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Sto caricando le informazioni... Zed: A Novel (edizione 2020)di Joanna Kavenna (Autore)
Informazioni sull'operaZed di Joanna Kavenna
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Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. I really enjoy futuristic books that don’t over-indulge in science fiction, but rather just extrapolate existing trend lines to their logical and ominous next stages. Zed does that expertly, painting a picture of where the world could go if we stop paying attention. ( ) For most of the time I was reading Zed, I was drawn in by what Joanna Kavenna was doing. After all, here was a satirical novel that seemed ready to land some punches, and the scarcity of any contemporary authors pulling this off made it seem as though Zed might be a rare treat. The story of Zed is set in a world that very much resembles our own, except that it is effectively run by a single behemoth of a company named Beetle - imagine Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Google all rolled into one. Kavenna gives Beetle even more power over the people, with algorithms to predict arrest people for future crimes, blanket surveillance of the population, "inspiration" (i.e. mind control) to persuade those in power, and complete control over the media. Each of the main characters has a BeetleWatch that monitors their health, and an electronic personal assistant called a Veep. There is Douglas Varley (Veep: Scrace Dickens), an executive at Beetle who is in charge of the lifeline algorithms; Guy Matthias (Veep: Sarah Coates), the head of Beetle; his wife, Elska; David Strachey, the editor of The Times; Wiltshire Jones, a robot reporter; Frannie Amarensekera, a hacker whose skilled impressed Matthias into hiring her; and Eloise Jayne, the good-guy cop. The "Zed" in the title basically refers to the principle of chaos and indeterminism. It first manifests when a guy named George Mann unexpectedly leaves work, gets very drunk, and murders his wife and two boys: none of this behavior had been predicted. Things are made worse when Beetle's bots go to arrest George Mann and end up killing Lionel Bigman in a case of mistaken identity. Beetle is thrown into a crisis by the number of "zed" events that start to multiply as the narrative unfolds. Add to this picture the mysterious figure of Bel Ami, who sports multiple identities and is working with a group of hackers to subvert the Beetle system. The hackers somehow use water droplets to achieve this feat. Zed is a novel that I really wanted to like, but as the story unfolded I became increasingly frustrated. First, there is far too much repetition - yes, it is amusing to be told, for instance, to point out the disparity between free choice and the obvious manipulations that Beetle undertakes, but the point is made over and over until the joke becomes stale. The second problem I had with the novel is that, at a certain point, it was clear that Kavenna did not really know what to do with her story and her characters. What was going on, for instance, with Douglas Varley suddenly falling in love with Frannie? It simply made no sense, and did not move the narrative along at all. The water droplet hacking subplot was ridiculous. The conclusion was deeply unsatisfactory. Despite showing glimpses of promise, Zed really failed to deliver as either a compelling or a critique of modern, technological society. As a novel, Zed takes a few confident steps, but ultimately fails to come close to the standard set by, for instance, Hari Kunzru's brilliant [b:Transmission|429653|Transmission|Hari Kunzru|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1311346343l/429653._SY75_.jpg|580863]. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
One corporation has made a perfect world based on a perfect algorithm . . . now what to do with all these messy people? Lionel Bigman is dead. Murdered by a robot. Guy Matthias, the philandering founder and CEO of the mega-corporation Beetle, insists it was human error. But was it? Either the predictive algorithms of Beetle's supposedly omniscient 'lifechain' don't work, or, they've been hacked. Both scenarios are impossible to imagine and signal the end of Beetle's technotopia and life as we know it. Dazzlingly original and darkly comic, Zed asks profound questions about who we are, what we owe to one another, and what makes us human. It describes our moment--the ugliness and the beauty--perfectly. Kavenna is a prophet who has seen deeply into the present--and thrown back her head and laughed. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)823.92Literature English English fiction Modern Period 2000-Classificazione LCVotoMedia:
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