We don’t often review books at TechCrunch, let alone fiction, but occasionally a work comes along that’s been so carefully tuned to the ecosystem we cover that it warrants a quick publication. And here we have it “Exadelic” A sci-fi novel by former TC contributor John Evans, which does its best to match the referential density of “Ready Player One” in the Bay Area tech community, but thankfully also sets its sights a little higher than that.
Now, let’s first admit that this is not a completely free comparison. The astonishing success of Ernest Cline was rich in reference but deficient in other respects, although perhaps its greatest problem was its ardent supporters, who could not see how narrowly the book was designed to fit their own life experience and how hollow the experience might be for others.
So if “Ready Player One but Silicon Valley” sounds like it puts horror above horror, that’s understandable – and to some extent accurate. But while Exadelic is certainly a liberal film with its name-dropping and nostalgia well beyond the point of setting, the plot quickly transcends its early reliance on insider nods and winks.
At the risk of spoiling little more than what you might find on your dust jacket, imagine if you and your group of friends found yourselves at the center of a deep technological conspiracy driven by artificial intelligence that could determine the fate of the planet. It’s not the most original hypothesis, but believe me when I say that the scope is constantly and unpredictably expanding.
The first few chapters play out like a tech thriller – where a tech executive must survive on his limited intelligence after being targeted by a rogue AI – and frankly I was afraid it would continue that way. Fortunately, the plot starts rolling early and never stops, allowing Evans to exercise his imagination more effectively.
To say more would deny the potential reader the pleasure of a quirky book deeply rooted in today’s technological and ethical zeitgeist. Out-of-control artificial intelligence, unscrupulous venture capital, and questioning the nature of reality drive the plot — in other words, the same concepts you’ll find in any week of reporting here at TechCrunch. There’s even a touch of magic!
(It’s worth noting that sexual assault of some sort is central to part of the book, and it’s something that in retrospect I feel didn’t have to be that way, even if it was some kind of trance philosophy reference.)
And while I think “Exadelic” is a great book to take with you on a flight or to the beach, I think the reason it fails is its over-reliance on the zeitgeist at the height of technology in the Bay Area. And that’s an advantage too—it draws on Evans’ unmistakable familiarity with the world of startups, technology, and investing, not to mention turn-of-the-century San Francisco, all things that many readers will appreciate and appreciate.
But there is a certain amount of subjectivity inherent in extrapolating such an expanded story from what amounts to a single moment and perspective. As in a 1960s science fiction work that imagined a future built on tube televisions and analog computing, the vision seems constrained by technology and today’s situations. Imagine you have a computer in the year 3000 that relies on a mouse and keyboard – it just seems out of sync with the imagination presented elsewhere.
Of course many classic sci-fi works transcend this, but Exadelic seems content to be a product of its time, finding value in imaginatively mixing and matching these concepts to create an original work. Flippingif not original Mix. If you can bear a little nostalgia and a main-character rant (his buddies are far more interesting), then Exadelic is a fun ride.