Broadcast

by Liam Brown

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Disclaimer: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Imagine if every thought and emotion could be broadcast to the world.

Imagine if your dreams and fantasies could be animated instantaneously and streamed live by millions of people. Broadcast is a story of technology being taken a step too far. David is a popular video tuber, who records glimpses of his life and his day. He appears occasionally on other channels – like his friend Nadeem’s culinary channel. His numbers are falling. He needs something new, something fresh.

Then Xan swoops in, offering him the opportunity to pioneer an incredible new product. He’ll broadcast new, original content 24/7 and he wouldn’t have to do a thing. Just sign the paperwork and a bit of minor surgery. At first, David declines. But after a night of trying to justify his career choices, David takes the leap.

All to impress a girl.

The science behind Broadcast is fascinating.

I adore these sorts of warning stories, where we see a world a step away from our own. A single, unfortunate choice changes life. Like the invention of the smart phone, or television. Technology twists our society into something new and different… possibly dangerous. MindCast is just another thing. We stream so much of our life through various social media apps – an implanted chip seems like the next logical conclusion.

Broadcast uses similar idea to Feed, although in earlier stages of the technology. Beta stages. That said, this book doesn’t feel like a spinoff. Liam Brown actually confirmed he wasn’t familiar with M.T. Anderson’s work when I posted my mini review on Instagram. And it’s not really a surprise multiple authors have come to this conclusion of technological evolution: we love to overshare things and are obsessed with the banalities of our own lives. It’s a state of our cultural evolution. And it’s interesting.

I think this book is worth a read.

While this book is not groundbreaking or revolutionary, it is interesting and gives you a lot to think about. The characters are shallow and narcissistic, the world-building is laid under the assumption that we will project our own world on to this setting. You definitely won’t fall in love with David. But this book will hold your attention and it’s very twisty at the end.

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