In the second book of the Zoey Ashe series, we find ourselves back in Tabula Ra$a, complete with the creepy social network that sees everything, the villains enhanced with freaky tech, and as always, power players plotting to overthrow the new crime princess at every turn.
Zoey Ashe may have inherited her father’s criminal empire, but that doesn’t mean she knows how to run it. For every good deed she does, another element from her father’s past misdeeds pops up, threatening to unravel everything she’s worked for so far. Still, she moves forward, doing her best to bring some semblance of equality and justice to the strange lawless city she now lives in.
Just when things seem to be going right, for a change, a giant trunk is delivered to her mansion. It’s shocking enough when a disemboweled corpse is discovered inside. But it’s downright terrifying when it lurches to life and rampages through her house, determined to kill her. The corpse accuses her of murdering it and within no time at all, a huge public bounty is plastered all over Blink, promising a giant cash reward for anyone who can provide proof of the corpse’s claim.
Determined to prove her innocence, Zoey orders her people to solve the crime. But every clue takes her deeper into the nefarious web of her father’s criminal enterprise, all while the city of Tabula Ra$a threatens to descend into unfettered chaos. Zoey is sure she didn’t do it, but she’s less sure her people didn’t, which makes proving her innocence a lot trickier than she thought.
This book is the second in the series, but the way they’re written, it isn’t necessary to read them in order. That said, reading Futuristic Violence And Fancy Suits makes the transition into understanding the world Wong has built a little easier. It also gives a proper introduction to the characters and how they all came together. The brilliance of Wong’s writing though, makes Futuristic Violence read as a prequel if read second or the beginning if it’s read first. So really, there is no wrong way to tackle this series, as long as it’s tackled.
To anyone new to David Wong, his books are sci-fi satire. That doesn’t make them devoid of heavy content, or shy away from important societal issues. In fact, Zoey Punches The Future does exactly both of those things, diving into heavy topics in a way that almost makes them palatable. They’re exaggerated, comical, and crude. But it makes examining topics like power structure and the banality of evil easier. Morality. Ethics. These are tricky topics and pulling them apart until they’re warped and distended allows us to dive deep into all the shades of grey while maintaining our distance. Levity is not just an artistic choice here, it’s a necessity.
By presenting these issues in farcical, fantastical ways, they become digestible. Wong takes the disgusting nature of things like sexism and pares it down to its crudest edges. He doesn’t try to explain them, instead he highlights the absurd logic these viewpoints follow, making the pointed statement that there is nothing intellectual or reasonable about these beliefs at all. To be clear, this doesn’t make them comfortable. Reading about a group of men hell-bent on mocking Zoey on her weight, her intelligence, her existence as a woman is repulsive. But the crude comedy makes these viewpoints the butt of the joke, giving Zoey the upper hand. He doesn’t ask us to feel sorry for her because it’s assumed she’s not only above it but will find a way to overcome their hate. They’re a nuisance, but she has an empire to run and a crime to solve.
Wong also tackles the complications of our culture in broad strokes. On the surface, the superficiality is laid bare. We worship our social media feeds, making celebrities out of the individuals who can bring us the most tantalising stories, even at the expense of the individuals victimised by it. It’s an interesting conversation about how we don’t need a government mandate to bring about a surveillance state. We’re perfectly willing to subscribe to being perpetually watched for our own entertainment. The dangers are the same, but it’s far more difficult to be mad when we sign up for it willingly.
In that same tone, Zoey Punches The Future also dissects technology. There are a lot of gadgets turned weaponry, with the implications of how things like implants or the constant presence of streaming can be both perverse and dangerous. But it also tackles the complications of role-playing games and the role they could play as virtual reality and other immersive technology comes to fruition. What could it mean if there are entire economies built and maintained within a virtual space? And how could those consequences bleed into the real world? These are the layers Wong weaves within his layers of satire.
But the satire serves another purpose as well. It executes the most important aspect of a magician pulling off a complicated trick. We’re so busy looking at the satire, even being offended by it, that we miss the underlying message of hope. Negativity may get views and likes. It may be all anyone talks about, but this warped view of measurable metrics isn’t always the whole story. Most of the time it isn’t even a fraction of the story. It’s a powerful message in this digital age, where pile-ons and misinformation can run rampant. Even the blatant misogyny Zoey endures is the same sort of trick. We’re outraged on her behalf, as we should be, but in reacting, we put all our attention and focus on that one element, missing anything that doesn’t fall into that specific narrative.
Navigating this difference between virtual and reality is daunting. The loudest detractors in one, may be the minority in the other. And vice versa. And sometimes neither. It gets harder and harder to tell the difference between what we see and what we know. Loudness can be a sign of momentum or a brash tool used to detract from the quiet hope surrounding a silent majority. The more we rely on technology, the less we can trust what we’re watching. Is it a truth being uncovered? Or a hoax played for views? Or simply a piece of the truth, amplified because it plays for better ratings? As we shift towards this immersive world where success, and to a lesser degree truth, is measured by the rate of consumption, it’s a harrowing warning. It’s easy to brush off Tabula Ra$a as ludicrous. But take away the dark humour, and we get the harsh examination of technology and its chilling implications for society.
The Zoey Ashe series is loud, brash, and completely unapologetic for being both. Fans of Chuck Palahniuk and Reed King will love the series, along with Wong’s other books, as will anyone who delights in the darker side of satire in general. It’s a wild ride with unpredictable twists and turns. We root for the unexpected and find meaning in the meaningless. It’s a brilliant spotlight, highlighting all the ways reliance on technology can go wrong while illuminating the endless paths for power to corrupt. And yet, for all the darkness, all the vulgarity, Zoey Punches The Future ends on a surprisingly hopeful note. Humanity may have its weak points, but human problems require human solutions. And, perhaps we’re not doomed after all.
Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
The latest–and greatest–sci-fi thriler in the Zoey Ashe Series.
Nightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements. An all-seeing social network that tracks your every move. Mysterious, smooth-talking power players who lurk behind the scenes. A young woman suddenly in charge of the most decadent city in the world–and her very smelly cat.
Zoey Ashe is like a fish so far out of water that it has achieved orbit. She finds herself struggling to establish rule over a sprawling empire while Tabula Ra$a’s rogue’s gallery of larger-than-life crime bosses and corrupt plutocrats smell weakness. Tensions brew across the city.
A steamer trunk-sized box arrives at Zoey’s door, and she and her bodyguard Wu are shocked to find that it contains a disemboweled corpse, and even more shocked when that corpse, controlled by an unknown party, rises from the box and goes on a rampage through the house. After being subdued, it speaks in an electronic voice, accusing Zoey of being its murderer. Soon, it makes the same claim to the public at large, along with the promise of a cash reward for proof that Zoey and the Suits are behind the crime.
Now Zoey is having doubts of her own: Is she 100% sure that someone on her team didn’t do this? She also doesn’t even have a complete list of what businesses she owns, or what exact laws her organization is still breaking. So what does she really know?
