Moxyland - Lauren Beukes

There's no doubting the originality of the South African setting of Lauren Beukes' post-cyberpunk futuristic science-fiction, and although the language is in places a little heavy on buzzwords and invented tech-speak, the novel's underlying purpose and satire of a society reliant on technology to the point of oppression is clear and not so removed from the present day.

It's a novel that is very much to do with social attitudes, authority, corporate interests and in particular how they apply to youth and specifically youth in South Africa. It takes its view from a group of young people very much in tune with the rapidly changing world and its use of technology, some of them radical artists, photographers and graffiti painters, others expressing their ability and creativity in other less socially acceptable forms of protest against the establishment (sometimes from within the establishment), through hacking of corporate billboards and through streaming or posting footage of their activities on the internet.

Like any good cyberpunk novel however, Moxyland looks at the other side of the wonderful technological wizardry that makes this possible, considering the downside to our over-reliance on technology and the trust we place in it. Heavily dependent on technology for communication and leisure, the ultimate control of those tools by the authorities and the big corporations mean that citizens can be exploited for sponsorship or denied rights when it suits the main players, with it being possible to deactivate phones (clearly the technological do-everything gadget of choice at the moment), track movements, revoke freedom of travel (or even entrance to your apartment) and use them to pin-down and subdue citizens for relatively minor misdemeanours.

The plot is full of forward-thinking ideas on the direction technology is heading, tying them in a relevant manner into the society as it is today or at least one that is credibly not too far away in the future. Much as you can admire the spiky, cool, anti-establishment stance of the young characters however, there's little that is likeable about them and their flawed and often egotistical actions. Their attempts to get one over on the system actually seem somewhat conformist - done from within the system, since there doesn't seem to be any way of achieving anything from the outside - perpetuating the use of technology or allowing themselves to be used as pawns to allow the authorities to come up with ever more strict controls, and even co-op the one-time rebel hackers to implement them.

Depending on your viewpoint this can be a good thing, realistically looking at how individuals behave in such a corporate-controlled environment but some may find the difficulty of relating to or sympathising with any of the characters a problem. But then Moxyland is not meant to be comfortable reading. Although the central premise is by no means an original one in science-fiction (or indeed with conspiracy theorists), the treatment here is concise and powerful, the novel brimming with ideas that present a rather worrying view of modern IT and communications technology and how it can so easily be misused.