The Red Men
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Synopsis
Nelson used to be a radical journalist, but now he works for Monad, one of the world's leading corporations. Monad make the Dr Easys, the androids which patrol London's streets: assisting police, easing tensions, calming the populace. But Monad also makes the Red Men - tireless, intelligent, creative and entirely virtual corporate workers - and it's looking to expand the programme. So Nelson is put in charge of Redtown: a virtual city, inhabited by copies of real people going about their daily business, in which new policies, diseases and disasters can be studied in perfect simulation. Nelson finds himself at the helm of a grand project whose goals appear increasingly authoritarian and potentially catastrophic. As the boundaries between Redtown and the real world become ever more brittle, and revolutionary factions begin to align themselves against the Red Men, Nelson finds himself forced to choose sides: Monad or his family, the corporation or the community, the real or the virtual.'The Red Men' is at heart a novel about a character wrestling with his conscience, set against a pervasive and Orwellian vision of contemporary society: surveillance, automation, biotechnology, and their implications for our humanity.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Eva S
Format:Paperback
This is a brilliant read, a first novel full of technology-bewitched ideas and sharp, modern imagery of landscapes, workspaces and despair. There are evocative lines of prose and great one-liners, and the novel is tied together by the exploration of the mind and reality. It's rough around the edges in a way that makes me excited to see this author's talent develop. I had some rare moments of real connection with this work, I feel that it is expressing something important about the modern condition.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Dether
Format:Paperback
De Abaitua's debut novel is an excellent read. If you like Philip K Dick, or like you literary fiction to have some science fiction elements, or your SF to be more literary, this is a must.
Like Philip K Dick, De Abaitua chronicles that sense of bewilderment with life, bafflement at the changing world, at technology and progress and how your mind struggles to reconcile with it, while you're still gripped, fascinated.
It's gripping, horrifying, pertinent and a fascinating potrait of the modern world (specifically London's Hackney and Canary Wharf, and other parts of Britain), twisted slightly but still recognisable: for how the marketeers manipulate society, how we mortgage our souls to technology, and for how we feel torn between nature and nurture, tradition and innovation.
Like Philip K Dick, De Abaitua chronicles that sense of bewilderment with life, bafflement at the changing world, at technology and progress and how your mind struggles to reconcile with it, while you're still gripped, fascinated.
It's gripping, horrifying, pertinent and a fascinating potrait of the modern world (specifically London's Hackney and Canary Wharf, and other parts of Britain), twisted slightly but still recognisable: for how the marketeers manipulate society, how we mortgage our souls to technology, and for how we feel torn between nature and nurture, tradition and innovation.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Paul Bowes
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
'The Red Men' is an unexpected pleasure: a first novel that is better than one has a right to expect, and a novel that deals with science-fictional themes but is as well written stylistically as any literary novel. The obvious comparisons are with Iain Sinclair, J.G. Ballard's later work, Jeff Noon, the satirical fantasies of Will Self, and the New Worlds fantasies of Michael Moorcock and M. John Harrison; and perhaps the psychoactive work of Alan Moore and Grant Morrison in comics. But Michael de Abaitua is his own man, and these comparisons are really only points of reference.
Set in a London of a very near or parallel future, 'The Red Men' imagines the consequences of the sudden appearance of a new technology: the means to 'read' the salient aspects of a human being's personality and intellect and to place that construct into a virtual environment so that it can interact with its real-world counterpart. The origins of the technology are mysterious and the ultimate aims of its creators unclear. At first, the benefits seem modest and rather banal: a literal Personal Digital Assistant for the wealthy businessman. But there is something wrong with the Red Men, and with company, Monad, that has created them. This is only the tip of an iceberg of conspiracy and threat that encompasses post-9/11 paranoia, cutting-edge drugs, the parallel reality of dreams and desire, the surveillance society and Gnostic spirituality.
De Abaitua has merits as a writer that most working in this genre lack. He can create credible characters. He understands the modern workplace as the scene of the real for most of us, and is often very funny about it - and the monsters encountered there - in a way that might be recognisable to readers of Douglas Coupland.... Read more ›
Set in a London of a very near or parallel future, 'The Red Men' imagines the consequences of the sudden appearance of a new technology: the means to 'read' the salient aspects of a human being's personality and intellect and to place that construct into a virtual environment so that it can interact with its real-world counterpart. The origins of the technology are mysterious and the ultimate aims of its creators unclear. At first, the benefits seem modest and rather banal: a literal Personal Digital Assistant for the wealthy businessman. But there is something wrong with the Red Men, and with company, Monad, that has created them. This is only the tip of an iceberg of conspiracy and threat that encompasses post-9/11 paranoia, cutting-edge drugs, the parallel reality of dreams and desire, the surveillance society and Gnostic spirituality.
De Abaitua has merits as a writer that most working in this genre lack. He can create credible characters. He understands the modern workplace as the scene of the real for most of us, and is often very funny about it - and the monsters encountered there - in a way that might be recognisable to readers of Douglas Coupland.... Read more ›
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By S. Bentley
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
Individualism, creativism, artificial intelligence, gnosticism, corporate entities crushing the little man, mental illness, drugs, classical allusions and a sense of humour can all be found in this lovely, five minutes in the future science fiction story. If the author didn't mention Philip K. Dick in the acknowledgements, I would have drawn the comparison anyway. Of course, in this case the writer is British and writing from the perspective of a media-savvy Londoner and there is no comparison to be made in the style of writing, but I felt such a buzz from reading a literate, questioning novel again, that I was taken back to when I discovered PKD.
Monad is developing artificial intelligence by simulating people as red men. The red men are there to help the real person get along in business, but inevitably jealousies arise. Monad itself is something other than the standard corporation. Run by the Cantor intelligence, its initially forward-thinking ways (employing poets as customer service) are replaced by something more sinister and ultimately kind of biblical.
The story is told by Nelson Millar, an ex-magazine editor who is drafted by Monad to help them with branding. Millar is a family man, an average guy who has given up on idealism and ambition, and coasts along in life. It features a number of self-important corporate types who are treated as aggressive, amoral figures of fun and mentally damaged artistic types, like Raymond Chase, who has never held a job down in his life but finds himself yoked to the corporate life, only for his life to go downhill rapidly.
The book builds and builds as misuse of technology equates to societal disharmony until the big apocalyptic conclusion, complete with portentous revelations.... Read more ›
Monad is developing artificial intelligence by simulating people as red men. The red men are there to help the real person get along in business, but inevitably jealousies arise. Monad itself is something other than the standard corporation. Run by the Cantor intelligence, its initially forward-thinking ways (employing poets as customer service) are replaced by something more sinister and ultimately kind of biblical.
The story is told by Nelson Millar, an ex-magazine editor who is drafted by Monad to help them with branding. Millar is a family man, an average guy who has given up on idealism and ambition, and coasts along in life. It features a number of self-important corporate types who are treated as aggressive, amoral figures of fun and mentally damaged artistic types, like Raymond Chase, who has never held a job down in his life but finds himself yoked to the corporate life, only for his life to go downhill rapidly.
The book builds and builds as misuse of technology equates to societal disharmony until the big apocalyptic conclusion, complete with portentous revelations.... Read more ›
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By HGS
Format:Kindle Edition
This is a fantastic book that becomes more relevant with every year, every month even, that passes. Complex, profound, multi-layered and yet an utterly entertaining read. The Red Men has a plot that makes you not want to put it down (I think I was through in three days) but still burns on the mind with haunting images, phrases, and suggestions for how our future might unfold. Some sentences are so brilliant you'll get stuck on them. It's rare to find a book that is so original, insightful, perceptive, and so very well written, all in one package. A thoughtful read, a holiday read, all at the same time. I've recommended it to many.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful book!
A fantastic dystopia novel. To me, it felt like a cross between "Fight Club" and "I, Robot" (the film, not the book). Read more
Published 10 months ago by Ladderman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Trans Genre
'I felt like I was chairing a group therapy session for the four horsemen of the apocalypse'.
We all prefer a certain 'type', whether in music, film or literature, or in most... Read more
We all prefer a certain 'type', whether in music, film or literature, or in most... Read more
Published on 10 April 2008 by Mr. Ian R. Sibert
5.0 out of 5 stars
Come for the idea, stay for the beautiful writing
This isn't a sci-fi novel. It's a literary novel with a sci-fi theme. Matthew De Abaitua has been a master-craftsman of the language ever since he started writing short stories for... Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2008 by Mr. P. Tyrrell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finely written dystopia
This is an excellent debut novel, packed with fascinating ideas. It examines the impact of corporations on all of us, and our complicity in their corruption. Read more
Published on 10 Dec 2007 by Mrs. Eleanor Baker
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent piece of sci fi
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I had not read anything by de abaitua before and found this a very clever and entetaining piece.
Published on 13 Oct 2007 by Alistair Gator
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