“For the first time in ten years, the real me walked free.”
Imagine if not only your phone knew where you were all the time, but the police knew too. Imagine if your FitBit not only tracked your exercise, but also caused vending machines and pubs to refuse you service if you’d consumed a bit too much junk food or alcohol. Imagine if your Peloton screamed at you if you didn’t exercise every morning. Welcome to the world of Proximity.
Some time in the future, everyone in the UK is on iMe. Part tracking chip, part health monitor, part free will condenser, it ensures that the entire population is healthy, happy, safe and where they should be at all times. The youth have known nothing else. DC Clive Lussac, however, remembers the old days fondly. He’s a police officer who has forgotten how to do his job. With the population under control and crime all but eradicated (what’s the point of trying to get away with murder when everyone can see who was there at the time?), he’s left gathering dust in his office.
But then something impossible happens. A body is found in a park, drained of all blood, but there’s no signal for anyone else in the vicinity. With his new, young partner Zoe Jordan, Clive must remember how to do old style policing and track down someone without using technology, before the killer strikes again.
The premise of everyone having to have mandated tracking chips is standard sci-fi fodder, but in the light of events this year, it seems almost laughable. If we can’t even convince the entire population to have a vaccine to protect one another, there’s no way in hell that this sort of technology seems likely. Clearly, however, that isn’t the point. It’s fiction, and as a fictional idea, I enjoy it. It’s clever and the notion of introducing impossible murder into the mix is a good one. As ever, I do enjoy a glimpse into an author’s vision of the future, and this one does just enough world building to show you a future that feels familiar but spookily different.
It’s also interesting how technology is treated. The staff at iMe have to keep up a pretence that the system is unable to fail, because even the smallest evidence of a glitch or a mistake will have people lose faith in the whole thing. We’re already seeing systems fail in our own world, with Twitter now apparently unable – or unwilling – to remove all those who use the platform for hate, and Facebook apparently listening to all our conversations and spooking people. iMe needs to be fully functional, but it has in turn removed a lot of responsibility from people, as has other technology such as self-driving cars (limited to 45mph) and ultra-safe tools that are packed with sensors that ensure no one can be hurt by them. What this has done to the NHS remains vague, although it still seems to exist.
The characters are interesting, but Clive seems to be the only person infuriated with the technology. We learn that iMe has been mandatory for a decade now, but he still seems to be against it as if it’s a new irritant. Zoe – and the killer – are the only other people we really get any information on regarding how they feel about the technology. It’s interesting to see it as something natural to Zoe, who doesn’t really remember life before it. Everyone around Clive seems to have adapted well. Again, if reality has taught us anything, it’s that there would be a whole enclave of people who refused. Perhaps there is; a sequel follows. There’s a sub-plot about Clive going on a date with Zoe’s mother, which doesn’t feel necessary except that it feeds into the main story. It feels a bit hurried in its set up though, which is a shame, because otherwise I enjoyed the book, even the gory bits.
An interesting look at another future we will hopefully never see.
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