Modern election cycles are often attended by punditry about the health of the current political system. Few go so far as to reimagine the nation-state; however, that's exactly what Malka Older does in her debut novel, Infomocracy.
Fifty years in the future, the world has reorganized itself into a "micro-democracy," wherein groupings of 100,000 people ("centenals") elect their favorite brand of government. The most popular of these vie to become the Supermajority--a sinister power in the wrong hands. Orchestrating all of this is Information, a ubiquitous search engine that can fact-check politicians or synchronize global communications in the blink of an eye. The novel is set during an election cycle, and follows the actions of a handful of operatives from various governments (and Information itself) as they zip across continents, jockeying for influence. That everybody is completely dependent on Information is the weakness no one appears to recognize.
Infomocracy is a political thriller at its core. Older's satire is less pointed and zany than Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, and less dystopian than the cyberpunk of Sterling or Gibson. The emphasis is on the action--characterization, and sometimes plot, take a backseat--and that's okay. The pleasure of Infomocracy is in discovering Older's fully realized, fully believable world and watching the author, an expert on international aid and development as a Ph.D. candidate studying governance and disasters, address one what-if after another, faster than the reader can anticipate them. A sequel is already in the offing. How long before an HBO series? --Zak Nelson, writer and editorial consultant