I love goodreads. I hadn't heard about this novella before a review by Alice showed up in my feed. Thanks to her review I got to read this thought provoking SF novella.

There's a lot of ideas to think about, the one that struck me while reading, is how the powerful have always stolen the time of the less powerful, be they the slaves, peasants, factory workers or just the working class. In reading the acknowledgments the author points out a real world inspiration As I write, a public inquiry into the misuse of powers by undercover police officers in the United Kingdom is ongoing. Which I hadn't considered. ( )

Interesting premise, but not much else. The characters, setting, plot, and writing just didn't do enough, for me. ( )

Read as part of the Hugo 17 Voter Packet. I liked this, but even though it was short, it seemed a little long. I am not sure if that makes sense. ( )

Novella about a life extension technology available only to the rich due to intellectual property laws. Lots of think-worthy stuff here, including the point that elite perspectives on global warming would change fast once they expected to be alive 200 years from now. Class rebels, infiltrated by a corporate stooge, try to change the world; it doesn’t go the way they expected. I enjoyed it a lot and will be reading more by Penny. ( )

Disclaimer - this was written by a friend from uni. Well, I think of her as a friend from uni, but I bet lots of people drawn by the glamour of fame think of her as a friend from uni - 'you know, Laurie Penny stayed in my house once!' - and she probably doesn't really remember us.

It's a dystopian novel set in Oxford. A pill has been invented that extends healthy life, but the pill is only affordable to the extremely wealthy. So the novel looks at what the world is like in a world where the rich (or those patronised by the rich) can live for hundreds of years more than the masses. Through the lens of how to fight back against that, and with a side order of plot about undercover agents who sleep with people in the organisations they're spying on. It's very Oxford - the book opens with the protagonists breaking into a May Ball - and it's a book that's very critical of Oxford, with its privilege and money. And surprisingly sympathetic to terrorism - gorgeous, awful, terrible terrorism. It has a wide range of protagonists - gay, trans, people of colour, disabled people - and if sometimes it feels a little too self aware that it wants a wide range of protagonists, that's forgivable, and better than the alternative.

It's wafer thin - more like a novella than a novel - and a very quick read, and I was left wanting more about everything. ( )