Walkaway

In the not so distant future, the world is falling into shambles amid climate change as encroaching privatization leaves many without work, without insurance and without hope. Though technology is plentiful and scarcity could be a thing of the past, the grinding desire of capitalism to own and consume leaves no room for that. It has led many people to simply up and walkaway from the default world and trust altruism and omnipresent technology to help them get by. They're talked about in hushed tones by others. They're terrorists, radical anarchists, Mad Max style hooligans, and much worse. But for some, the crushing horror of the default world is too much and they take their chances with the walkaways.

Enter Natalie Redwater, scion of a zotta (ultra-rich) family and her new friends after a crazy night at a "communist party" where they flip on old printers and just give everything away. After a run in with the law, she and her new friends Hubert-nineteen middle names-Espinoza (otherwise known as Etcetera) and Seth decide they've had enough and decide to give it all up and go walkaway. Enter Limpopo, a veteran walkway and sort-or proprietor of the B&B, a walkaway community where you can stop and get adjusted. She shows them the ropes and helps them decide if they want to stay.

In the background however, the world is changing with technologies that could change the meaning of life itself, and Natalie's ultra rich father, Jacob, has power and reach. Will he let his daughter get out from under his thumb or will he leave her to the changing world of the late 21st century?

Walkaway is a sort-of piece of utopian fiction where a new world is struggling to be born. This is author Cory Doctorow's bailiwick, with the common themes he talks about in both fiction and non-fiction. Omnipresent surveillance, creeping capitalist domination, and the possibility of a post scarcity society just at our fingertips. In this novel he presents a radical ideology of pacifism, technological sustainability, and gift economy which exists outside the norms of capitalist society.

Doctorow does a wonderful job elaborating on these ideas throughout the novel, his characters having real motivations for what they do, and complex and all to humanly flawed personalities which clash with their own ideologies more often than not. Though the throws a lot of slang and terminology at you, he does a good job explaining most of it and fleshing out how his world works, why the walkaway society is great, but by no means perfect. With the power of efficient recycling and 3D printing, the society is one which seems enticing, if weird and alien to the world of default sensibilities. Ideas of owning nothing, and carrying little more than what you have on your back are not only rational, but with the power of printing, viable.

Though the story starts from Etcetera's perspective, it is largely that of Natalie's and her work in adapting to the walkaway lifestyle and the world. The other driving characters are Etcetera and Limpopo who all shape the story to one degree or another alongside others introduced later on.

Walkaway spans multiple years, but this is never clearly indicated between chapter breaks. I found myself getting lost in the plot a few times as suddenly we were years down the line and I had no indication of what had happened which jarred me from the story more than once. The slang and jargon often goes unexplained with you having to pick it up as you go along, which does work in most cases but was a bit confusing at times.

There is also very little preamble into the state of the world leading up to when people just walkaway and despite some mentions of wastelands or abandoned properties I found myself wondering how so much land simply got abandoned. With looks at climate change and mentions of bankruptcy and social disorder, I had some inkling, but much of the world was a little vague for my taste.

That said, I do have a certain thrill that 99% of the book takes place in Canada. Doctorow is a Canadian by birth, and the setting early on in and around Toronto and Niagara was a huge tug at my heartstrings. It made for a nicely familiar setting to me, with talk about some differences between Canada and the US, but also some delightful time shock as it examined the breakdown and atomization of society to this future norm where I scarcely would have recognized Canada of the later 21st century!

Doctorow also does wonders with the aspects of passive and non-violent resistance. Not that walkaways won't defend themselves, but they almost exclusively use non-lethal means, except against drones and that doesn't count. That is part of the walkaway ethos where people can't take something from you if it wasn't yours to begin with. The action in the book primarily revolves around this kind of retreat and technical battling against aggressive electronic warfare by the state. It made for many amazing action scenes in which, on many occasions, no one actually dies! A very different form of action from what I'm used to.

Like any good utopian fiction, it grapples with the flaws and pitfalls of the society it creates. Selfish people still exist and they can drag the whole thing down - no one really solves the free rider problem. There's also the benefits, and they do seem legion. The science fiction aspect of course also plays a role with the technology, with some very interesting ideas being bandied about.

Walkaway is a radical utopia with warts and all. Despite some difficulty jumping in, I did enjoy the story and the trajectory for these characters. It's a fascinating world with radical ideas and some beautiful character growth. Give this one some love.