feed - M T Anderson

Speculative fiction, you depress my face. 

Ok so, it is the future.  All of our time-sucks are no longer on our various screens but in our minds on a perpetual feed (tiiiiiiitle drop).  Everyone's all telling you what they're up to and trying to chat you and then ads run constantly asking if you want to lose weight or meet hot singles in [your town] and it is basically facebook in your brain and you can't turn it off.

And so this batch of teens goes to the moon for spring break (as one does) and Titus meets Violet and then they all have their feeds hacked by a hacker and are temporarily feedless and it is weird because they are stuck in their heads with their thoughts.  And they have to talk to each other out loud with their mouths.

I know.  It's like when you're jogging and your ipod dies and you're like EAUGH THE SILENCE!!!!

ANYway, the feeds are fixed and they all go home except now Violet's talking about resisting the feed and trying to confuse it and Titus isn't sure if he wants to be a rebel but he sure does want to stroke Violet's hair.  Many things happen and some people are forced to make decisions (or not make decisions, which is the easier but more hideous option) and several things go badly.

And the human bits were all very real and frustrating in the way that genuine human interactions are frustrating, but the Messagey bits came with extra Soap-Box and I don't really like that flavor.  I mean, yes, very much we are increasingly letting the intrawebs and the iThingummys and whatall tell us what to do and what to think and how, but then also we are destroying the environment and no one cares.  I can only take one social commentary at a time.

Still, very good and worth a muse once you get past all the futuristic teenagery jargon that always makes these books difficult to plunge into.

Seven caterpillars.