In the cordless modern world, the LoveStar Corporation has control of nearly every aspect of human life, including death (thanks to the LoveDeath division). When the Bird and Butterfly Division discovered that data (including advertisements) could be transmitted via birdwaves, the cordless modern man was born.

“When the solar wind was favorable, the Northern Lights would appear, first as a thin as an oily film, then dancing and fluttering as if someone had drawn a blue-green brain scan in the sky.”

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With their pure love as a distraction from the modern world, Indridi and Sigrid have given up being cordless modern employees. Their life is as sweet as honey until the day that LoveStar’s inLOVE division calculates them as not being a perfect match. Meanwhile, LoveStar, the founder of the massive corporate giant, is fighting against the inevitability of ideas; ideas that could shatter the cordless modern world.

Why is this on our bookshelf?

As well as being a 2012 Philip K. Dick Award nominee, LoveStar is a fantastic science fiction novel with a poetic flair. Although I’ve read plenty of books depicting the near-future, none of them stand out as much as Magnason’s cordless modern world and the repercussions of freedom from wires and devices.

Rating (5 stars)

If I could read Icelandic, I’m sure I would have read this years ago when it was published in 2002. Thanks to translator Victoria Cribb, I had the chance to read this amazing book in English.

Magnason’s imaginative vision of the future is refreshing and unique. Equally powerful is his commentary on the commercialization of ideas. The plot and prose is neatly wrapped up in a strangely poetic fashion that adds an air of plausible surrealism.

If that sounds contradictory, read the book. “Plausible surrealism” was only description I came up with that seemed to fit.