State Tectonics
By Malka Older
4/5
()
About this ebook
Dive into State Tectonics, the gripping final entry in Malka Older's bestselling science fiction trilogy, The Centenal Cycle
This electrifying technothriller transports us five years into the path of Information's last election, where sabotage, a major network outage, and a catastrophic earthquake once threatened to shatter micro-democracy. Now, it’s time to vote again. The system that has guarded global tranquility for a quarter-century stands more vulnerable than ever.
In the deep shadows, unknown adversaries strike at Information's network infrastructure. Vintage superpowers, spies, and revolutionaries hone their weapons. Even Information's top agents grapple with the dilemma–should they save the data monopoly they've pledged their lives to or begin a fresh start amidst the ashes?
THE CENTENAL CYCLE
Book 1: Infomocracy
Book 2: Null States
Book 3: State Tectonics
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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.
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Titles in the series (2)
Null States: Book Two of the Centenal Cycle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5State Tectonics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for State Tectonics
35 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A curiously ambivalent -- though generally enjoyable -- ending to Malka Older's Centenal Cycle. As I read this one, I kept wondering if the author's growing doubts about Information and the highly technologized world that they've built was part of this project from the beginning or if her doubts about the company's mission grew as she wrote the novels and social networks seemed to destabilize both political systems and the minds of its more credulous users. Either way, the through lines connecting this series' characters -- all well known to us by now -- suggest that this literary project was planned out well in advance. We see Maryam settle into a new relationship, Roz deal with impending motherhood and Mishima -- the book's true center -- simultaneously play the action hero and try to settle down into a more normal existence with smart-and-steady Ken. We even see her -- a character so disciplined that she can seemingly shut down her fear and pain almost at will -- attempt to delve into her more human and creative sides. Considering the fact that character development isn't usually a priority for this kind of work, I was surprised at how attached to some of these folks I'd gotten, and was glad that the author saw to find a suitable place for them by the time I hit the book's last page. At the same time, "State Tectonics" ups the ante on action scenes. It's got a few terrifyingly tense and exhilaratingly graceful fight scenes that made me wonder if Older shouldn't be consulting on rock 'em sock 'em projects in Holywood somewhere. All of this balances out the human elements of this book rather nicely, and, in a way, reminds us of what most readers are likely actually here for. As for the book's increasingly conflicted critique of centralized data aggregators -- even one as efficient and mindful of best practices as Information -- I think the author may be asking whether any internet-involved megacorporation can ever really be free of bias, and whether forfeiting our right to privacy, even in a data environment that prioritizes transparency, eventually leads to a world that is less free, more systematized world, and, in the end, less human. It's a fair point, and I think that the author makes a good choice by leaving this issue essentially unresolved -- it's even hard to tell how many of the plot's major players feel about this issue as the narrative winds down. Still, considering the mess that online life is in the year 2022, I felt almost guilty for wanting argue that an informational environment wholly controlled by Information seems so much better than our current conspiracy-addled timeline that I'd choose to live in the quietly invasive future world that Older has described in these books every day, and twice on Sundays. Even with all of the concerns raised over the course of these three books, microdemocracy seems so much more functional and effective than almost any version of governance extant in the world today that I think that it'd be difficult not to want to live in something resembling it. Those Information employees we meet in "State Tectonics" that are unhappy with the way things are run should spend fifteen minutes on Twitter as it currently exists and see how they like it, or read about how difficult is to get any bill out of the US Senate. Still, the stubborn persistence of what Information employees somewhat contemptuously calls "null states," areas of the world still dominated by nationalistic and tribal affiliations, don't seem to be going anywhere at the end of the book and may even be growing in power and influence The pointed message being delivered here seems to be that even the best-designed governmental systems are fragile, and they take constant maintenance and an impressive amount of flexibility if they are to survive more than even a couple of generations. The Centenal Cycle presents readers with what is, in many ways, an optimistic vision, but it's hard to deny that it's a kind of warning, too.