I read Lauren Beukes' novels out of order, starting with
Zoo City because it was out faster in the U.S.
I was more excited about
Moxyland, because near future science fiction is much rarer than urban fantasy. Upon actual reading,
Zoo City turned out to be near future science fiction in feel, though based on an essentially fantastic premise. Both were good reads - fast paced, full of funny, scary, gross, and entertaining events and images, and just wild and weird enough to stay intriguing but with pretty solid storylines and characters.
I read
Zoo City in St. Louis, which is a strange town, while living in a Residence Inn, out of a suitcase, attending a two week training with a large group of people from all over the U.S. This disjuncture made it easy to slip right into the future South African city setting (I think it's Johannesburg, my memory is failing me here) of the novel. Buekes has a good feel for just how much (and how little) detail needs to provide, creating pretty complicated settings and setups without infodumps.
The fantastic part of
Zoo City was believeable enough, and it also works as metaphor, for something that hovers just out of reach of the conscious mind. People who have committed certain crimes find they suddenly have an animal linked to them, which gives them special powers as well as branding them, to sum it up a little too glibly. The premise is just different enough and the futuristic, dystopic setting unusual enough to stand out from the urban fantasy shelves (and shelves, and shelves).
Moxyland feels a lot like a movie, made out of a William Gibson novel with bits and pieces of Noam Chomsky, a couple histories of hacking and graffiti art, and Bitch magazine thrown in to the blender. Yet not. I think it's that the driving narrative and set pieces - inciting incident, turning point, climax - are very familiar, which made me feel a bit like I'd read the book before. Because the particular mix of science, politics, future speculation, and urban cynicism, as well as purposeful diversity, are pretty unique to this book. The distinct style combined with the hooky and fast moving narrative make it easy to recommend.
However, what I liked most about it was the particular blend of subject matter: everyday high tech gadgets; government and corporate security and surveillance; the specific web of personal, political, and superpower that the current cybercommunity, complete with cybercommerce, entail; art theory and the reality of life as an artist; the future of activism and its inevitable link to 'terrorism' (the idea, the activities, the industry, the fantasy); and youth/ street 'scenes' and life, as exploited every day by clothing and media companies.
The very end of Moxyland felt a little like a letdown. I expected a little more in terms of original political analysis, and it had the flavor of stock leftist footage from the apocalyptirevolution, but this was just the last ten to twenty pages. The 'fresh' factor of the rest made up for this, and I'm just jaded from too much time in certain trenches. Most people will not have this problem.
I feel like I should be saying something more concrete and interesting here, but I don't want to give spoilers (and I have been in the sun most of the day) and the main thing to say is "read these books!" (Angry Robot Books, for both)
