Infomocracy, Malka Older
Infomocracy, Malka Older
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Infomocracy
Book One of the Centenal Cycle

Author: Malka Older

Narrator: Christine Marshall

Unabridged: 9 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/07/2016


Synopsis

It's been twenty years and two election cycles since Information, a powerful search engine monopoly, pioneered the switch from warring nation-states to global microdemocracy. The corporate coalition party Heritage has won the last two elections. With another election on the horizon, the Supermajority is in tight contention, and everything's on the line.

With power comes corruption. For Ken, this is his chance to do right by the idealistic Policy1st party and get a steady job in the big leagues. For Domaine, the election represents another staging ground in his ongoing struggle against the pax democratica. For Mishima, a dangerous Information operative, the whole situation is a puzzle: how do you keep the wheels running on the biggest political experiment of all time, when so many have so much to gain?

Infomocracy is Malka Older's debut novel.

PRAISE FOR INFOMOCRACY

“A fast-paced, post-cyberpunk political thriller... If you always wanted to put The West Wing in a particle accelerator with Snow Crash to see what would happen, read this book.” —Max Gladstone, author of Last First Snow

"Smart, ambitious, bursting with provocative extrapolations, Infomocracy is the big-data-big-ideas-techno-analytical-microdemoglobal-post-everything political thriller we've been waiting for." —Ken Liu, author of The Grace of Kings

"In the mid-21st century, your biggest threat isn’t Artificial Intelligence—it’s other people. Yet the passionate, partisan, political and ultimately fallible men and women fighting for their beliefs are also Infomocracy’s greatest hope. An inspiring book about what we frail humans could still achieve, if we learn to work together." —Karl Schroeder, author of Lockstep and the Virga saga

About Malka Older

Malka Older is a writer, aid worker, and sociologist. Her science-fiction political thriller Infomocracy was named one of the best books of 2016 by Kirkus Reviews, Book Riot, and The Washington Post. She is the creator of the serial Ninth Step Station, currently running on Realm, and her short story collection And Other Disasters came out in November 2019. She is a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society and teaches in the genre fiction MFA at Western Colorado University. Her opinions can be found in The New York Times, The Nation, and Foreign Policy, among others.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bradley on June 23, 2016

It's easy to get stuck in a rut and ignore the good SF out there that is idea-rich and go for the more common spy-tech thriller. Fortunately, this one has both. Mishima is a great post-cyberpunk spy, or perhaps it might be better to call her a spymaster. The world is run by information, and the Info......more

Goodreads review by Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ on June 27, 2016

Full review, first posted on Fantasy Literature: In the latter half of the twentieth century, most of the world (a few areas like Saudi Arabia excepted) has moved to a form of government called micro-democracy. The world is divided into “centenals” of about 100,000 people each, and each centenal vote......more

Goodreads review by Philip on November 28, 2017

4ish stars. I liked this way more than I expected to. I'm typically not into political sci-fi especially when it's idea-heavy versus character-driven like this is. The ideas are just so intelligent and relevant and interesting that it worked for me. To be honest, I wasn't sure how long I'd be able to......more

Goodreads review by Mike on October 29, 2017

So I may be a bit biased in my assessment of this book. Unlike many other sci-fi and fantasy stories with brash, action oriented kick-ass heroes saving the day, the real heroes of this book are number crunchers, data analysts, and nerds. Sure there is also a ninja in the employ of a global informati......more

Goodreads review by Carlos on February 06, 2017

To be fair , i was not into this book from the beginning , so i felt kind of forced to finish it. That aside the book never grabbed me, the premise behind it was that in the future all countries have united somehow and have become fewer entities (conglomerates of countries) , Every 20 years there is......more


Awards

  • Locus Awards - Nominee
  • Washington Post Best Books of the Year
  • Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year