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| The Red Men (Paperback - New) |
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Full blurb:
Nelson used to be a radical journalist, but now he works for Monad, one of the world's leading corporations. Monad make the Dr Easys, the androids which patrol London's streets: assisting police, easing tensions, calming the populace. But Monad also makes the Red Men - tireless, intelligent, creative and entirely virtual corporate workers - and it's looking to expand the programme. So Nelson is put in charge of Redtown: a virtual city, inhabited by copies of real people going about their daily business, in which new policies, diseases and disasters can be studied in perfect simulation. As the boundaries between Redtown and the real world become ever more brittle, and revolutionary factions begin to align themselves against the Red Men, Nelson finds himself forced to choose sides: Monad or his family, the corporation or the community, the real or the virtual. The Red Men is at heart a novel about a character wrestling with his conscience, set against a pervasive and Orwellian vision of contemporary society: surveillance, automation, biotechnology, and their implications for our humanity.
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First page first lines:
Ignition
I was brushing my daughter's blonde hair, gently and methodically, taking pleasure in the ordering of the morning tangle. Iona stood patiently at the window, gazing at the busy Hackney street. She blinked at the faces of the pedestrians, each one discontent in its own way. Under a grey London sky, they stumbled and dawdled and bustled against one another, stragglers in the human race. I concentrated on the long stroke of the brush, each pass spinning golden thread. We did not talk. She was fascinated by the street and I was intent upon my task of turning her blonde cloud into flat sheets of sunny day.
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Category: Novel
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Author: Matthew De Abaitua
Born in Liverpool in 1971, De Abaitua worked as Will Self's amanuensis before joining The Idler magazine as Deputy Editor (he remains Editor at Large). He was also Literary Editor of Esquire magazine. His work has appeared in a number of anthologies including the bestselling Disco Biscuits (Sceptre) and Retro Retro (Serpent's Tail), and he has reviewed for and contributed widely to The Guardian and The Observer, among others. He wrote and presented a documentary series on British Science Fiction for Channel 4 and is now the Editor of Channel 4's film review site, where he launched the internet-only film review TV show, Movie Rush.
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Publisher: Snowbooks
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Reviews:
"This vision of the near-future would be terrifying if it weren't so hilarious. Matthew De Abaitua makes Michael Houellebecq seem like Enid Blyton" - Matt Thorne, novelist
“The Red Men is a novel brimming over with ideas, fantasies (often quite bracingly sick) and disturbing dystopian visions. It's also very funny; as gleefully absurd as it is unsettling.” – Sam Jordison, 3:AM Magazine
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| Book code: BTD006 |
| Price: GBP £ 7.99 |
| USD $ 13.00 |
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