Gamechanger

Gamechanger
By L. X. Beckett

Toronto author L. X. Beckett’s Gamechanger is an impressive debut: a hefty page-turner with a thrilling plot that presents a dense and detailed vision of the future.

The world, as we find frequently in today’s SF, has suffered a Setback, this time in the form of a global pandemic. Setback has been followed, however, by Clawback and then Bounceback. Civilization will have a sequel.

Rubi Whiting is a poster child for the Bouncer generation: environmental activist, human rights lawyer, and celebrity performance-gamer. The world she inhabits is one where the line between reality and virtual reality has nearly been erased, and the concept of privacy all but lost. We are online all the time, and drones hover everywhere. Almost every moment of our lives is public, with a system of strikes and strokes helping shape a more prosocial human environment.

Utopia for some, a nightmare for others. Into this world a threat surfaces by the name of Luciano Pox, who may be a rogue AI or . . . something else. Whiting, with a little help from friends both real and digital, will have to find out.