STUNG

Teens fight the power that’s putting defective chips in their heads in this techno-thriller.

Scott imagines a near-future America where most homicides have been suppressed by a program called Bee Sting, which implants in people’s heads computer chips that will murder them if they kill someone, even in self-defense. The upshot is an apartheid state overseen by the government’s powerful Chip Integration Division. “Disconnected” people who refuse to have their chips activated at the age of 15 are banned from shops, businesses, and transportation and are usually sent to labor camps. Unwillingly thrust into that plight are some teens in the California town of Ridge Crest, including Talon Russit, whose chip proves unable to run Bee Sting, and his soul mate, Sofia Abreo. Sofia’s chip develops spotty connections to the network. After his policeman dad dies attempting to free him from CID custody, Talon lands in the Fabrication Center, a prison where inmates make chip gadgetry. There, he’s cruelly abused by the warden, who makes him sleep outside in searing weather, and the inmates, who beat him. But he also develops an ability to evade chip readers and computerized locks to open secured doors. Meanwhile, Sofia is immured in the Tech Lab, where she polishes her skill at circumventing security systems. Sofia hopes to rescue Talon with the help of his disconnected older brother, Wilder, legendary as a high-tech break-in artist. But Talon is targeted by Gen. Stafford, a CID official who wants to exploit his door-opening prowess, and by the Fabrication Center’s warden, who recruits psychotic inmate Letcher Mercer to murder the teen. Scott’s labyrinthine SF yarn effectively magnifies paranoia about a total surveillance state as well as the universal experience of frustration at inscrutable digital devices that unaccountably stop working. His tough but subtle prose ably conveys quiet, intense psychological conflict. (“Letcher took a step closer to the glass, leering down at the warden. The warden decided a chair would be a nice touch after all. ‘You do know I could gas you, right?’ Letcher allowed a crooked grin to belie his usual demeanor, acknowledging what they both knew—the warden was frightened.”) The result is an absorbing story about a brave new world of stifling safety that virtually eradicates freedom.

An entertaining dystopian tale about technology that persistently walls off people from life and connection.