Saturday, April 17, 2010
Carlucci's Heart, by Richard Paul Russo
If I was a science fiction writer (as opposed to an Avid Reader) I'd try to avoid the near future as a setting for my stories. The near future so easily becomes the near past.
Carlucci's Heart (1997) by Richard Paul Russo is a case in point. It has all the right ingredients for an exciting near future thriller - mysterious underground organisations, corrupt mega-corporations, a decaying and dystopic city (in this case, mid-21st century San Francisco). Yet a bit over halfway through this absorbing book I suddenly sat up and exclaimed: "Where the hell is the Internet?"
That's right. In a plot revolving around a man-made plague and corporate corruption, the chief sources of information available to the protagonists are world of mouth and the mainstream media. In Carlucci's Heart there are no bloggers out there promulgating rumours and theories, no Wikileaks publishing secret caches of information, no members of the public bearing witness via Facebook and Twitter. It feels odd, frankly, and makes you realise just how recent all these new media are!
All the same, for anyone looking for an entertaining read I can recommend this book. The story moves along at a good pace, there are a number of intriguing mysteries, and the characters are well-rounded and sympathetic enough that you care what happens to them.
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