Weekly Reader: Effacement by Hieronymus Hawkes; Suspenseful Tech Heavy Science Fiction Chase Thriller That is All Too Timely
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: This is yet another book that I am reading that has familiar echoes in reality. Where the fictional situation which is being explored is also discussed in the real world outside the book.
Just as I am reading Effacement by Hieronymus Hawkes, a science fiction tech thriller in which everyone's information is displayed for all the world to see and privacy is non-existent, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook (well Meta now) is being held under scrutiny by a whistleblower who called Zuckerberg and the social media giant out regarding targeting children as potential users, not addressing national security concerns, and using algorithms to intentionally spread false information and hate speech.
Other concerns facing the social media empire include a lack of privacy, censoring accurate but critical information, and interfering with elections.
In Hawkes' version, the tech industry goes one step further. Instead of posting all of the information on the Internet through social media so people can voluntarily peruse such data, the data is transmitted inside people's brains through a device called Lifelog. Lifelog stores where they were born, their address, what they ate, who they hung out with, general health, where they shopped, and where they are. They are connected through a neurochip based network, called Vitasync, and the information can be viewed with AR glasses. Since the network is connected through the brain, there is so none of that messy computer or mobile device necessity to deal with.
In fact it is illegal to be without the neurochip. The crime is called effacement and is usually resolved by the sinisterly named Federal Department of Fidelity.
That is the situation faced by Cole Westbay, the protagonist who wakes up with sharp severe pain, a splitting headache, and no access to Lifelog. He isn't effaced (is that even a word in this universe?) by choice but he is treated like he is and will soon be facing trial. Eventually, he finds himself on the run, reaching the interest of his former company, his fiancee Tesla, the FDF, and a resistance group that chooses to live without the Vitasync.
Effacement is one of those science fiction novels that is so prevalent and so intriguing because it is so prescient. With books like this, Reality Testing, and Centricity warning about the abuses of technology and the Internet, right at the same time that tech companies are under suspicion for such misuse is alarmingly familiar.
Effacement's version of tech is like the current tech CEO's times 10. Big Brother isn't just watching you. He's watching everyone else too and probably dancing horribly to Tick Tock while laughing at cat videos.
With the current issues concerning the tech industry and a book like Effacement, it almost makes you want to log off permanently and become a Luddite.
I said almost. I work from home, in a job that I love, that I would not be able to do in person. Plus, I am aware that I am reading an ebook, one of several, that I purchased from Amazon on a Kindle device, am writing a review for a blog, and will soon be sharing the review on social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter, so the irony does not escape me.
Cole is the typical protagonist that can be found in this genre: quiet, unassuming, sardonic on the inside but not much of a rebel on the outside. Since his injury occurs right before we are introduced to him, we don't experience Cole as a cooperative member of the system. He has OCD and is an addict, probably to cope with this tech heavy world around him where the nights and days seem to have a thousand eyes.
Instead, we see him after he has forcibly been yanked from the system and he doesn't know why. Mostly, we get inferences towards his previous behavior such as his job in R&D in which he and his boss have a mentor-protege relationship and his engagement with Tesla, in which he is getting irritated with her narcissism. He gets irritated with the world around him but doesn't think about it until he is removed from it and forced to look at the Vitasync-less world.
Even Cole's reasons for even considering joining the resistance are more self involved than altruistic. He is attracted to Eva, one of the Resistors, by her physical appearance more than swayed by her sound arguments. Even after he gets to know her, he is mostly interested in her for being an attorney that exclusively works with those who have been effaced, so she can plead for his defense. It is only after he goes to the resistance hideout and sees a world of nature, sincere people, and alone time with his thoughts that he actually wants to help for the larger picture of a life without Lifelog.
There are some moments that really stand out for Cole's character. One of them is after his Vitasync is removed. He feels pain as though someone's arm has been severed. It is a threatening experience which reveals in its intensity how it feels to be suddenly caught off from society and not by choice. For Cole, it is pure physical and mental torture like going through a drug withdrawal.
The other moments are when he is at the Resistance's hideout. He sees a farm where people work with their hands and are very cooperative. There are some humorous passages like when he rides a snowmobile for the first time and becomes violently ill. Throughout this journey, Cole is almost like a kid at Christmas experiencing real joy for the first time.
This book is for the most part great but there are some flaws. The content is very tech heavy and sometimes difficult to follow when the Reader is trying to see through the tech talk to get to the story. It's ironic that a book that is so critical of the reaches of technology would be so enamored in describing it. I suppose like this Reader who could not avoid using technology to share her thoughts about this book, Hawkes can't avoid getting lost in the details in writing about it.
The other flaw cannot just be found in science fiction but in other genres, that of explaining too much in the beginning, leaving out much suspense and speculation. There is a prologue dealing with an FDF agent that spells out exactly what his role is and why he stalks Cole later.
More egregious is an early chapter involving two characters that not only reveal why Cole's neurochip had been removed but that of a far reaching conspiracy. This makes the two character's motives questionable even as they claim that they are helping Cole.
It also keeps the Reader ahead of Cole which since he is our protagonist, we shouldn't be that far ahead in knowledge. This exposition isn't necessary for the overall story and is clunky rather than compelling. Instead this important chapter could have been presented much later in flashbacks or through one character explaining what happened. As it is, there is less interest in Cole's journey as he stumbles looking for answers that we already know. At times, he comes across looking like an idiot for trusting characters that we know are not trustworthy.
Despite its glaring flaws, Effacement is a suspenseful and timely warning about how far we could go to be connected. It could happen just as quickly as tomorrow.
