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.
