It’s 2010. Staggeringly successful and brilliant tech entrepreneur Bix Bouton is desperate for a new idea. He’s forty, with four kids, and restless when he stumbles into a conversation with mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or “externalising” memory. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, Own Your Unconscious–that allows you access to every memory you’ve ever had, and to share every memory in exchange for access to the memories of others–has seduced multitudes. But not everyone.
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‘I have this craving’ Bix said as he stood beside the bed stretching out his shoulders and spine, a nightly ritual before lying down. ‘Just to talk’.
– The Affinity Charm – 1
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(@LittleBrownUK, 7 March 2023, paperback, 334 pages, bought from @bookshop_org_UK)
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I’m a fan of the author and really enjoyed The Candy House though the style and structure of the book took a while to get used to. The book uses a fragmented structure with chapters of varying length and style weaving through narratives of Bix and numerous people seduced and at times destroyed by Own Your Consciousness. I found it interesting that the various narratives don’t actually make any reference to Own Your Consciousness, so it took a few pages for me to get the thread of what was happening. This is a difficult book to get into but worth sticking with.
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