In Malka Older’s Centenal Cycle, a series of cyberpunk technothrillers beginning with Infomocracy, Information (think Google on steroids) balances the paradoxes of a global micro-democracy. Mishima and Ken face election fraud, man-made and natural disasters, and deadly espionage from powerful rogue governments, while kindling a romance. For fans of The West Wing, Person of Interest and Mr. Robot.
This year's qualifying book is the third book in the series, State Tectonics:
The future of democracy must evolve or die.
The last time Information held an election, a global network outage, two counts of sabotage by major world governments, and a devastating earthquake almost shook micro-democracy apart. Five years later it’s time to vote again, and the system that has ensured global peace for 25 years is more vulnerable than ever. Unknown enemies are attacking Information’s network infrastructure. Spies, former superpowers, and revolutionaries sharpen their knives in the shadows. And Information’s best agents question whether the data monopoly they’ve served all their lives is worth saving, or whether it’s time to burn the world down and start anew.
The previous works in the series are Infomocracy and Null States.