1 |
Out now from MCD-FSG. (2) |
2 |
“My pick for the book of the year, Tim Maughan’s Infinite Detail (MCD x FSG Originals), is a before-and-after tale of near-future social collapse after a coordinated attack takes the internet down. It’s hard to believe it is a debut, so a***ured and evocative is Maughan’s writing. As a portrait of the fragility of our current status quo it is as thought-provoking as it is terrifying; you won’t ever take your wifi for granted again.” |
3 |
“Maughan conducts a mastercla*** in the thrill and contradictions of counterculture, the uses and abuses of networks, the ways that capitalism can bend and flex to adapt, until, suddenly, it breaks. This is a stunning debut.” |
4 |
“Deft and jolting as an EMP, Infinite Detail is a worryingly credible ghost story about our electronic lives.” |
5 |
“A singular speculative debut, Infinite Detail asks crucial questions about the nature of our relations***p to technology. A lively and provocative novel particularly equipped for the challenges of our moment.” |
6 |
“Looping and layered, disruptive and deeply linked—Tim Maughan’s unsparing tale of the internet’s end is a paper internet unto itself. The native 21st-century novel is coming into view; it looks like Infinite Detail.” |
7 |
“Infinite Detail is an immaculately patterned debut novel, its author as in control of its design as the metafiction specialist Christopher Priest. Maughan’s feel for and knowledge of the technological straightjacket of contemporary culture is the equal of William Gibson. I have not often felt optimistic after reading a dystopian sci-fi novel, but Maughan’s debut leaves you with a Vonnegut-like sense of abiding humanity. Infinite Detail offers a sorely-needed perspective on the transience of the internet age. Fierce and compa***ionate, its vision of a post-apocalyptic afterlife is a blessing.” |
8 |
“Tim Maughan’s fiction is whip-smart, funny as h****, and full of hard truths most people would rather ignore. And despite its riveting dystopian scenario and biting critiques of life in late capitalism, Infinite Detail has so much deeply felt grace, heart, and hope.” |
9 |
“Tim Maughan gets it. This civilization is over and everyone knows it. Infinite Detail gets on with the job of figuring out what to do next. His inspiring characters show us how to live and love in these ruins.” |
10 |
“Tim Maughan brings his informed knowledge of why the contemporary (and soon-to-be contemporary) world works as it does, along with his deep awareness of how subcultures—be they industrial or musical—operate, to his debut novel Infinite Detail, resulting in a powerful narrative featuring memorable characters hardened but never crushed by the challenges in their lives, told in crystal-sharp writing that leaves you wanting more, lots more.” |
11 |
“Maughan’s dynamic, sprawling, post-postmodern cyberpunk debut is split between the prelude to, and the aftermath of, a worldwide technological apocalypse that has left mankind without an internet, resources, luxury, or the ability to travel internationally as they scrabble through now-treeless wastelands….Maughan handles it beautifully with maximalist daring and depth; the result is an energetic novel about civilization as it races toward the ultimate overload.” |
12 |
“The novel says something important and thought provoking about such hot-topic issues as privacy, the interconnectedness of the world’s pop****tion, and cla*** structure; but, thanks to Maughan’s rigorously developed characters and his ability to tell a compelling story, the book is never preachy. A seriously good page-turner with plenty of meat on its bones.” |
13 |
“I still think about Infinite Detail days after finis***ng it. It’s one of those rare novels that, if you enjoyed it the first time, you’ll want to re-read it to catch details that you missed the first time around.” |
14 |
“You never know quite what you’re going to get with journalist Maughan’s thoughtful dystopian debut novel, which offers a blush of cyberpunk, a shakerful of Neal Stephenson, and a dash of Cory Doctorow’s speculative fiction…An original and engaging work of kitchen-sink dystopia.” |
15 |
A timely and uncanny portrait of a world in the wake of fake news, diminished privacy, and a total shutdown of the Internet. |