Gnomon

A remarkable book for a number of reasons, among them the complexity - but also lucidity - of structure, the depth of material, the conceit of a central character who doesn’t really exist. I didn’t really read it as that strong a polemic about the surveillance society. If anything, it was so careful to paint the System as mostly good, most of the time, for most people that it could easily be read as a strong argument for a total surveillance society. The structure works well - sometimes with something elaborately constructed it’s easy to see what comes next and that can make for a dull redaing experience, but that was well handled here and almost immediately subverted. He seemed to be straining every sinew to avoid obvious conceits and parodies. Brilliant.