Null States

July 17, 2017
Older’s second novel (after Infomocracy) is a little less tightly focused than its predecessor and suffers from midtrilogy sag. In the near future, Information, which is both a concept and an organization that practices global surveillance and data gathering, has divided most of the world into “centenals” of 100,000 people that vote various political parties into power. A large cast of characters, including former Information operative Mishima, is caught up in two political intrigues: the assassination of a local leader in the former Darfur and the continued shenanigans of the Heritage political party, whose waning fortunes lead to more desperate actions. The two plotlines do intertwine somewhat, but the ultimate revelations (and what passes for resolution) are decidedly unsatisfying, feeling mostly like the set-up for the next volume. There are great character moments, including Information employee Roz’s slow-building romance with a local sheik, and teammate Minzhe dealing with potential conflicts of interest due to his mother’s presence in a local government; those will please returning fans.

July 15, 2017
The second in a near-future series in which most of the world is governed by microdemocracy--in which groups of 100,000 people, or "centenals," vote for their government according to policy, not location.While the previous novel, Infomocracy (2016), was fairly self-contained, this is decidedly a middle-volume book, with three storylines whose interlinkages will probably be further clarified in the next installment. Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, two of the titular "null states" outside the microdemocracy, are preparing to go to war, threatening nearby centenals. In what was once Sudan, Al-Jabali, head of the DarFur government, has just been assassinated. And Heritage, toppled from its position as Supermajority (the government which holds the most centenals) during the last election, is threatening to secede. Various agents of Information, the more-than-internet agency that surveils, gathers, and analyzes the data which keeps microdemocracy running, strive to investigate and keep a lid on these situations while also juggling complicated romantic lives. The more they dig, the more the evidence points toward a conspiracy within Information. As a novel about a threatened election, Infomocracy had more specific bearing on the current political situation (in several countries), but there's still a lot here that's germane to the present. Older continues to argue, most convincingly, that controlling the flow of information to the government and the public is the most potent power there is and illustrates how seemingly insignificant data points can build up to a larger, threatening picture. There's also an extremely relevant post-colonial subtext helping to drive the plotlines: despite the best efforts of politicians, drawing arbitrary geographic boundaries does little to erase centuries of ethnic and cultural identity. Carefully researched, prescient, thoughtful, and disturbing.

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August 1, 2017

After the election of a new Supermajority in Infomocracy, things remain unsettled in many parts of the world. The global agency known as Information, which oversees elections and controls the news and social media, has agents, including Roz, monitoring the new microdemocracy of DarFur, when the governor is assassinated. While the locals are quick to blame historical enemies from Sudan and Chad, there is a pervasive suspicion of Information itself. Roz works to find out what really happened, a task complicated by her attraction to Suleyman, the deputy governor. With microdemocracies increasingly bumping up against the nations that refuse to participate in the system, here known as null states, much of the focus is on the situation in DarFur. Yet we also get to check in on the rest of the globe through returning characters like Mishima, a former Information spy. VERDICT Older's fascinating sophomore series entry takes us on an even deeper dive into what the new world order looks like in her near future.--MM

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