“A thriller that’s both hugely entertaining and immediately relevant to the current social media culture… An unsettling tale for our times Broadcast is thriller, commentary, and really very good.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
David is a rather shallow person but has become something of a personality because of his continuous vlogging. He shares just about every experience of everyday with his followers and he is doing very nicely from his inane posts.
Along comes a tech guru that offers him the opportunity to broadcast to his fans, live by direct feed, all he has to do is accept the terms and conditions, have a small implant and he is within days vlogging 24/7.
The journey David then goes on is one that starts off as curiosity, going through realisation that he can hide no thought from anyone to downright despair. Things like credit and debits cards are no longer things he can use because he would instantly tell the word his PIN. Anything needing a password cannot be accessed, again because his password would be broadcast to the world. Obviously there are good things too, like when he is hungry, all he has to do is think about that food and within an hour or so it arrives.
Eventually this all becomes too much for David and he attempts to escape from what has turned into a nightmare.
I really enjoyed this pre-distopia type story. Although it is relatively short it is full of insights into modern society, things like celebrity, fame, Reality TV and so on. The desire to be rich and famous outweighing almost every other desire.
If you like your Science Fiction relevant and with not much tech-talk I think you will really enjoy this one.
Thanks to Legend Press and Netgalley for a free prepublication copy.
Reviewed by:
Trevor Litchfield
Added 24th September 2017
