[Aptorian]

This Monday we start Claire North's 84K.

The book is a little under 500 pages so we'll be reading roughly 100 pages per week, over the next 5 weeks.

The description for 84K:

Quote

From one of the most original new voices in modern fiction comes a startling vision of a world where you can get away with anything . . .

Theo Miller knows the value of human life - to the very last penny.

Working in the Criminal Audit Office, he assesses each crime that crosses his desk and makes sure the correct debt to society is paid in full.

But when his ex-lover is killed, it's different. This is one death he can't let become merely an entry on a balance sheet.

Because when the richest in the world are getting away with murder, sometimes the numbers just don't add up.

[Tiste Simeon]

This book is bleak. I think it describes the perfect Tory vision of Britain. I both hated and loved it and it made me so uncomfortable to read and it is written in a bizarre, disjointed manner which adds to the awkwardness of reading it.

Be very interested to see what you all make of it.

[Andorion]

Reading this book, I was strongly reminded of the dystopian Britain in Alan Moore's V For Vendetta. Not that there's a lot of direct similarities but the underlying tone seems to be familiar

[Aptorian]

Wait, Tiste didn't you vote for this book? But you already read it?

How many of us are actually participating this run?

Just Macros and I? And Macros has yet to actually post in one of these threads... *sigh*

Anyway, about 5% into the book (Damn Amazon and their irregular metrics!). It's a very disjointed way of writing the perspective the way it flits between the characters.

Also, I wonder if anybody's ever written a book about a Corporate Utopia or a happily fascist nation.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 20 August 2019 - 09:54 AM

[Hammerhead88]

Ill jump on this one as well. Just bought it for Kindle so will start tonight.

[Salt-Man Z]

I've got it. I plan to start in the next day or two.

[Aptorian]

Huzzah!

Also, this is a heck of system.

Quote

Theo hums a half-remembered tune from his childhood under his breath, doesn’t notice, reads a report.
Semen was discovered but the victim was unwilling to pay £315 for the DNA test and thus we are unable to say whether the semen came from the accused. In light of this we would suggest a reduced charge of sexual harassment. Theo checked the database. Sexual harassment had various subcategories, but the most he could levy was £780 for a first-time offence. At first a lot of people had been excited by the indemnity system, until it emerged that the profits raised from prosecuting crimes were almost entirely eaten up by administrative costs from the various companies contracted to manage the cases. Corporate Police, much more reliable than the tiny rump of Civic Police accessible by the uninsured or through NGO charity funding, had shareholders to consider when they invoiced for an investigation. The TV always showed the glamour, never the paperwork – forensics was expensive, best deployed only on really profitable cases. Corporate rehabilitation centres had a similar problem. As corporations bought up local communities, transforming towns into Winchester by Visit the Soul or Bath Spa Deluxe Healthy Living, local judiciary fell under their purview and great savings were made all round and there was much rejoicing, except for the scroungers who were unable to pay their corporate community tax, clearly weren’t contributing to society and thus couldn’t ask society to support them. Raising the price of manslaughter in line with inflation . . . . . . a deduction in lieu of a promising corporate career . . . Added fees: £480 for putting down victim’s cat. £48,912 for the first offence, reduced to £38,750 for prompt payment . . . The victim transpired to be illegally resident on a student visa, and thus the indemnity must be reduced by £4500 to reflect that it was assault on an alien, rather than a UK citizen. Impaled on a garden fork added hospital costs of . . . Theo audited the cost of murder, mayhem and destruction, and when 5.15 p.m. came, he cycled home as the sun went down, made macaroni cheese, and ate it in his room and listened to...

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 20 August 2019 - 04:27 PM

[Aptorian]

This thing, North is doing, with not finishing the sentences is annoying me greatly. I get the purpose, the reflection of real world speech patterns. It's how the young people talk on the MTV.

I just wish she would fucking not

[Tiste Simeon]

Yeah it takes a while to get into it. Also I was greatly afraid reading this because a lot of our politicians would quite happily introduce such systems...

[Aptorian]

Yeah, while a lot of the stuff is extreme, you can certainly imagine the kind of people in the Trump administration or Gold Man Sachs being all for this stuff.

Finished Chapter 21 and stopped there. I think it was the perfect place to end this week.

That's a heck of a thing.

Spoiler

I'm confused as to how our would-be Hero will be able to do fuck all about this system. Who's he going to find and how is he going to do anything about it?

[Nicodimas]

Ill join!...this sounds fun.

<sidebar: In reality land Money does rule supreme...already.. go to salt lake city..near the Mormon church if you want to see a representation of real America>

This post has been edited by Nicodimas: 23 August 2019 - 03:20 PM

[Aptorian]

I'm going to be very curious to hear what you think about the book, Nico.

Anybody finished up the first 90-100 pages of 84K? What do you think?

[Tiste Simeon]

Nico will take the view that the protagonist is actually the bad guy, I'm guessing...

[Salt-Man Z]

I read the first 16 chapters Friday night, and only stopped because it was late and my Kindle said the best chapter was 10 minutes long. It's good! The halting/trailing off style can get a bit obnoxious, but mostly it's not too bad. Still hard to tell where it's going, plot-wise, but the dystopian future is scarily plausible. Also, I will say that every now and then the prose and/or dialogue gets so British as to become almost incomprehensible.

[Macros]

Starting this now as I can't even find slaughterhouse 5 to finish it

[Macros]

Read the first 50 pages. Should get a chance to read the next st the airport tomorrow

Fuck me it's a bleak future if we let the Tories stay in power

[Macros]

So read up the end of chapter 22, which is about the 100 mark.

Echoes of what's ready been said, fucking bleak.
But what hit me the most was the tape case apt quoted.
This seems scarily real when you consider the picture Illy posted a few years ago of the bill for a rape survivors treatment and testing for diseases and the like.

I don't mind the disjoint in this so far, it works with the narrative style.

Not much to comment on beyond how depressing I can find these type of settings, as we are headed this way already

[Macros]

Prediction

Spoiler

Dani's killer recognises him and that's how he ends up bashed on the side of the canal