Read Online The Municipalists A Novel edition by Seth Fried Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks
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A novel about an unlikely pair of lonely outsiders--one human, one AI--on an adventure to save the great American city of Metropolis written by "one of the most exciting new voices in fiction" (Charles Yu)
*Named one of the best books of the month by Library Journal ("Debut of the Month"), The Verge, io9, Books, Book of the Month Club, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, NYLON, and Tor.com*
In Metropolis, the gleaming city of tomorrow, the dream of the great American city has been achieved. But all that is about to change, unless a neurotic, rule-following bureaucrat and an irreverent, freewheeling artificial intelligence can save the city from a mysterious terrorist plot that threatens its very existence.
Henry Thompson has dedicated his life to improving America's infrastructure as a proud employee of the United States Municipal Survey. So when the agency comes under attack, he dutifully accepts his unexpected mission to visit Metropolis looking for answers. But his plans to investigate quietly, quickly, and carefully are interrupted by his new partner a day-drinking know-it-all named OWEN, who also turns out to be the projected embodiment of the agency's supercomputer. Soon, Henry and OWEN are fighting to save not only their own lives and those of the city's millions of inhabitants, but also the soul of Metropolis. The Municipalists is a thrilling, funny, and touching adventure story, a tour-de-force of imagination that trenchantly explores our relationships to the cities around us and the technologies guiding us into the future.
"A new and irreverent take on both real-world politics and sci-fi history."-The Wall Street Journal
Read Online The Municipalists A Novel edition by Seth Fried Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks
"The Municipalists is a collection of strangely compelling elements that coalesce beautifully, resulting in one of the more unique novels I’ve read this year. I was surprised to find a novel centered on an uptight civil service worker whose defining feature is an obsession with trains and the transit systems of various cities. Coupled with a hilariously down-to-earth AI named OWEN, the novel sets off on a fun, albeit dangerous, mission in an enormous city named Metropolis. The story has a noir feel to it, coupled with a few absurdities that make the tricky situations lighthearted and fun. You’d be surprised at how fun a work trip can be.
I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest, unbiased review."
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The Municipalists A Novel edition by Seth Fried Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks Reviews :
The Municipalists A Novel edition by Seth Fried Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks Reviews
- No doubting this is a fun read. I read it in 1 sitting (I take weeks to read anything). I really loved the way Owen opened a world to the Municipalist we meet - freeing him from the constraints of a disordered world he thinks he can control. As they say, we make plans and God laughs.
Yes it’s a page turner, entertaining and fun. If you leave it at that you miss what it means for our society, the widening gap between cities and countryside, polarization, how to fix it, how those fixes can go wrong - what to do if you’re caught in this machine. We see two approaches, to tighten the grip further or to become nihilists... which is the answer? Is either the cure? Is there a solution?
If you want a fun read this is it. Just like a city from far off, it looks like a clean breezy skyline. Analyze the material and it’s implications and you find a multilayered, gritty, thoughtful commentary on our modern life. - I didn’t have any particular expectations of this book, but have developed a weird compulsion to read everything I can get my hands on that explores the idea of “AI with attitude†and this looked like it tackled that theme. While there‘s no flavor of hard science or tech, such as you find in Iain Banks, Ann Leckie or Martha Wells, The Municipalists offers a fresh twist on this theme. Satirical humor reminiscent of Cory Doctorow (minus most of the geek-speak) sustains the story—which does not aspire to realism but certainly addresses issues we see in the real world. The book ends up being a rumination on the pitfalls of ideological purity, and beneath the absurdism and humor lurks a steady humanism. I am curious to see what this author will do next, and I hope for more female characters next time, but all in all it’s a worthy read for future/dystopia/fantasy/satire fans.
- Great read. Humorous, smart, and incredibly touching all at the same time.
- The Municipalists is a collection of strangely compelling elements that coalesce beautifully, resulting in one of the more unique novels I’ve read this year. I was surprised to find a novel centered on an uptight civil service worker whose defining feature is an obsession with trains and the transit systems of various cities. Coupled with a hilariously down-to-earth AI named OWEN, the novel sets off on a fun, albeit dangerous, mission in an enormous city named Metropolis. The story has a noir feel to it, coupled with a few absurdities that make the tricky situations lighthearted and fun. You’d be surprised at how fun a work trip can be.
I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest, unbiased review. - Diligently working to make the country's infrastructure better, a threat to undermine the bureau responsible for improving lives requires the investigative attention of an unlikely team in Seth Fried's The Municipalists.Â
Henry Thompson is a fervent follower of the bureaucratic procedures and principles set in place within the United States Municipal Survey, where he's been a successful and trusted, though not particularly well-liked, employee for years. When the idyllic Metropolis comes under threat from a domestic terrorist attack, Henry is tasked with covertly investigating and attempting to thwart the attack. Paired with an untested projected version of the company's supercomputer AI OWEN, who seems to have a proclivity for day-drinking and seemingly erratic behavior, Henry ventures into Metropolis to uncover what he can. As the duo try to protect the city, they find that they need to be more concerned with how to also save their own lives.
A bit outlandish in the situations presented and the behaviors the characters exhibit, the story was nonetheless entertaining and a quick read once the basics were established. While the world and situations that Henry and OWEN find themselves in are summarized well, they aren't particularly deeply developed within the world presented, which seems to be an alternative and a bit more advanced present-day United States - I would be very interested in learning more about that world came to be and the technology of it. The humor injected by OWEN's oddball antics and Henry's disapproving responses to OWEN provide levity to the otherwise more serious narrative of corruption among civil servants and a terrorist plot; it was an effective choice to have the all-knowing AI be the more whimsical character and have the human be the straight man character, forging a stronger connection to and emotional investment in OWEN's fate.
Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars. - Searching for Kirkland. Yep. Henry and Owen, the oddest couple of all odd couples, find themselves looking for Terrence Kirkland, the director of Metropolis, who has gone missing. Things have gone wild in Metropolis and they shortly find themselves up against...what exactly? This is one where there's an alternate reality where Owen, who is AI, is as much a detective, as Henry, a boring man who really isn't a detective at all. The early part of this is about world building (I found this interesting but realize others might not), the later part is a thriller. Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. It's hard to describe, hard to review, but fun to read.
