South Africa - Moxyland - Lauren Beukes

This book was a Christmas gift from my son, so I didn't have to put any effort into finding a book from South Africa! Always nice to have collaborators on this project who help source and buy books for the project.

The book its self was pretty cool, a futuristic tale of 4 young people rebelling against the state and trying to find their own path through a very complex and pressure filled future. The story moves along quickly, but there isn't much of a story, more just a snapshot of four young lives in a pretty grim, neon lit future.

One of the most interesting aspects of the story is when one of the four main characters gets injected with nanobots, by a soft drinks company. These nanobots keep her body healthy and fight off infections, and also help her recover from injury at a remarkable rate. The nanobots are also bio-luminescent so that they can display advertising logos of the soft drink. It's these little gems of ideas that are sprinkled through the book that add some real depth and richness to the book.