I Read: State Tectonics

State Tectonics, by Malka Older, was published in 2018.

It’s the third book in the Centenal trilogy.

Infomacracy

Null States

I borrowed it from the Seattle Public Library.

It’s 428 pages long.

“The Dhaka street swarms with people, objects, and all of the existing data about all these people and objects.”

(I love that opening sentence.)

Maryam (who was in the second book) is on her way to an appointment with Taskeen Khan, creator of the Information data pathways and a personal hero.

Most of the founding members of Information had worked for some combination of Google, Facebook, or the United Nations. Taskeen Khan is the only founding member to have worked for all three.

(I think that’s a great description of the role of Information in this trilogy.)

Dr. Khan lives in a sanatorium (established in 2053). Information is one of its major benefactors. The facility is also a time capsule.

Every effort has been made to resemble the naughts. Buildings are made in the style of the turn of the century, with visible outside wires. Parked cars have rubber tires. Advertising posters aren’t animated. Maryam is told that they even have their own 2005-style internet. Maryam must turn over all visible modern devices and dress in period-appropriate clothes before entering. It’s all part of temporal therapy.

It’s not an “anachronism prison,” Dr. Khan points out. The residents are there voluntarily. They’re free to contact friends and family and discuss current events, if they wish.

Maryam needs Taskeen Khan’s help. There have been some puzzling attacks on Information infrastructure. Masked people have broken into Information stations. They’re in there no more than twenty-eight minutes. Nothing is stolen. Staff members are tied up in the offices, but otherwise unharmed. The service interruptions are minimal, and are easily bypassed in a matter of seconds. The stations are back online in a matter of hours. Information can’t figure out what these people are after.

Dr. Khan suspects that there is more to the story. Why would Information send Maryam to her rather than going after the suspects?

Maryam tells Dr. Khan that, years ago, a number of centenal leaders had been assassinated. The suspects fled into null states. The system attacks seem to be tied to this, somehow.

With Dr. Khan’s input, Maryam forms a theory that this unidentified group is not trying to destroy Information, but rather to take it over.

There are many people who are beginning to see Information as an invasive monopoly. Information defines the centenals. It monitors the world elections. It collects the votes. Information controls the data, and it controls the results. Tashkeen Khan, by sheltering herself in the year 2008, seems to sympathize with this sentiment.

“People are constantly trying to get around Information. There’s this addictive fetishization of privacy, even when it’s not for any particular purpose.”

Later, Maryam is approached by a mysterious person offering a tour guide – printed on paper! – claiming to give “the best information not on Information.” Maryam learns that other people have reported similar encounters. These paper guides disintegrate quickly, making it impossible for Information to examine. This seems to be part of the anti-Information movement.

Mishima and Ken are taking on political battles. There are corporate governments (for instance, PhilipMorris  and 888) that are trying to destroy governments based on ideologies (like Policy1st and Free2B).

There are puzzling advertisements for small local-issue governments appearing in parts of the world outside of their general area. For instance, ads for a single-centenal government in the Faroe Islands are appearing in Jakarta. There’s nothing specifically wrong with governments advertising in other parts of the world, but why are they doing it? None of the governments involved admit to placing the ads, but they also don’t want to complain.

Maryam receives an ad for a political party. That’s not unusual, since the fourth global election is weeks away. But this ad is clearly aimed at a demographic much older than her. Ads are targeted so well that she shouldn’t be seeing this ad. What’s going on?

The controversial plans for the mantel tunnel, which were in the background of the first two books, are nearing the construction phase. Roz is worried, more than ever, about the environmental impact.

Then Roz learns that a second, unsanctioned tunnel has been discovered near the sanctioned mantel tunnel. Information had been unaware of this second tunnel, and can’t gather any data about its purpose, because it’s being constructed in a null state.

All these things tie together eventually. Sort of.

I loved the world building that went into this book and into the series. (What would The Olympics be like if there were no countries and thousands of governments?)

This book is very much a part of a trilogy. I don’t think it can be read by itself. This book also felt like a definite conclusion to the trilogy.

This book, and the trilogy, is a tense drama of global espionage. It’s full of plot twists.

Micro-democracy is a fascinating topic that gets explored well. This book makes strong arguments for the existence of an organization like Information. It also makes strong arguments against an organization like Information.

Information asserts that, before Information, “Competing data sources tore down any idea of truth; people voted based on falsehoods. We didn’t invent surveillance: there were plenty of feeds and search trackers, but they were fragmented and firewalled by governments and private companies. The surveillance was used to propagate falsehoods.”

On the negative side, I felt it was all too much. There were too many subplots and too many side characters. There was too much world building. It took me a long time to push through these books. I often became confused. But it was worth it.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, and the trilogy.