Max Barry: Jennifer Government
Jennifer Government is a satirical tale of future, where large corporations rule. Sure, there's government, but it's no more a player than the corporations and the mighty corporate alliances are more powerful than any government. People identify to the corporation they work for: one of the main characters, for example, works for Nike and is called Hack Nike.
The idea sounds good, but unfortunately the book doesn't live up to the promise. It starts ok, but gets nowhere. The book is full of uninteresting characters: there are too many of them, and you don't really care about any of them. The dialogue is bland and the many action scenes are just confusing. The plot is at times silly or just uninteresting.
What comes to satire, Ben Elton's books work much better. Jennifer Government isn't a funny and sharp satire, but it's not a gloomy, believable dystopia either. It would've been a much better book, had it been one or the other and done that well. (Review based on the Finnish translation.) Jennifer Government at Amazon.co.uk ]
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