Monday, August 17, 2015

The Affinities

The Affinities
by Robert Charles Wilson
Tor, New York, 2015. 300 pp. Fiction

In dire financial straits and facing the prospect of having to return to his backwater home town and much estranged family, Adam Fisk decides to take a battery of psychological tests to determine if he qualifies to join a revolutionary set of social groups called Affinities. He soon finds himself a member of the Tau Affinity, one of the largest of the twenty two cliques, and soon finds himself prospering due to this new network of like-minded people. As the various Affinities grow in size and influence, their financial and political clout threaten to destabilize states and societies. The plot takes off quickly and the story is a true page turner throughout. The author nicely plays with the themes of identity, the evolving nature of relationships and how social media and technology allow for increasingly specialized social groups to emerge.

CHW

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