84K is the latest work from the award-winning Claire North and is also her most exciting work so far.
An anti-utopian fiction set in a near future, it extrapolates current British politics to an utterly bleak (and seemingly inevitable) conclusion. A world in which freedom is just another word and every life has a price tag, assessed, stamped and added to a spreadsheet. The story revolves around a man who is called Theo Miller. He works at the Criminal Audit Office, an organisation owned by The Company. But then everything is.
Theo’s life is one spent under the radar, never running too fast or raising his voice. He assesses the cost of individual crimes for a living. This is a world where those with little or no money are sent to work menial roles to pay off the cost of the simplest misdemeanours. It also means that those who can pay can pretty much do what they like. Inevitably, he finds himself in a situation where the books cannot be balanced, and his past, long held in check, drives him to act.
It is a thrilling read; taut and well balanced. This is both literary fiction and science fiction, in the same vein as A Handmaids Tale or 1984. (Books can, of course, be more than one genre; those who tell you otherwise are trying to sell you something.). Given the title, comparisons to Orwell’s 1984 are inevitable, and though there are some strong similarities in tone and approach, North’s writing is brighter, sharper and much more engaging than Orwell’s.
The narrative is tighter and though the tone and message are just as bleak, the story is more resonant and relevant. 84K has the advantage of being a new story set in a recognisable world, of course, but it every bit as thought-provoking as other dystopian classics such as Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World.
There is no Big Brother in North’s world; instead, The Company fills the omnipresent space. Theo Miller is a deeper and more motivated character than Winston Smith and so on. There are parallels, certainly but 84K is more relevant, more vital and much harder to ignore. It’s also much, much angrier. There’s a real rage underneath the page, a powerful stab at current heartlessness and greed of our modern world. This makes the work truly gripping.
This is a dystopian anthem for the modern activist, a warning of an all too near future and a wake-up call for anyone who believes justice should not come with a price tag. 84K is an important book but also a cracking thriller and a great bit of near-future speculative fiction. Quite simply, North’s best book so far, and given how brilliant The Sudden Appearance of Hope and The Fifteen Lives of Harry August are, that is saying a lot.
84K / AUTHOR: CLAIRE NORTH / PUBLISHER: ORBIT / RELEASE DATE: MAY 24TH
