LIBERATION

In this final installment of Schneider’s SF trilogy, friends try to steady their spiraling lives as mid-21st-century Earth falls into chaos.

Kat Keeper knows she’s the reason the network, which has effectively replaced the internet, is broken. As one of the leaders of the Resistance, she’d tampered with it to bring it down, although she hadn’t intended for it to fail all at once. At least there’s a chance for her and a tech-savvy pal to rebuild a “safe, independent network” for the Resistance. However, MIND, the evil company that the Resistance aims to overthrow, still manages to control the fractured remains of the network and releases “disinformation vids” that make Resistance members look violent. In the meantime, the world, without the network, experiences power outages and loss of climate controls (like measures for blocking the harmful sun). As the disarray continues, Kat leaves New York and travels to San Francisco to help Ravven Vaara, her friend and Resistance co-leader. Ravven has been hearing orcas’ messages and speaking to them in visions; evidently, the queen orca wants to teach humans how to be better. Is this really happening, or is Ravven, as a Receiver (like Kat), simply hearing other people’s thoughts? While on the Westcoast, Kat meets Renzo Kundera, an architect and urban planner who only complicates her life further. Over in New Zealand, Nora2 is positioned as a worthy successor to the CEO of MIND after the deaths of her bosses in a spaceship explosion. But one of those boss’s consciousnesses is stored in a cube, and after being revivified, it resumes the company’s greedy attempts to harvest people’s memories.

Schneider’s story zeroes in on the individuals within this bleak future world. Kat’s trip to San Francisco, where she’d lived two years earlier, opens up a past she left behind—it dredges up memories of her late husband, her company that others forced her out of, and her relationship with MIND’s diabolical co-founder and creator of its same-named artificial intelligence. Kat attributes human traits to her beloved bot Michel, whose voice calms her and whose “feelings” she’s eager to protect. There’s an abundance of chic tech, including a hovercycle and a Secluder (essentially a burner phone). Nora2 is a fascinating amalgamation of this narrative’s advanced technologies and stellar character development. The number in her name indicates the silicon substrate embedded in her brain (the lower the number, the more expensive the mod). While the implant boosts her support and ambition, Nora2 is still a mistreated personal assistant saddled with a megalomaniac consciousness that thrives in an oval-shaped MindVessel. As the story progresses, the sense of danger increases as MIND’s disinformation campaign continues and the company more directly targets Kat (and even Ravven’s inventor boyfriend). Subplots move in unexpected directions, from the orcas, who chat with Ravven during her meditative visions, to Kat’s potential romance with Renzo, who has an unusual bond with his twin brother. The ending more than satisfies as a trilogy finale, delivering a rich, contemplative denouement that readers can muse on.

A truly remarkable, character-driven dystopian novel.