The rising slope of Silicon Valley has been characterized by ever - increasing technical feeler and extreme economical stratification . In Eliot Peper ’s new novel , Cumulus , a cabal threatens to exploit those tensions , amidst a stark and terrific story of what the future in all likelihood contain for us .
gear up at some undetermined gunpoint in the future , three characters witness themselves catch in the middle of a conspiracy . There ’s Huian Li , the laminitis of Cumulus – a Google - type caller that has a stranglehold on service for anyone who can pay , Lilly Miyamoto , a photographer with a Passion of Christ for analogue gadget , and Graham Chandler , a fatal - ops broker navigating his way through Silicon Valley .
Peper ’s book is an astute extrapolation of the nowadays : it ’s a work that focuses heavily on the grow disparity between the super - affluent and the systemically - short . In his future , these distinction have become stratify with the assistance of companies such as Cumulus . The society has a whole bunch of service that convenience anyone who can pay : Fleet ( Uber ) , Lancer ( Upwork ) , Learner ( a privatized school system ) , and others . Anyone who ca n’t afford their subscriptions are provide scrambling for whatever they can discover .
Meanwhile , the rich live in ‘ Green zona ’ , protect , gate communities with their own , secret security and photographic camera . For someone like Lilly , her report lives and dies on the valuation she stupefy after shooting weddings for the ultra rich who are looking for a hip service like analog photography . When she ’s burn on a gig and gets into trouble in a Green Zone , she runs into Huian , who becomes an unexpected ally .
Huian is have her own difficulties . Cumulus is knead on a difficult merger and to get everything across the refinement line , her federal agent , Chandler , is sent out to squirm arms and pull wires what he can – all while he bear out his own agenda , one that will threaten both Cumulus , and the mass it services .
It ’s in this environment which Peper has manufacture an challenging , fast - paced thriller that looks tight at what are arguably some of the most urgent issue face the nation at the moment : a growing wealth gap , corrupt governments and an ever - increase surveillance apparatus that threatens the country ’s very character .
This is a book that prompt me quite a bit of William Gibson ’s novel Pattern Recognition ( and sequels ) , as well as Neill Blomkamp ’s movie Elysium . It ’s science fabrication that feels like it ’s just around the corner , and a future that ’s utterly believable if you ’ve been paying any kind of aid to the news in the last X .
That said , Cumulus is a book where the human beings is stronger than the report . I sucked up all the detail about Li ’s fictional megacompany , which acts as a conglomerated stand - in for the unicorn tech society presently out there . It ’s stranglehold on the point of intersection between technology and help is frightening , peculiarly when it works to pull wires information or take control of cars . We use applied science as a convenience , but there ’s a trade-off that does n’t go unnoticed here .
The difference in lifestyle between the slum and the Green Zones fascinate me to no oddment , which is something we ’ve see in late years with the increases in gate communities . When strangers enter the Green Zones , they ’re tracked and monitored ; anyone without a visitant ’s pass will be tossed out after their online profiles are evaluated .
Chandler ’s ability to operate in the open and to be absolutely ignored by Cumulus ’s alert centre is another really interesting point because it blend to the heart of what this book is all about : the utmost reliance on technology disaffect citizenry from one another . Every character is manipulated into place in some manner , and where that ’s bad on a character level ( Huian ’s relationship with her married person being destroyed ) , it scales up into serious issues on a societal one ( intact community being estranged from one another ) .
These are systemic problems : the people at the bottom ca n’t rise out of their liveliness because of this technological stranglehold . While they ’re stuck working for low payoff in crappy jobs , the passing affluent have all the resourcefulness they could ever involve to verify that their lives appease right where they are .
Peper ’s book is a turn frail on its characters , and this is a novel that could have stand to be a bit longer , if only to flesh out and assign a bit more motivation to each of its central characters : While Huian and Lilly ’s motivation are well - perform , Graham ’s past and action feels a second more faint .
Cumulus is an challenging novel that hold up a mirror to ourselves , and shows just how scary the world could be right around the corner . It ’s a sport and fast read , but one that will likely stick with me for a while .
book reviewSilicon ValleyTechnology
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