io9 on PA

in Pop Apocalypse

Lauren Davis over at io9 has written one of the most perceptive reviews of Pop Apocalypse I’ve seen yet out there in the mediasphere. Davis concludes:

Pop Apocalypse is a genuinely frightening book, not for its apocalyptic prophesies, but for its peek five minutes into the future. It’s suggestion that photo-tagging software could someday turn all of existence into the ultimate reality television show isn’t far-fetched in the least. One character comments that when you see how sausage gets made, you’ll want to become a vegetarian. And in Pop Apocalypse, we’re the sausage, and the whole world sees how we’re being made all the time.

She’s quite right about the apocalyptic framework of the book: it’s more of a way of thinking about the social, political, and economic problems of the present (and maybe the very near future) than it is a genuine Cassandraish forecast of planetary doom. I’m saving genuine planetary doom for future projects, in fact.

Also, I’m pleased she caught the sausage line. Check it out.