk not getting it right for the hardcore SF fans for whom it's 'not SF enough', and alienating the more casual reader 'because it's too weird'. There's also the danger that the author doesn't quite know what to do with central idea and hedges their bets in terms of how far to push the elements of the plot that separate science fiction from literary fiction.
Getting it right can produce some truly impressive work. I'm thinking particularly of Ian McDonald, whose 'Brasyl', 'Cybereabad Days' and 'River of Gods' are mind-spinning books where near-future tech has shifted society in a direction which is recognisably still of our world, but just out of reach enough for it to feel alien and disconcerting.
Lauren Beukes has had a good go at following this McDonald-like path, and the thriller elements of her novel are well-drawn, but she's rather hamstrung by the other side of the equation: making 'Moxyland' a youth novel which can be read by mobile-tech literate people of 2010. There is also the analogy with apartheid with youth disenfranchisement which feels a little too heavy-handed.
For these reasons 'Moxyland' falls short of being classic SF, but there is the germ of a good SF writer here provided Beaukes is willing to let go the reins a little more.
Getting it right can produce some truly impressive work. I'm thinking particularly of Ian McDonald, whose 'Brasyl', 'Cybereabad Days' and 'River of Gods' are mind-spinning books where near-future tech has shifted society in a direction which is recognisably still of our world, but just out of reach enough for it to feel alien and disconcerting.
Lauren Beukes has had a good go at following this McDonald-like path, and the thriller elements of her novel are well-drawn, but she's rather hamstrung by the other side of the equation: making 'Moxyland' a youth novel which can be read by mobile-tech literate people of 2010. There is also the analogy with apartheid with youth disenfranchisement which feels a little too heavy-handed.
For these reasons 'Moxyland' falls short of being classic SF, but there is the germ of a good SF writer here provided Beaukes is willing to let go the reins a little more.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Many current and recent references were recognisable in the story, from MMORPGs to Second Life to blogging and numerous technological developments.
However, one central premise is that access to everything is centralised and your phone becomes your life, your money, your access key, and a source of punishment if you break the rules. While being cut off from online access is increasingly seen as a severe sanction (and even a breach of human rights), it's still a huge leap from people's attachment to their iPhones and Blackberrys to everyone being legally mandated to only access their connections through an authorised, tracked device with integrated electroshock.
Really, while far-fetched, the dark events towards the end are undoubtedly much more interesting than the beginning, but my overall impression is of trying to pack in as many unoriginal ideas as possible from other sources along with as many current tech themes as they could come up with, all combined in first-person dialogs from as many different characters as possible. This results in a jumpy, implausible result that is occasionally quite interesting but not consistent enough to recommend.
However, one central premise is that access to everything is centralised and your phone becomes your life, your money, your access key, and a source of punishment if you break the rules. While being cut off from online access is increasingly seen as a severe sanction (and even a breach of human rights), it's still a huge leap from people's attachment to their iPhones and Blackberrys to everyone being legally mandated to only access their connections through an authorised, tracked device with integrated electroshock.
Really, while far-fetched, the dark events towards the end are undoubtedly much more interesting than the beginning, but my overall impression is of trying to pack in as many unoriginal ideas as possible from other sources along with as many current tech themes as they could come up with, all combined in first-person dialogs from as many different characters as possible. This results in a jumpy, implausible result that is occasionally quite interesting but not consistent enough to recommend.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good central idea, but a laborious read
There is a good concept through this book and that is that your phone becomes your life and indeed you become defined by your phone. Read more
Published 4 months ago by CoolJules
Moxyland, by Lauren Beukes
A fantastic and fantastically dystopian book. Nice and dark with some fascinating characters, a sense of humour, and not just the same obvious good/bad guys that you might find... Read more
Published 8 months ago by elkippy
More accessible than Zoo City
A struggling photographer turned "sponsorbabe", a spoiled rich kid with his own streaming reality broadcast channel, a wannabe anarchist, and a corporate programmer - all these... Read more
Published 10 months ago by S. Horrigan
So sorry, you have died. But at least you tried!
Beaukes hasn't made life easy for her readers, mainly because this book is written in a language decorated with neologisms she judges right for her very young protagonists,... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Eileen Shaw
Thought-provoking dystopia
After reading and loving Zoo City, when I made one of my rare visits to a brick-and-mortar bookstore - rare out of self-protection really; I can't resist buying at least one book... Read more
Published 13 months ago by W.M.M. van der Salm-Pallada
Moxyland
This book is funky and fresh. I loved the hip lingo and vibe of the characters. I also liked the localness of the Cape Town setting and the menace of the advertising world. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Suzy
Gibskins
Skins rewritten by William Gibson? Hollyoaks on soma? Why do all cultural artifacts these days feel like bits of other cultural artifacts shunted together, the fictional equivalent... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Alan Hansen
Sci-Fi's New Face
I rarely write reviews but this book is so damned good I had to.
Set in the near distant future of 2018 and focused around four well thought out characters. Read more
Set in the near distant future of 2018 and focused around four well thought out characters. Read more
Published 24 months ago by C. R. Curtis
Moxyland
Moxyland centres around four different yet connected characters in a future world where technology is everywhere and mobile phones are like a life-line. Read more
Published on 14 May 2010 by A. White
a poor man's dystopian nightmare
While this clearly sets itself out in the good old-fashioned futuristic dystopian nightmare vein, frankly it's really rather weak. Read more
Published on 22 April 2010 by Wayne Redhart
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