Tim Maughan - Infinite Detail
I finished “Infinite Detail”. It’s got somewhat low scores on Good Reads, with most reviewers being unhappy about “the story going nowhere”. I strongly disagree.
While there’s definitely heavy hand-waving in terms of how the spectacles work, how the malware works, and how mobile devices can permarecord and store stuff without worrying about battery and storage capacity, all that can be easily dealt with by invoking suspense of disbelief. And it’s easy to do that, because the characters are interesting and how the story is told is well crafted.
I was listening to an audio book read by an English dude, which I guess is how this should be done, because 90% of the book is about English people in Bristol. At first, I had trouble understanding what he was saying as he employs heavy accents and does voice acting, too. This was somewhat frustrating and I was close to blaming the book. But once I got the hang of it, I changed my mind entirely.
The book touches on many things that are of interest on the Echo Chamber Slack. I could be mentioning it in multiple channels there and it would fit well. I recommend it. And especially the audio book that’s got a soundtrack and a very well acted interlude (you’ll know what I mean when you get there).
As for the book itself, the world building is really good. There are very few answers, but the questions asked are smart, nuanced, and touch not only on things that were on my mind, but even things that didn’t quite occur to me before.