I am not a fan of science fiction but always like to read it from time to time to challenge my comfort zone. This book reminded me why I’m not a fan, but I will give a fair and honest review.

For those readers who love imaginary dystopian urban landscapes and social structures, this is an incredibly well-imagined and highly detailed world, right down to the names and descriptions of futuristic technologies and the language people use. That said, I wonder whether the liberal use of the hashtag and @sign for this future world’s social media will date it to the 2020s for future readers.

Plot and characters - this is where I struggled the most. Describing a divided society of the 90 percent with access to the best technologies and the ten percent “have-nots” forced to salvage from the detritus of old technologies such as cassettes and Walkmans in a series of vignettes, there is no plot as such, only descriptions of tensions and the threat of rebellion in what threatens to be an unfair war. Characters are defined by their position in the bell curve - ten percenters, seventy percenters and the top twenty percent, with the latter two groups being controlled, monitored and motivated by their access to the very best immersive technologies. This, unfortunately does not lead to interesting, engaging or memorable characters. The ten percenters come across as more interesting, authentic and creative, but we’re they engaging enough to sustain my interest throughout the story? Sadly not.

Whilst I appreciated the detail of thought and imagination that has gone into the creation of this dystopian story, it didn’t work for me. But then again neither did Lord of the Rings, so this might just be a case of the wrong book for the wrong reader. With thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

So much imagination and thought went into this book to make it sound plausible and frightening. Unfortunately, the story jumped around so much between character and drowned in tech that the impact of the story was lost. As the story is based in the future, none of the tech names were familiar so it was very much like reading a long list of initials. A brilliant plot idea but, for me, failed in execution. This will, however, appeal to those readers who enjoy high tech sci-fi.

I’ve had Lavanya Lakshminarayan’s Analog/Virtual on my TBR for a couple years, after seeing it recommended on a list of underrated speculative fiction from outside the US, UK, and Canada. But between prices being higher than domestic work and the lack of social media chatter, I never quite managed to move it to the top. So when I saw it was being released in the US under a new title, I knew I had the perfect chance to check out The Ten Percent Thief.

The Ten Percent Thief is a mosaic novel taking place in the dystopian successor of Bangalore, following its purchase by a meritocratic tech company and rebranding as Apex City. The twenty different chapters feature about that many perspective characters, although central figures from one chapter regularly make cameos in subsequent ones. There is a sense of progression from start-to-finish—primarily in the development of revolutionary activity among the “Analogs” at the bottom ten-percent of society who have been banned from making use of Apex City’s technology—but the novel is as much dystopian slice-of-life as it is anything else.

While The Ten Percent Thief may not have a driving plot or a small cast to focus the story, it offers plenty for fans of stories driven by theme or world. It’s no hard sci-fi dystopia—the tech is so advanced it may as well be magic, and little time is spent exploring its limitations—but it’s dedicated to showing every corner of Apex City and how the techno-meritocracy affects the lives of people from every social class. Perhaps it’s an exaggerated picture, but it’s not too many steps past plausible, with sharp satire of the horrifyingly calcified inequality forming in direct consequence to surface-level meritocratic societal organization.

The social prejudice and legal obstacles barring Analog advancement are perhaps the longest-running theme, but the course of the story sees it touch on censorship, groupthink, pregnancy discrimination, environmental myopia, social anxiety, and more. There’s a lot here, and none of it feels forced—every bit follows neatly from the organizing principles of society.

Different parts of the novel approach the themes in different ways, and I would group them into three general categories: Analog stories, character-focused Virtual slice-of-life, and zoomed-out Virtual society pieces. Personally, I found the Virtual slice-of-life chapters to be far-and-away the most effective. Lakshminarayan delivers heart-wrenchingly intimate portraits of Virtuals terrified of losing their place in society—or of trying to climb to the next rung on the societal ladder—that lay bare the world’s horrors while simultaneously generating a remarkable emotional attachment to relatively privileged figures only glimpsed for the space of a chapter. A novella with just these chapters, even without the connective tissue from the rest of the book, would be a must-read.

The connective tissue, on the other hand, is merely adequate. The Analogs are planning Revolution, and we see plenty of steps along the way, not shying back from even the most callous and cynical moments. It’s a fine story, but not particularly remarkable--I'm not at all convinced that the Virtual chapters don’t do a better job explaining the Analog world than the Analog chapters do.

Finally, there are the wide-lens Virtual society chapters, which get more frequent in the second half of the novel. These hit their themes hard, with more than a few moments of morbid hilarity. But they lack the pathos of the slice-of-life chapters, which can make it difficult to cut through the dizzying jargon to focus on the story itself. And because they don’t limit themselves to one perspective, the actions can sometimes feel disconnected, with the inner monologue cut away and the key developments viewed only from the perspectives of side characters. Furthermore, the zoomed-out view of society leads to more emphasis on the technology than on more personal interactions, prompting questions about Apex City’s technical limitations that the novel doesn’t seem especially interested in answering. Don’t get me wrong—these sections are plenty readable and certainly have their own virtues, they’re simply more uneven and not quite as powerful as the slice-of-life chapters.

All told, it's a novel that's absolutely worth your while, even if it has its ups and downs. The worldbuilding is more interested in the personal fallout than the tech details, but it delivers a chilling and often all-too-plausible portrait of a city that values production to such an extent that it organizes its whole society around staying out of the bottom 10%. There's enough overarching plot for readers who want to feel something has changed over the course of the book, but this is not a plotty book. It's the intimate, slice-of-life sections that really shine and are worth the price of admission all on their own. Not every chapter is a wild success, but there's more good than mediocre and very little bad.

Recommended if you like: theme-heavy books, dystopias, slice-of-life.

Overall rating: 16 of Tar Vol's 20. Four stars on Goodreads.

I ate this book up today. Started it a little before noon and finished it a little after 9. I spent this day wandering through the world of Apex City- formerly Bangalore- and experiencing the ins and outs of its dystopian future.

The Ten Percent Thief is described as a "mosaic" novel. Each chapter is a story that digs a little deeper into the world of Apex City and its two populations- the wealthy and powerful Virtuals and the poor and oppressed Analogs. Many of the stories that unfold are complex and nuanced. The world-building is interesting and the flow of the book tells a story without a ton of narrative.

The end of the book isn't as strong as the beginning, but on the whole the book is really good.

The only story I really didn't like was the one about the woman who has uploads a program into her brain that tries to break her and her boyfriend up, otherwise the stories are by turns interesting, amusing, and horrifying.

I really, really enjoyed this book.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book as the topic isn't really the kind of thing I would normally read. My usual go-to I s some kind of thriller mystery, with a variation on the usual theme of missing person/murder and who did what.

Its actually a collection of sort of connected short stories, all involving residents in the same time and place, where now the city is divided into two halves based on their productivity and merit to society. The Digitials have access to technology and water and are striving to make the elite 20% with access to the best opportunities, travel and property ownership. Meanwhile the unproductive are demoted rot analog, a poor side of town where they don't have access to basic amenities and can only enter the salubrious digital side to work. If you fail there, there is the dreaded "Vegetable Farm"

I was hooked from the first story, both for the way the stories draw you in, wanting to know more about the good and the bad. And for the fact that when you look a little more its not a million miles away from our current society with the well off wanting to travel more and own better property and tech, and the less well off just wanting enough to live a good life and have things a bit better than they have through no fault of their own.

I'd recommend this book to anyone. The fact its short stories made it an ideal read for the train each morning and I was always hoping I could squeeze one more in before my stop.
5 stars!

I could not relate to this book at all. The concept of a society being decided on meritocracy sounded a good topic, however I could not come to grips with it . The story has been well written but there is follow upon characters as they are really disjointed short stories and I prefer to get to grips with characters., this may suit a person who follows social media where short sharp relationships form the basis. .The write up of those that have and those that have not in aspect of technology really appealed to me and although there was sound ideas of what the two societies were like and how the people improved I did not get a strong feeling of even a possible reality which is what I like in this genre.
I am sorry to say that this was not a book for me but I feel that it is a book that like Marmite you obviously like or dislike with no real in between.

Enjoyable science fiction dystopia, told through interlinked short stories- some barely a few pages, others longer and able to build more character whilst threading the long term plot throughout.

The end is perhaps a little obvious from the off, but that didn’t matter to me - it’s the journey that I enjoyed. Great world building, complex concepts introduced and allowed to build, and a satisfying resolution.

Glad this has been translated and brought to wider attention.

Wow this book really gets you thinking. It’s set in the not too distant future where the haves (the Virtuals) live within a protected bubble - literally - where their whole existence is about maximising their time, health, talents for the better good of the corporation who own the city. The Analogues live outside the bubble and don’t have access to the ‘perfect’ world on their doorstep. However the reader’s sympathies are quite quickly drawn to the Analogues and their fight to live despite the difficulties of extreme weather, no digital help, no access to healthy food and no healthcare. This book is a wake up call to us now. I liked the use of different chapters to highlight the various characters’ lives which all coalesced as the book reached its dramatic climax. I understand this book was first published in India but it has a freshness which felt as if it had only just launched to the market. A great imagination combined with good writing - thank you Lavanya Lakshminarayan.

Set in what was Bangalore, now known as Apex city, in the not-too-distant future. Society is divided into separate classes with the people at the top having access to the most advance VR technology, and those at the bottom having barley any electricity. The citizens of Apex city are kept in line by a system of merit. Those with the highest productivity, talent and culture are promoted to the top. Those who are deemed less valuable are demoted and deported. A kind of modern take on the Orwellian thought police.
This book explores a lot of modern ideas. Like how technology keeps people in line and the threat of losing it can be a form of control. How society values some forms of merit over others. Or how always striving for productivity has a dehumanising effect.
It's written as a series of loosely connected short stories with each chapter following a different character. The characters are very varied in terms of age, occupation and social status. This paints a clear picture of all the aspects of Apex city from a diverse set of perspectives. The only downside to this style of narrative is there is no single protagonist that you follow all the way throughout the book.

So, interesting ideas if you come at it from a philosophical perspective.

"The Ten Percent Thief" by Lavanya Lakshminarayan is a mosaic novel set in a dystopian future where cities are run by companies and is told as a series of loosely interconnected stories. We witness the state and eventual fall of Apex city, formerly Bangalore and a consumerist heaven/hell, depending on who you ask. There you can be either living as part of the system as a "Virtual" citizen or - if you fail or refuse to be part of the productivity machine - you live as an "Analog", in precarious existence without any of the conveniences and security of modern society (like running water, sufficient nutrition or a perspective for the future).

Using stories instead of one narrative is a bold and confident approach that really relies on inspired and strong writing, and wow, does Lavanya Lakshminarayan deliver! The way she wields words, phrases and ideas is a joy to behold and I just enjoyed the ride. Not only does she have a way with words, her observations reveal razor-sharp insight into the pitfalls of our current society. The way our consumerist society, aided by social media, not only shapes, but also creates a world with a constant need to for self-optimization in order to consume even more.

The stories are told from the perspectives of Analogs as well as Virtuals and paint a rich and detailed picture of a society that is so clearly destined to fail as it veers more and more away from what humans actually need to thrive and becomes a victim of its own hype. There is a dark and twisted humour ever present that does a great job of pointing the finger just where it hurts.

I also noticed that music in all its different forms is a recurrent theme that follows several of the narrative strings and I had a strong impression that the author has a close connection to music herself.

My favourite story must be Analog/Virtual with its hysterically funny depiction of a woman who has to do her own, actual grocery shopping - an activity mostly unheard of for Virtual citizens. Living through that experience with her is just a bit of incredible writing and I felt like I wanted to highlight every other sentence.

I am so very happy to have picked this up and will keep an eye out for whatever Lavanya Lakshminarayan puts out next. (Honestly, I find it hard to believe that this is a debut!)

I have received an advance review copy via NetGalley from the publisher and voluntarily provide my honest opinion. Thank you very much!

I'm probably not the target audience for this. I'm more interested in the literary end of sci-fi/dystopia. This book foregrounds world building and lengthy descriptions of tech rather than character and story so if that appeals it might be good for you.

For me it's a DNF - shame because I love the premise.

Apex city, a near future dystopia, where your position on the Bell curve determines your access to luxuries. If you are amongst the top 20% life is perfect, you have technology, electricity, running water, holidays. The bottom 10% live a hard, broken, and cruel existence. Something has to change, vive la Revolution!....I loved the concept, not so keen on the delivery. Maybe I wasn't the target audience.

This had such an interesting premise, but it had too much world specific jargon that was just a changed version of Instagram etc. that was jarring to read. I got half way through but there was no plot driver and an ever changing cast of characters with no central point of view. This just lost momentum and my interest. I am sorry. I wanted to love this but it just became self indulgent and aimless. It had interesting intentions but no emotional connection. If it had suck to a central character or been dual narrative it would have been great.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read it and sorry it didn't connect with me.

I really wanted to enjoy this book but I found it hard to get into. The changing perspectives were difficult to get used to. The central premise - corporations taking over entire cities and forcing capitalism on a population under the guise of a meritocracy was interesting. I may just not have been the right audience for the narrative. I may try and pick it up again in the future.

I usually prefer character-led novels, rather than being engaged by plot or world-building, so I wasn't sure how The Ten Percent Thief would work out for me. It's comprised of lots of separate stories, with different POVs (some first-person, some third-person), and whilst some names reappear as the narrative progresses, we don't revisit anyone's viewpoint. However, I found myself really engaged with the world presented. This book gets very dark in tone, and is made darker still as it seems so plausible. This plausibility made this a very interesting and quietly terrifying read. I'll definitely be thinking about certain aspects for a while to come.

This one sadly wasn’t for me…. I do love a dystopian novel but I just couldn’t gel with this one. Perhaps I will give it a go another time. A DNF at 8%. Don’t let that put you off though!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Ten Percent Thief is a novel that was originally published in India as Analog/Virtual in 2020 and which is now being published in the West by Solaris/Rebellion in March 2023. The novel was hyped up by a few authors I like, and carries a dystopian science fiction premise: what if, in the future, a society/city is organized as per a bell curve, with privileges and technology - particularly technology based upon internet and virtual tech - offered foremost to those higher on the curve - your top 20%ers (or higher) - and almost everything denied to the bottom ten percent. So of course society is organized as per "merit"....but who decides what is meritorious and how is it all enforced is of course the devil in the details.

It's a fascinating book, told in chapters that are each their own vignettes, such that the book tells a number of stories even as it moves overall general story of the city, Apex City, forward from one story to another. And this works tremendously well as it shows the dystopian ways Apex City keeps and tries to keep its citizens both "productive" and socially desirable according to its preconcieved notions and shows how the people cast out of it, the Analogs, struggle to survive, build their own society under its noses, and to resist. Not any part of this story is subtle, but the book's stories cover an incredibly wide scope as it examines society, satirizes attributes of our own society in hilarious but dark ways. The result is really really good, and I highly recommend this.



-----------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------
Apex City is the ideal society, a society that has come through the dark days of the past to be based solely upon merit, with society's benefits going towards those who most deserve them. The top one percent most meritous - as determined by an algorithm judging productivity and social tastes - have access to the best technology and privileges, the remaining members of the top twenty percent have access to most of this tech and privileges, and the next seventy percent - everyone above the bottom 10% - gets to live under the technology of the Sunshield Umbrella, protecting them all from UV radiation and the Earth's harsh climate, all the while they stil get to enjoy most of the benefits of the latest in virtual and cyber technology. They are the Virtuals, and as long as they keep their merit above that of the bottom 10%, they will prosper.

And then there are the bottom ten percent, the Analogs, people who are not productive or valuable to society, who are cast off or left to be born and live outside the Umbrella, in the suffering heat, with no access to virtual technology...and who are forced to make do with things like paper money, old cell phones (if they still work), dangerous water, cassette tapes, and outdated medicine. The Analogs continue to exist thanks to the mercy of civilized society...and to serve as laborers and to be harvested as punishment for their organs or body parts for the use by Virtuals who deserve them more.

Apex City is a truly Just and Wondrous society. And yet despite that, Nayaka, the Analog woman known as the Ten Percent Thief, is about to make her most daring heist of Virtual technology yet - a tree that she plants at the center of Analog society. And alongside that tree will grow a spark, a spark that will give birth to a revolution like no Virtual could ever expect, which will result in a drastic shift in society to come.....
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I spend so much time talking about the setup and setting in the plot summary above because The Ten Percent Thief doesn't really have one overarching plotline. The story is split into 20 vignettes/short-stories, taking place on both sides of the Meridian that divides the Virtuals and Analogs, with each story generally showing some new aspect to life in the two versions of society that reflects the system and the injustice that centers it. The overall story does move forward with each story, with characters from one story recurring as more minor characters in later ones, and the events at the heart of each story being affected by events in prior ones, such that the ending of the story is (and this is hardly a surprise so I don't mind "spoiling") the revolution that is sparked by the first chapter and mentioned as major parts of middle and later chapters, but that overall arc of things is honestly less interesting or even the point than how each chapter disects the injustice of a society built like this...a society that can easily be seen as the endpoint of certain human trends or ideas by certain oligarchs or billionaires (and well, how it seems an extension of caste systems like India's is almost certainly not a coincidence).

And these stories cover so so so much in each chapter. So the first covers of course the titular Thief and how she tries her best to be a robin hood like character in stealing from the Virtuals for the sake of the Analogs, which is far easier than it should be. And then you've got a story about how a technology given to a person who has analog roots but wants to rise in Virtual society is a robot that electroshocks him whenever he starts having bad ideas or thoughts, such that his personal tastes match that of the centralized ideal at the end of it (divergence in even those of course is unacceptable). You have the Virtual member of the middle 70% whose productivity drops after their mother dies, leading them to be forced to have a taste of analog life - oh my god having to physically go out and exert oneself to get food and thrive - as a way to ensure he doesn't fall further and be cast out; You have a girl forced to take virtual children on an automated tram tour through Analog society so she can make what she knows is false propaganda about them to ensure they don't become Analog sypathtizers; you have an Analog girl adopted by a Virtual set of parents who is not allowed to use the technology and finds herself shunned and discriminated against as she tries to pass the tests to get full privileges...and to become an accomplished pianist without the musical aids that other virtual kids have...and she has it better by far than other adoptees.

I could list all 20 scenarios here but finding out what is next and what are the next concepts is just as fascinating as reading them, because while each short vignette doesn't last long, and isn't necessarily followed up on (although they are followed up on in less direct ways), they are all done so incredibly well at exploring pretty much every result of this society being put into place. And they're both entertaining and sometimes funny all the while being horrifying at the same time, like the best dystopian satires (a chapter involving two different technologies and ideas, one social and one meant to save the environment, is utterly outrageously funny such that I do not want to spoil it by giving any hint as to its premise). Most books with dystopian settings do not really explore the implications of how these societies must work and how they function, or how they affect various peoples at various levels - The Ten Percent Thief tries to explore all of them and it does so so so well. The way it explores technology and privilege and oppression in the name of merit is all incredibly relatable, applicable and understandable to the modern reader, and the book cuts no corners in exploring and showing how this could be built, how horrifying it can be, how it could come crumbling down...and how it might come rising back up again through no bad intent whatsoever.

Not sure how to say more here without spoiling parts of the experience, so I'll just say: An absolute stunner and a Must Read, and an easy recommend for basically everyone.

I am now a reader reborn. This is the form I want all of my dystopian novels delivered in now. 9/10 times I read this genre I am underwhelmed with the worldbuilding, as it is either not developed or explained on a page in unreasonable detail. The connected short stories avoid this issue and create a coherent, detailed world that I found incredibly interesting. It fit together so neatly I was absolutely ready to accept even the silliest ideas. I think the author had a very good grasp of what they wanted to achieve with each theme and plot point and it transferred beautifully into the writing.
I'd recommend this book to people who are not too much into character-based novels, people who are tired of sci fi and dystopia trying to be serious and triggering at every page, and readers who catch themselves wishing they could see the other pov of the short story they are reading.

I was offered this book as an ARC via NetGalley and the premise reminded me a little of 'Q' by Christina Dalcher. Now I am aware that I didn't give that book a high score either so you may wonder why I bothered trying this one. The truth is that I do think there is an opportunity for a good story in this kind of dystopian setting (I do love a good dystopia) however this one failed to hit the mark for me too. In places it reminded me a bit of the TV series 'Black Mirror' which I do like but I feel that this book will appeal far more to those who are big on social media. I found this novel a bit too erratic for my taste and there were times where I wasn't sure what the author was advocating as a replacement social structure. Perhaps I am just getting old!

This science fiction novel from an Indian writer is made up of a group of separate stories and characters which gradually interlink to reach an exciting conclusion. It’s cleverly done and, as a reader, you’re quickly drawn in.

The premise of the novel is that the advanced world has developed to such an extent along meritocratic lines that those who have the technology are locked in competition with one another to have the status which brings rewards both in virtual realities and devices. The world of these ‘Virtual’ individuals exist to serve the elusive Bell Corporation which owns and operates a series of cities.

Outside the city is where the ‘Analogs’ live. They live in relative poverty and are harshly repressed, even occasionally harvested for their organs. However, there are revolutionary movements stirring in this situation which eventually come to fruition as the virtual world reveals its vulnerabilities.

It’s a good dystopia, underlining how technology can come to control and shape people making them dependent on devices, competitive at work yet, ultimately, losing any sense of autonomy and control. Seeing an adult who has lost his or her mobile shows that we are not that far away from this situation!

The Analogs fight back by hacking the systems which provide for the Virtuals and infiltrating the shield which guards the Virtual city. As resilient and adaptable human beings they have the upper hand!

Throughout the story, there’s lots of almost satiric detail and comment about devices and technology which the Virtuals aspire to and think will bring them happiness and success. All in all, it’s a great read.