As the doors of the glidepath flew open, Kat was flooded with sensations. The smell of the city hit her first. There was nothing else like it. Seaweed, urine, and humanity. Suddenly she was a child again on the Westside with her father, financially overextended because her mother was sick with lung cancer.
She remembered the day her father presented her with her first comms unit. The number-letter string had been assigned to her at birth, but most families didn’t turn the device over to the child until they turned thirteen. Martin, Kat’s father, had been so proud to hand her the comms unit dedicated to her identity. She felt like a real grown-up then. Martin was a data salesman who cut some corners, desperate to make the money to send her to an Upper East school so she could receive a prestigious education.
Kat held her comms unit in her hand. It wasn’t the same one she was given as a child, of course; it had been updated. But the letter-number string was the same.
The setting of this story references the United States and the rest of the world we know as only a distant memory. Air is controlled, water can be artificial, and even the humans can be modified, for a price.
Official synopsis:
Kat learns, only too late, that the man she hired leads a tech company that is working to capture the inner thoughts of all people, and use them to control the weather, all tech and learning, and even human will. Kat knows she must stop this, but doesn’t know how. She is pursued by a secret circle of women who say they have the answer, and want her to lead them.
Surrender takes place in a future where a global machine intelligence manages our climate disaster. While a tech company works to harvest every citizen’s thoughts, a secret band of resisters struggles to keep human thought safe and free.
The "official synopsis" is extremely brief and concise for a complex book with a sequel already planned. Yes, Kat Keeper and Bradley15 work together to build the consciousness of her deceased husband into essentially a desktop version. While this is going on, readers are also introduced to Hopper (a less-than-stable man with claims to mind expansiveness and astral projection), Alon6 (a modified human whose greed and rage may eventually consume everything he holds dear), Ravven (an activist Bradley15 dated until their arrest), and several women with unique backstories who become part of Kat’s inner circle. The severe climate change and infrastructure designs, as well as changes to the world caused by repeated pandemics were also substantial influences to the way the story developed.
This was definitely not a story to rush through. The changes to the world as it is now known by the time the story takes place in 2050 are staggering. The explanation of how and why some humans are modified is compelling and detailed. The threats and benefits of more and more AI control in the everyday world is frightening and fascinating.
Overall, this book earned 3 out of 5 stars. While it is definitely a story about a potential future, the style of the descriptive telling and heavy technology influence would probably be enjoyed more by fans of science fiction than speculative fiction.
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Becki Bayley is a wife and mother who also enjoys reading and playing the flute when she isn’t at her job as a regulatory complaint specialist. See some other books she’s read and reviewed on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.
GIVEAWAY:
One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Surrender!
Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Sunday, June 4th, at 11:59pm ET, and winner will be chosen and notified the next day via email, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.
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Surrender, by Lee Schneider
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