| Title | : | Monitor |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1633442500 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781633442504 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 112 |
| Publication | : | First published September 1, 2016 |
But when the aspiring activists stumble into the corporation’s all seeing eye, they find themselves in the limelight—and not in the way they hoped.
As camdrones begin to follow them through the megacity and broadcast their every move on live threedee, Lana and her friends will have to ask themselves just how much they’re willing to sacrifice to fight the corps. Is making a difference worth risking their privacy, their lifestyle, or their lives?
Fans of media giant NBN, its colorful programs, and its high-profile characters gain unparalleled access to the megacorp's HQ in Leigh Alexander's Monitor. As the media-focused megacorp responds to the threat posed by a trio of wannabe activists, we learn more about such popular characters as Jackson Howard, Victoria Jenkins, and Dinosaurus.
Meanwhile, as the protagonists have their privacy stripped away, they lose control of their lives. Their actions become increasingly desperate and surprising. As they look for ways to retaliate, will their lives spiral into total anarchy? Will they regain control of the context that defines them? And who is responsible for their suffering? In Monitor, the truth is malleable, and learning how to shape it is paramount.
In addition to its 96 pages of fiction, the hardcover edition of Monitor comes with a sixteen-page full color insert with setting information on activism in the Android future, NBN's Global Adaptive Entertainment, MegaBuy, and the future of marketing.
Monitor Reviews
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Look, I know I've said it before about other things, and each time I say it the power of the phrase is diminished, but Leigh Alexander's Monitor is dark as fuck.
It's so dark that I've had this itty novella sitting around the house for weeks and I couldn't even make it through the first chapter -- the first page -- which describes the sensation of being watched by Big Brother as a physical experience: watched by machinelike eyes during a city summer so hot and loud it's an assault; the book is abrasive from the drop, and only relents in order make things worse a few pages later.
"This book is fucking dark," I announced to my wife about halfway through. "It's about three kids who are wannabe activists, and they try to hack this superpowerful news network, which, in turn, starts making a live documentary series that frames them as domestic terrorists and chases them around with robot cameras and ruins their lives."
"Dude, that's dark," my wife said.
"I know," I said, and walked off into another room to finish the book, which only got progressively more empty and hopeless by its end.
Monitor is a sci-fi novella for a tie-in cardgame that you've likely never heard of nor played, but that shouldn't matter to you. It is a real fucking book. It's about the hell we live in as a society trapped by the 24-hour news cycle, lonelier all the time even as we become more digitally incestuous.
As I write this, the Amazon is burning and Disney has just released its first trailers for the shows on its new streaming service. I cannot save the Amazon but I will most certainly cough up the extra $15 per month. Everyone I know is in a neverending game of oneupsmanship via beautific Instagram photos of lives we don't really live and trips we can't really afford. Alexander herself was martyred by Gamergate and now lives online as an internet personality, as hungry for clicks as the rest of us.
We all are dead; we all are doomed.
great book; five stars. Hey hey, ho ho. -
This was a GoodReads Giveaway win.
I did not know what to expect of this book. After reading, I will place this in the Young Adult reading group. I tend to not read much YA books. The characters and storylines just don't seem to interest me as much. The characters and this storyline were only average. I do like the whole concept that our lives are being "monitored" a bit too much. Increasingly, we allow this monitoring to take place as a means to make routine acts seamless with our lives. Take a networked home thermostat. It now learns your daily schedule, but since you can now network it, it can adapt to your comings and goings to further increase your home's energy efficiency. It's watching you.
The "Android" universe that the author is creating is interesting, but this small short novella does little to introduce you to that world. Those aspects are better flushed out in the appended informational pages after this story's ending. It is not a highly technical science fiction work, but rather a study of people and society in a future setting. The plot line for me was only fair. The ending leaves room to explore other plots, and introduce other characters.
I stand corrected. The Android Universe apparently started as a Board Game. Not being familiar with the origins of this universe, I would have to state that I assume this book would be recommended reading for fans. If you are not familiar with this universe, it may be worth looking into. For my taste, I expect a bit more refinement in the story telling. It is a good concept, just a bit toned down for myself.
Have a GoodReads. -
A fantastic addition to the Android universe. Leigh Alexander weaves an entirely too plausible short story about corporate greed, entertainment media, and what happens when the corporations control it.
I will concede that as a big fan of the Android universe (board games, card games, novels and novellas) my judgement is rather clouded :) -
This was really solid sci-fi for a board game universe IP tie-in novella, sort of like reading a Black Mirror episode.
It really stands above a lot of stuff I've read recently from other game IPs (BattleTech, 40K, Dungeons & Dragons). I think it still holds up if held up against a broader sci-fi, near-future dystopia canon.
It fits wonderfully within the Android universe and paints a believable future in which surveillance, capitalism, and personal celebrity have all run amok and collided with one another. Quite believable, ey? -
Much better than I expected. Short and sweet but a lot of nice world building. In this book you definitely get more intimate with NBN and the consumerism of the Android Universe. It was also nice to read the fluff in the back. Actually, that fluff might be better when read first just for the reader to become more familiar with the setting.
I hear it's not as good but I have Monster lined up in my to read pile. -
Eh.
Android: Netrunner is my favorite game, period, due in no small part to the incredible worldbuilding. That's why I grabbed this book. And yeah, as expected, it was cool to see the world fleshed out more. Jackson Howard's saccharine friendliness made my teeth ache. I loved meeting MaXx. And the events of the plot make a strong argument for NBN being the most insidiously evil corp among the Big Four. I dig it.
But as a piece of writing, it just didn't work for me. The pacing was all sorts of weird. Events whizzed by without having much chance to land. In the last third of the book, I got mood whiplash from the back-and-forth between hope and despair, made worse by the fact that little of it felt earned. The breakneck pace provided little time for setup, so revelations and plot twists felt arbitrary and empty. Lots of gods in these machines, dontcha know.
The result was that the book felt like a bad Black Mirror episode: a chilling idea, but spoiled by overselling the drama. Things went from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye. Weirdly, I wish the stakes had stayed lower and more personal for the protagonist--less of being vilified and hounded by the entire population of New Angeles and more of watching the people she loves turn against her, convinced by the lies and propaganda of NBN. That's something that, sadly, far too many of us today can relate to.
Also, I rolled my eyes so hard when I saw that profanities were censored with grawlixes (grawlices?). C'mon. -
First of the Android novellas, and probably the most interesting. A story about the power of the news corporation, and what happens when reality TV seriously throws ethics out of the window in order to gain viewership. An enjoyable quick read in a Blade-Runner-esque world.
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A solid Black Mirror-esque novella set in one of my favourite gaming universes.
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IT started off difficult to read. Wasn't really feeling it. Than it built up through out the book and i was hooked at the end. Very black mirror and that is in the good way.
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It's basically a Black Mirror episode where the main character is asked if they would compromise their beliefs in order to achieve relief.
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I love the characters! This is a great look into what could be.
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Solid Cyberpunk
While very similar to being a mashup of several black mirror episodes, this is a really well paced and dark cyberpunk story. Good writing, especially for a brand tie-in novel. I'm liking the Android books almost as much as I enjoyed the majority of Pathfinder novels -
Fun, quick read. Especially, if you're a fan of the Android games (Netrunner, etc.).
