I received a copy of this book
for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.
The story in Mike McGinty's
debut novel, Entropy, is an attention-grabbing tale of a future when
things have gone from comfortable to terrible for principal character Bill Bartles,
as well as the world he lives in. It is a fast-paced story of a man who is
charged with looking at past events, stripping away all the static, and
uploading what he filteres to a database contained in a space no bigger than a
shoebox.
Entropy is a hard sci-fi, dystopian look at a
grim future for humanity.
When I began reading Entropy,
I found it commanding my attention. I was mesmerized by the story in its pages
and whenever I had time to pick it up, I was drawn into a nightmarish world
where chaos rules, and it's everyone for themselves.
I enjoyed Entropy. It
ran me through an entire gamut of emotions, from being horrified, through
sadness, and even some triumphant moments. It is an intense look into the
future where there might be danger lurking around every corner. I had to pay
attention because there were a few things I knew little about - at the same
time, everything was adequately explained.
Bill Bartels lives in a city
where life is strictly regulated. As long as one follows the rules, everything
seems to work well, but going against established procedures have consequences.
His life is quite comfortable - he lives in a nice apartment, has a girlfriend,
and nearly everything he needs to live. He works near the bottom of a corporate
ladder that goes very high. His job is to gather all human knowledge, sift it
to be sure there is no spin left to taint the information, and finally store it
on a device called the Infinity Drive. Bill does his job so well, he expects a
promotion soon, but something goes wrong.
During a session taking a deep
dive into the archives of the Infinity Drive's controller, he finds something
disturbing. Outside the city is death and devastation, the result of numerous
man-made disasters. In effect, Bill discovers a state of social entropy
existing outside the city, and he is compelled to investigate. What compels him
is that he is caught discovering forbidden information and the corporations do
not want it to become common knowledge. He escapes the city and enters a world
the likes of which he had no idea existed.
Along his journey, he discovers
many disturbing facts and learns that humanity is doomed to end in the
not-too-distant future.
For much of the tale, Bill is
accompanied by an antisocial curmudgeon, simply known as The Thinker, who helps
Bill with his decision if saving the dregs of humanity is worth the loss of the
Infinity Drive.
The Thinker takes Bill on a
tour of the ruined world and presents him with some disturbing looks into the
realities of Social Entropy.
My favorite point of plot is
the author’s illustration of the extremes between strict social control, and
the lack thereof. It shows what can happen in two different worlds on the same
planet when things are out of balance. It made me think of a lot of the things
I witnessed during the height of the recent COVID Pandemic. How panicked people
were hoarding supplies. How people began making their own rules and ignoring
established laws. How people were behaving irrationally in general. Had things
not calmed down, what might our world look today? I shudder to imagine it. We
got a glimpse looking into an abyss, but Entropy takes it the rest of
the way. It is not a world I would want to live in.
Another favorite point of plot
was how the mood of the story changed in the blink of an eye. As the story
opened, I felt as though I were reading a comedic story. There were things that
struck me as being funny, but that didn't last long as the life of the
principal character became unhinged as he became more aware of the realities of
the world he lived in.
The overarching theme of Entropy
is Social Entropy, as outlined by the second law of thermodynamics. My takeaway
is an understanding of the concept of Social Entropy. When the constructs of
living in communities break down, when there are no longer laws, in the absence
of institutions that maintain order, society descends into chaos. It is a point
at which irrationality rules and survival is the rule of the day. The strong
survive at the expense of the weak. One example cited in my reading was what
happens during war.
Entropy will make one think. It has a very
familiar flavor in the light of headlines presented in the last few years. It
takes the themes we have witnessed in reality and projects them into a future
where it wasn't pulled back from the brink of tipping into disaster. We are
still healing from the chaos witnessed during the pandemic, but this story
gives us a look into what might be if some disaster, or combination of
disasters, is left to follow its course. I see Entropy as a warning to
societies telling us to take care of each other or we may face our own
extinction.
I recommend this book to
readers who like hard sci-fi and who enjoy post-apocalyptic and dystopian
themed books. It is well thought out and disturbing. It caused me to have a few
nightmares. While that may seem like a bad thing, perhaps it is just what we
need to keep humanity moving in a positive direction.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
