EVERYONE IN SILICO, by Jim Munroe

Jim Munroe
Everyone in Silico

Munroe "Young Toronto author Munroe proves no less inventive with his third novel than he did with his others … as he projects a future in which a global virtual reality corporation is winning the p.r. battle against those who prefer to live their lives the old way… . The plot dynamics and imaginative leaps are engaging, and the care Munroe takes in examining Frisco as a full-fledged, not unattractive phenomenon also marks this as a story to be taken seriously." — Kirkus Reviews, 8/15/02

When Jim Munroe self-published his latest novel in Canada he had a most unusual marketing plan. A premise of his book is that in Vancouver 2036 consumerism is … well, life. As a matter of course, corporations monitor private conversations and pay people to hype their products — a wristwatch-like device credits your account if you successfully push Marlboros, say, on a fellow consumer. Jim decided to be part of the vanguard. "Do not endure the future, shape it," might be his motto. So he invoiced several corporations featured in his novel.

Modern citizens in 2036 are willing to give up a lot for guaranteed sunshine, a life with no wasted hours. A life free of crime and disease. A life that ends when you want it to, not when some faceless entity decides it's your time. Those who don't buy in — the poor, the old, the paranoid — have to watch as their loved ones, their friends and their jobs leave the city. They have to watch as the latest prestige technology, Self, changes everything — not just the world, but humanity itself. Everyone seems to be downloading his personality into the Self world, leaving the "meat" behind.

On the bright side, the rents have dropped. And in several unexpected ways, resistance is growing … things come to a head when a grandmother, searching for the 12-year-old boy in her charge who has gone over to Self, reactivates her army-issued bodysuit — transforming her into a vengeful, and nearly unstoppable, saver of souls.

Jim Munroe, 30, was managing editor of the magazine Adbusters before writing his first novel Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gas Mask. His novel Angry Young Spaceman was published by Four Walls Eight Windows in 2001. He lives in Toronto.