A Novel About Our Social Future
The future is already here, and it’s suffering from the present … What do you do when you come to in the middle of a city, no longer knowing who you are or where you’re from? This is the scenario in which twenty-year-old Marcos suddenly finds himself—as if he had fallen from outer space: His memory seems to have been wiped clean. He embarks on a relentless search for his identity through the gigantic techno-metropolis of RheinRuhr, which in the year 2053 stretches from what used to be Dortmund all the way to Cologne and Mönchengladbach. He is aided in this quest by a young woman named Tonya and the shady detective Berlinguer. Both seem to be pursuing their own agendas. Marcos can’t trust anyone. All clues lead to the genetic engineering giant TransGen Inc., where Marcos will make a shocking discovery and learn the truth about his origins. A novel about our social future: Ethno-nationalist right-wing populist parties rule Europe, but in the face of unbridled market fundamentalism, that doesn’t mean much. Everyone fights only for themselves. There is no unified central government. The EU is now merely a vassal of an all-powerful China, squeezed between the U.S. and Russia—both of which are ruled by totalitarian leaders and locked in a warlike rivalry. Everyone has a chip implanted (the so-called Interior Console [IC]), through which they have constant access to the Allnet. Using 3D printers, they manufacture almost all everyday items themselves—if they can afford to. This is because jobs—and thus the opportunity to earn more than the meager basic income—are few and far between. Androids and genetically engineered clone specialists are putting additional pressure on the severely reduced labor market.
