Walkaway

If you like technology and realistic sci-fi cut with a healthy dose of political awareness, Cory Doctorow’s Walkaway will be one of the best books you’ll read all year. When three friends choose to walk away from astounding wealth disparities, default society, home and family to find a new way of living they find themselves at a crossroads of history during a flashpoint of technological development. While grappling with age old questions about love, community, and overcoming death, these characters are active participants in the first days of a *hopefully* better nation created in part by throwing the zero-sum-game resolutely in the trash. Born from enthusiasm, not pedantry, Walkaway is intelligent and philosophical, interspersing gut-clenching action with discussions of race, class, gender, and morality. Doctorow’s excitement over what certain technological developments could mean and how humans interact with them is palpable. Full of risk and reckless hope, with a hacker’s mentality and an open sourced lifestyle, Walkaway is weird and inspirational in all the right ways.