2035
Plot –
Syd, a young man who had been forced to go into hiding in China, meets Rhea, a software engineer, in Assam, and together, they embark on an adventurous journey, filled with uncertainties, to save the country from being totally under the control of Toggle. Will they succeed? What will happen to the existing (and already advanced) technology? Read the book to find out.
A brief analysis –
As is with every dystopian novel, this one too doesn’t offer even a glimmer of hope about the future. Artificial Intelligence, Automation & Virtual Reality as a technology are now familiar terms to the millennial kids. Even IT organizations have embraced such cost-optimizing methods in order to increase productivity and utilize resources in an optimal manner. It is when human brains get dwarfed by machine codes that the problem kicks in. The authors have painted a very scary picture of governments the world over being taken over by a single Conglomerate – the Toggle.
Cons –
- In a few cases, ‘I’ is written as ‘i’ and after a period, the sentence starts with a small letter. I would blame it on the printer’s devil. There is no way the authors would commit such basic mistakes, renowned as they are for their splendid story-telling.
- I found the length of the novel to be short. As a result, the ending seemed a tad abrupt. The plot was progressing so well, that I, as a reader engrossed in it, needed more.
- The narrative style matches the gloomy theme of the novel. To a person who is not tech-savvy, the usage of jargons might seem confusing. Having said that, this book is successful in shocking the readers. And therein lies the success of the authors.
- As the book progresses, all the questions which might have popped up in the readers’ minds get answered. Yet, the feeling in the pit of the stomach remains. Do we really want such a future? What if it happens?