It is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish reality from computer-generated mystifications. Virtual reality and augmented reality are in a sense everyday things. The next step is the dystopia to which Mj Douglas leads us, a place that seems lively, colourful and vibrant, but only because everyone sees it through the rose-tinted glasses of virtual reality, which does not allow them to realise that the streets are full of rubbish, the cars rust, the roofs leak and the food consists of completely tasteless nutrient cubes. It is the Corporate Network, the one against which Maria struggles, a struggle in which she will lose her wife, who will die in her place, her daughter, who will become estranged from her, and finally even her granddaughter, on whom she placed all her hopes.
Remaining alone, Maria, by means of a complicated game of identities recreated through artificial intelligence, will use the very thing she has always fought against to achieve victory.
A truly interesting novel, which unfolds in a circular fashion through Maria's various incarnations, until the final revelation.

What an interesting and disturbing story. As our society relies on computers with increasing dependency, the ideas presented in Augmented are alarming. Reality has much that isn't attractive, to think people would screen out reality..... Yikes.

This was an entertaining cyberpunkish dystopian story with very relatable main characters. One an aging hacker with a chip on her shoulder against the authoritarian rules of future America. Another is a quasi luddite grandmother reluctantly dragged into the world of tech. There is some timeline hopping that introduces a third character and provides for some of the plot tension and relationship drama that was actually well done (speaking as somebody that normally doesn’t like drama). Most of the character interaction was designed to highlight the dark corners of the world … where technology has become a means to escape the oppressive reality with virtual (VR) and augmented (AR) versions … with the focus here on augmentation (I hope that is not a surprise). The focus was what really drew me in … imagine you have a chip in your head that overlays an augmented vision that whitewashing the dilapidated and decaying infrastructure around you to make everything pretty. You could hide almost anything in such a world and it is such an addiction that even the dregs of society are willing to submit to monitoring by the authorities just so that can get free (if limited) access to that world. Of course, not everybody is on board … and some are working to be free (enter an extreme version of the Free State Project) that are still suffering the consequences of such rebellion. While there are a few aspects of the story that strength rational belief, the author does a great job balancing between fantasy and plausibility to prove an interesting mental exercise that pulls at my techie heart and keeps me into the story.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#Augmented #NetGalley #KindleUnlimited

I found this book very interesting and enjoyable, even though I didn't entirely understand what happened when the perspective shifted abruptly from Chris and Anita to Maria. All three of these characters are likeable and somewhat relatable, and maybe I just need to think about what happened a little more before I fully get it. I nonetheless found the idea of an augmented reality world where everyone opts in to a tricked out visual experience fascinating. It's not hard to imagine how people would start to let the aesthetics of the real world slide. I'm not sure why people would opt to let food look good but taste bad though. It's not that food isn't available, Maria was able to buy cookies that she passed off as home baked, implying it's possible to bake. And there were potatoes growing in Kansas. Anyway, nitpicking aside, it's good exploration of a somewhat plausible technological future.