Tim Maughan is a master of making the invisible visible. In Infinite Detail, he forces us to consider the inner workings of systems so ubiquitous that we can barely remember what it was like before we had them, let alone project what a future might be like without them. The premise of the novel is the near-instant dystopia created when all of the internet suddenly stops working. This scenario immediately brings into sharp focus one of the deep ironies about technologies of any kind – the higher the percentage of people who use said technology, the lower the percentage of people who have any idea of how that technology actually works. When home computers first became available, the early adopters were ones who didn’t even need an operating system to get things done on their machines, while today interfaces have been honed to such a degree that children can navigate them before they even learn to read. Given our current levels of utter dependence on decentralized internet-based systems coupled with widespread ignorance of how they work, it is frighteningly easy to imagine how quickly things would devolve in their unplanned absence.
As with all the best dystopian fiction, or any fiction for that matter, there are no easy answers for who is to blame for the book’s state of affairs, what the correct solution is, or whether it’s even worth trying to rebuild the systems that were destroyed. Maughan manages to weave in ideas about surveillance, global capitalism, supply chains, electronic music, the nature of creativity, memory, and kinda-sorta-time-travel so deftly and seamlessly that it is difficult to imagine a nascent version of the novel in which any of those elements were absent. The excellent interview with Maughan included at the end of the audiobook reveals the ways that the author’s journalism, and travels in pursuit of the same, informed the writing of the novel and vice versa, and his deep understanding of the many varied themes is apparent.
And oh, the audiobook! The magnificent actor Joe Sims (of Broadchurch) voices both male and female characters from America, Ireland, Bristol, and various other parts of the UK so distinctly, skillfully, and enthusiastically that the book is an absolute joy to listen to despite the bleak subject matter. (The one slipup I noticed was when an American character angrily shouts something about PRIV-uh-see rather than PRY-vuh-see, but even that was a treat.) It is testament to how much I loved this book that I ultimately bought it in every available medium – audiobook because audiobooks rule, ebook because there were so many passages I wanted to look up and go back to, and of course print, because who knows when I might wake up to find myself in a world where it’s the only medium available.
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the day the internet went away
Tim Maughan is a master of making the invisible visible. In Infinite Detail, he forces us to consider the inner workings of systems so ubiquitous that we can barely remember what it was like before we had them, let alone project what a future might be like without them. The premise of the novel is the near-instant dystopia created when all of the internet suddenly stops working. This scenario immediately brings into sharp focus one of the deep ironies about technologies of any kind – the higher the percentage of people who use said technology, the lower the percentage of people who have any idea of how that technology actually works. When home computers first became available, the early adopters were ones who didn’t even need an operating system to get things done on their machines, while today interfaces have been honed to such a degree that children can navigate them before they even learn to read. Given our current levels of utter dependence on decentralized internet-based systems coupled with widespread ignorance of how they work, it is frighteningly easy to imagine how quickly things would devolve in their unplanned absence.As with all the best dystopian fiction, or any fiction for that matter, there are no easy answers for who is to blame for the book’s state of affairs, what the correct solution is, or whether it’s even worth trying to rebuild the systems that were destroyed. Maughan manages to weave in ideas about surveillance, global capitalism, supply chains, electronic music, the nature of creativity, memory, and kinda-sorta-time-travel so deftly and seamlessly that it is difficult to imagine a nascent version of the novel in which any of those elements were absent. The excellent interview with Maughan included at the end of the audiobook reveals the ways that the author’s journalism, and travels in pursuit of the same, informed the writing of the novel and vice versa, and his deep understanding of the many varied themes is apparent.And oh, the audiobook! The magnificent actor Joe Sims (of Broadchurch) voices both male and female characters from America, Ireland, Bristol, and various other parts of the UK so distinctly, skillfully, and enthusiastically that the book is an absolute joy to listen to despite the bleak subject matter. (The one slipup I noticed was when an American character angrily shouts something about PRIV-uh-see rather than PRY-vuh-see, but even that was a treat.) It is testament to how much I loved this book that I ultimately bought it in every available medium – audiobook because audiobooks rule, ebook because there were so many passages I wanted to look up and go back to, and of course print, because who knows when I might wake up to find myself in a world where it’s the only medium available.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2019
Tim Maughan is a master of making the invisible visible. In Infinite Detail, he forces us to consider the inner workings of systems so ubiquitous that we can barely remember what it was like before we had them, let alone project what a future might be like without them. The premise of the novel is the near-instant dystopia created when all of the internet suddenly stops working. This scenario immediately brings into sharp focus one of the deep ironies about technologies of any kind – the higher the percentage of people who use said technology, the lower the percentage of people who have any idea of how that technology actually works. When home computers first became available, the early adopters were ones who didn’t even need an operating system to get things done on their machines, while today interfaces have been honed to such a degree that children can navigate them before they even learn to read. Given our current levels of utter dependence on decentralized internet-based systems coupled with widespread ignorance of how they work, it is frighteningly easy to imagine how quickly things would devolve in their unplanned absence.
As with all the best dystopian fiction, or any fiction for that matter, there are no easy answers for who is to blame for the book’s state of affairs, what the correct solution is, or whether it’s even worth trying to rebuild the systems that were destroyed. Maughan manages to weave in ideas about surveillance, global capitalism, supply chains, electronic music, the nature of creativity, memory, and kinda-sorta-time-travel so deftly and seamlessly that it is difficult to imagine a nascent version of the novel in which any of those elements were absent. The excellent interview with Maughan included at the end of the audiobook reveals the ways that the author’s journalism, and travels in pursuit of the same, informed the writing of the novel and vice versa, and his deep understanding of the many varied themes is apparent.
And oh, the audiobook! The magnificent actor Joe Sims (of Broadchurch) voices both male and female characters from America, Ireland, Bristol, and various other parts of the UK so distinctly, skillfully, and enthusiastically that the book is an absolute joy to listen to despite the bleak subject matter. (The one slipup I noticed was when an American character angrily shouts something about PRIV-uh-see rather than PRY-vuh-see, but even that was a treat.) It is testament to how much I loved this book that I ultimately bought it in every available medium – audiobook because audiobooks rule, ebook because there were so many passages I wanted to look up and go back to, and of course print, because who knows when I might wake up to find myself in a world where it’s the only medium available.
As with all the best dystopian fiction, or any fiction for that matter, there are no easy answers for who is to blame for the book’s state of affairs, what the correct solution is, or whether it’s even worth trying to rebuild the systems that were destroyed. Maughan manages to weave in ideas about surveillance, global capitalism, supply chains, electronic music, the nature of creativity, memory, and kinda-sorta-time-travel so deftly and seamlessly that it is difficult to imagine a nascent version of the novel in which any of those elements were absent. The excellent interview with Maughan included at the end of the audiobook reveals the ways that the author’s journalism, and travels in pursuit of the same, informed the writing of the novel and vice versa, and his deep understanding of the many varied themes is apparent.
And oh, the audiobook! The magnificent actor Joe Sims (of Broadchurch) voices both male and female characters from America, Ireland, Bristol, and various other parts of the UK so distinctly, skillfully, and enthusiastically that the book is an absolute joy to listen to despite the bleak subject matter. (The one slipup I noticed was when an American character angrily shouts something about PRIV-uh-see rather than PRY-vuh-see, but even that was a treat.) It is testament to how much I loved this book that I ultimately bought it in every available medium – audiobook because audiobooks rule, ebook because there were so many passages I wanted to look up and go back to, and of course print, because who knows when I might wake up to find myself in a world where it’s the only medium available.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2020
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2021
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Caio Brisolla
Excelente livro, edição com páginas faltando
Reviewed in Brazil on November 23, 2022
An Du
The story is brilliant and flows like an electric current!
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As if our pandemic wasn't enough...
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