BOOK REVIEW: Auxilliary: London 2039 by Jon Richter
THE AUXILIARY: LONDON 2039 has an excellent set up: it's protagonist is an utter sadsack piece of crap. This may seem like a really strange way to recommend a book but I really think the story has an appeal that other cyberpunk/scifi detective novels don't. The original DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP was a novel that starred a particularly unlikeable piece of crap, Rick Deckard, that it took Harrison Ford's mammoth amounts of charisma in order to turn into someone even vaguely resembling a likable protagonist.
Carl Dremmler, the protagonist of this book, is about the only scifi detective that I think approaches the kind of abject misery and disrepute as established by Phillip K. Dick. He's a man who hates his job, hates the world, hates technology, and despises himself top it all off. He's sexually frustrated after his divorce and even keeps a sexbot to relieve his tension but hates it too. And you know what? He is a fantastic POV character. You really get into the grimy, dark, and gritty nature of this world through someone who sees the world through his particular filter.
I don't quite buy this is 2039, London or otherwise, as the setting is a little too advanced with almost everything having been replaced by automated drones as well as vehicles. They couldn't get the Amazon Drone delivery system to work in London, so I'd say this is probably closer to 2069 but it is still a pretty believable setting for our ultra-integrated future. Everything is tied together with The Imagination Box or TIM as it provides you with everything you could want as long as you can afford it. It is soulless but driven by the algorithim to know your favorite foods, drinks, and music befiore suggesting more.
Unfortunately, the economic status of the world is pretty crap in large part because of this semi-benevolent machine as there's only a handful of jobs left. The majority of people live off of UBI and it punishes the people who have children as it doesn't give more for the number you have. I found these little details to be the most interesting and also help make the desperation everyone is suffering all the more believable. While I didn't much care for the gameplay, I liked Watch_Dogs: Legion's worldbuilding and this had some elements similar to it.
The premise, which I've taken a substantial amount of time to get to, is that a man with a robotic arm has murdered his girlfriend. He claims that it was hacked but that should be impossible with TIM's limits. If it's not, then the entire world is vulnerable. Which of course leads the police to make the perfect solution for the case: try to sweep it under the rug.
There's a lot of twists and turns spread throughout the book. Some of them are familiar like the crooked corporate CEO, the unhelpful boss, the tragic ex-wife, and so on. However, the use of these archetypes is extremely well done. The darkness and melancholy of the protagonist as well as corrupt feeling of the world make for a really strong book. I strongly recommend this for fans of detective fiction as well as cyberpunk. The ending is killer as well.