This book was just spewing examples of how everything in society is bad. It felt like reading a disorganized catalog. This was not for me. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Love it, love it, love!
The writing, world-building, interactions, emotions, plots, and twists!
I was hearing about the book and needless to say, the discussions about it were very much deserved!

What an intricate near future dystopia Basu has created in this novel. A compelling yet utterly horrifying influencer future where everything is edited, processed and manipulated to present the most appealing message to a chosen demographic. May be closer the reality than we think.

The City Inside is a weird book to review because while I liked it, I had a hard time getting into it. We get dropped into this near-future dystopia and have to figure everything out from there.

Things happened, but I did not get a sense of an actual plot.

The characters grew on me by the end, and I think they were well written.

*finishes book and proceeds to glare suspiciously at Alexa device*

What an absolute mindfuck that was. There's something very eerie about dystopian speculative fiction books that show not just a very near future but a very possible future...like disturbingly possible. If you like the show Black Mirror, this book is absolutely your cup of tea.

There are a lot of concepts addressed in this book: religion, politics, social media, technology, culture, morality, feminism - you name it, it's probably in here somewhere. It's a lot to take in, almost claustrophobic at times, but from what I gathered, that's kind of the point. We live in a world of moving parts that are changing and gaining speed at an exponential rate - it's no surprise that the type of future presented would leave you at least a little anxious and disoriented.

I really appreciated that the prose and narrative accentuated that congested feeling in how it was written. There was almost an overabundance of long-winded complex sentences and hyphenated compound words that left me reeling and a little overwhelmed. But again, that's the point.

This isn't a book with a traditional "story" that includes a beginning, middle, and end. Instead, it's more like a quick glance in a perfectly angled mirror pointing to what our world could look like with just a little push. I can see why some might not enjoy that as much - especially because we're not given much of an emotional connection to the characters. Their morals, interests, and interpersonal relationships aren't the focus here - they're just players in the game of life. We're not looking at the individual pieces; we're zooming out to look at the board in its entirety, and the characters only exist to show how the game is played.

This particular portion of the game is in India, under the umbrella of a tumultuous political/cultural landscape already very much underway in the present day. If you don't understand the ongoing disputes, I recommend reading up on it first because it'll help connect some dots and reinforce how real this future could be.

Overall, I thought this was a fascinating read! Basu does an excellent job of creating a future in what I would call a conceptual uncanny valley, and I'm excited to read another of his works.

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I liked the concept of this book and I really like the cover. But the story was a bit messy and I didn't care for the characters and what happened to them and I feel like I missed a lot of background to some threads in the story. I would have liked a lot more background and some more information about the world. But it was okay and I did enjoy reading it for the most part.

3.5

Unfortunately this didn't live up to my hopes. I loved the near-future setting and world-building (can I use that word for sci-fi instead of fantasy?) but ultimately it felt like the story just meandered and I didn't care what happened with anyone involved. Would try the author again in the future.

“As the art and science of manipulation come to be better understood, the dictators of the future will doubtless learn to combine [techniques of propaganda] with the non-stop distractions which, in the West, are now threatening to drown in a sea of irrelevance the rational [information] essential to the maintenance of individual liberty.”

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

Throughout my reading I was trying to think - which novel does this remind me of? Samit Basu’s The City Inside had all the classic elements of landmark dystopian novels. The government overreach was reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984. In Basu’s New Delhi, the citizens are closely monitored for dissonance through body tattoos/implants disguised as self care, informants, social media, and even the household toaster. The over inundation of social media and immediate so-called solutions to “soothe anxiety” in New Delhi called back to brainwashing of the masses in Huxley’s Brave New World. New Delhi's citizens are wrapped up with the social media personalities known as Flowstars. Their lives are streamed nearly 24/7 to the public, but their image and identities are closely managed and fine tuned to the minutest detail to the wishes of their sponsors to maximize engagement. History, even the most recent history of New Dehli, is not to be spoken of or taught. The access to and the control of knowledge brings to mind Bradbury’s Farenheight 451.

Basu’s voice and worldview are wholly distinct in his work though. The City Inside is not just obsessed with the near future’s technology and media. Beyond the near perfect Flowstar constructs and advertisements, looming behind The City’s Gates are anarchy and human struggle. We follow The City Inside’s main characters, Joey and Rudra, as they become aware of the world greater than them. A strong message of hope and humanity emerged in their journey.

I realized the overall philosophy and themes of The City Inside can best be compared to works of one of my favorite authors: Kurt Vonnegut. There's the commentary of technology and how it actually sets us back. There's a deep aching for the individual caught in the midst of everything. Yet there is so much that movitaves the individual to strive to create a better world. Vonnegut and Basu’s stories are told with so much humor and heart in the face of great inequality, and in Basu’s present, the debilitating effects of society from climate change.

In line with Vonnegut’s themes, Basu characters are set to explore the concept of free will and resistance. What does it mean to have free will in their dystopian societies, and what does it mean to act with free will? Basu goes further and frames the world beyond the city’s carefully controlled gates - he mentions war, hunger, and struggle. With that knowledge and with recognizing free will, what does it mean to resist? What are acts of resistance? One of the harshest critiques in the novel came through the satirization of The Influencer as commentary for corporate pandering and slacktivism. As with Vonnegut, even the smallest acts of kindness in Basu’s The City Inside can have large repercussions, and are in themselves seeds of resistance in a dystopian society.

Looking back at the novel as a whole, the stylistic approach by Basu was genius. Although the first two chapters for myself were difficult to get through as a reader (they felt bulky and dense, overcrowded and filled with technological details), I appreciated how Basu wanted to convey the New Dehli Joey and Rudra live in. As both characters detach themselves from their previous lives, the technology, and the artificially created world, the narrative itself lightens and becomes more straightforward. As the characters become clearer of their own identities and place in their world, so does the narrative to match their enlightenment.
The story though would have benefitted from footnotes, an appendix, or a glossary. The details in the beginning were distracting, and initially I was doubtful if there was much of a plot. It paid off to stick around - after the first two chapters the story set off and never looked back.

Thank you to Netgalley and tordotcom publishing for providing a free copy.
Rating: 4 Stars - A unique dystopian debut filled with humor and humanity. I look forward to seeing Basu’s philosophy and worldview grow with his body of literature. An instant modern classic.

DNF @ 17%

I think I need to give up on near-future SFF. This isn't the first book I've read in the genre but something about these books just makes me roll my eyes when I read. The City Inside in particular is a difficult read due to the stream-of-consciousness narrative. Events don't so much as happen as they are just dumped on you by our MC Joey, who I found myself increasingly annoyed at. The 'look at how good of a leftist I am I can recognize propaganda and that social media algorithms are bad unlike everyone else in this society' monologue is just not interesting. Complaining about a (granted stupid) company policy receiving *so many hot takes* when that's your job?? was the last straw. A shame, especially when the cover art is so pretty. Overall, I rate a 2/5.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with this ARC audiobook.


Description from NetGalley:
“They'd known the end times were coming but hadn’t known they’d be multiple choice.”

Joey is a Reality Controller in near-future Delhi. Her job is to supervise the multimedia multi-reality livestreams of Indi, one of South Asia’s fastest rising online celebrities—who also happens to be her college ex. Joey’s job gives her considerable culture power, but she’s too caught up in day-to-day crisis handling to see this, or to figure out what she wants from her life.

Rudra is a recluse estranged from his wealthy and powerful family, now living in an impoverished immigrant neighborhood. When his father’s death pulls him back into his family’s orbit, an impulsive job offer from Joey becomes his only escape from the life he never wanted.

But as Joey and Rudra become enmeshed in multiple conspiracies, their lives start to spin out of control—complicated by dysfunctional relationships, corporate loyalty, and the never-ending pressures of surveillance capitalism. When a bigger picture begins to unfold, they must each decide how to do the right thing in a world where simply maintaining the status quo feels like an accomplishment. Ultimately, resistance will not—cannot—take the same shape for these two very different people.

I like what this book was going for, but it took a long while for the story to get going I feel like. At one point, I wondered if I was too old for this book because of social media. I was born in the early 90s…I’m not that old I don’t think. It was a cool idea, parts of it went so far over my head or didn’t interest me. There are also a ton of ideas that I don’t think that the book adequately explored.

Overall: 3/5

The City Inside by Samit Basu is a fast-paced look at what society (specifically Indian) society would be in a more technologically adept world. The world-building is fabulous, showing a side of streaming culture that most of us only know the product of. As a Reality Controller for one of the largest multi-media reality live-streamers, Joey knows that she has considerable cultural power. What she doesn’t know but soon finds out is that there is a vast world out there of conspiracy and power that is pulling the strings behind her world.

One of the things about this book is that while there are obvious bad actors there’s not one decisive bad guy at the end. There’s also not one big bad horrible problem that they’re trying to prevent. In fact, the more pervasive issue is the atmosphere of corruption. It’s obvious that the systems of fame and social media are corrupt, which to me, seems close to reality. I’d take a look at this book if you’re looking for a world not so different than our own and to understand what it takes to live (succeed!) in that society.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing an e-Arc of The City Inside by Samit Basu for my review.

I’m going to warn you from the outset: This book isn’t the most accessible book to read if you aren’t familiar with social media, its evolution over time, or if you aren’t in some way aware of the ongoing ethnic cleansing and rampant Nationalism currently happening in India (it’s actually been going on for a little while now, but the government there has been trying their darnedest to keep it as hushed up as possible). India is an incredibly complex country that many of us have never been to and may never get to visit, and so a lot of this novel may be confusing to anyone who’s never studied India’s culture, politics, or geography. Seeing as this book is speculative fiction centered around a future India, social media, and a surveillance society, the whole story leans heavily on technical jargon that can be very hard to parse out and understand if you “don’t do” social media and/or have no concept of how social media dynamics and analytics work.

Luckily for me, I do. I not only understand social media dynamics and analytics, but I’ve also kept up with the situation in India. I’m so glad I did, because it made the experience of reading this fantastic, astounding book an immensely enjoyable and fascinating read. From individual influencer lives curated and cultivated by “Reality Controllers” and funded by investors to smarttatts applied that are required by law to monitor everything from your health to your mood on a 24/7 basis, this book is filled with incredibly technologically-advanced yet completely possible scenarios for urban populations that simultaneously intrigued and repulsed me. The world-building in this book is completely insane in the best possible way.

In much the same way, the characters are fascinating too, in the way that some characters aren’t characters, but caricatures painted in whatever shades this ephemeral world requires them to be. There are different shades of reality for every person in this book, depending on where they are, who they’re with, what they’re doing… it goes on and on and on. And it’s just another reminder that technology and our increasing ability as humans to live longer means added and subtracted layers of knowledge as you move through generations.

Basu not only has a gift for world-building and characterizations, but also has a gift for vivid imagery and stirring prose. The book, as a whole, is just beautifully written and everything one could ask for from speculative fiction.

Thanks to NetGalley, MacMillan/Tor-Forge, and Tordotcom for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I received a free Advanced Reading Copy via NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.

This book had so much potential but it was kind of messy and didn't live up to the hype unfortunately

I have been very excited to come around to this review slot in our schedule because I noticed on Goodreads that The City Inside, by Samit Basu, hasn’t been getting much love and I have some thoughts. Apparently, there is a severe case of illiteracy going around. Sitting at a strange length right between a novel and a novella, this story packs a punch. It explores the evolving future of India and examines how techno-futurism and social media might change in India’s unique cultural basin. It challenges current global trends and takes a hard look at our future under climate change and increasing societal inequity. But most importantly, it examines some possible solutions to the collapse of society as we know it that feel like they might make positive change without being naively optimistic. It’s a great story; I highly recommend you dig into it. The actual plot goes something like this:

Joey is a Reality Controller, something like a social media manager in a society where social media is everything, in near-future Delhi. She spends her workday managing the persona of Indi, one of South Asia’s fastest-rising online celebrities—who also happens to be her college ex. Joey’s job gives her considerable cultural power, but everything comes with a price and she has little actual agency to change anything around her.

We also have Rudra, a recluse estranged from his wealthy and powerful family, now living in an impoverished immigrant neighborhood. When his father’s death reunites him with Joey, an old family acquaintance, he manages to get a job working on her team. The two of them are confronted with increasingly hostile work conditions, a world that doesn’t feel worth saving, and a mounting sense of dread and hopelessness. Can they use their tenuous positions of influence to actually make the world a better place for themselves and others?

About a year ago, I read The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson and was left wanting. Despite its grand acclaim, I found myself feeling like this book did a good job establishing the issues we face in the world, but its solutions felt a bit too ‘hand-wavy’ to hold much credence. With its smaller size, narrower focus, and less optimistic outlook, The City Inside walks a perfect line between despair and hope that makes you feel like you are gaining great insights into society’s issues and grounded ideas on how to fix them.

Joey, Rudra, and the supporting cast are windows into the problems that the current and next generations will need to tackle. Joey is the star of the show, taking the most time in the spotlight. Her frustration and despondence drip off the page and her problems feel both familiar and horrifying in their extrapolated identities. Understanding how our personal brands are becoming more and more how people sell themselves, how your ability to sell yourself is the only way to earn success, and how what sells is dictated by the unchanging rich elite shows a maze of unchanging oppression that sucks the life of anyone who tried to run it. Basu explores how as social media becomes increasingly large, stars push towards a median identity with little to no personality that appeals to the largest common denominator. The trick is to appear like you are meeting the unique needs of every consumer while convincing every consumer that they want the same thing to sell as much as possible with very little work. It’s a very dark story, but it’s smart and it’s important.

Simply put, The City Inside made me sad in my favorite way to be sad—the way that pushes me to think more and be more present in my life. Samit Basu has a keen mind with a talent for societal observation, wonderful prose, and a fast-paced and direct style of storytelling that doesn’t miss the details but gets right to the point. I wish there was a little bit more of it, the ending is slightly abrupt (though I enjoy it and its theatric flare). All put together it is worth your time, give this book a read.

Rating: The City Inside – 9.0/10
-Andrew

The City Inside follows 20-something Joey, a Reality Controller in a near future, climate ravaged Delhi. The division between those living in poverty and the wealthy oligarchs living in enclosed suburbs is immeasurable. As a Reality Controller, Joey produces the online presence of her college ex, Indi, an influencer on the world's social media stage, on his way to mega stardom. When her father's best friend dies, Joey invites his son Rudra to join her team. Together, the two dive head first into the world of corruption and conspiracy that controls India's media and way of life.

It took me a while to get into this story. While the descriptions of this new Delhi, a fallen victim to the climate crisis and the rise of a big brother-esque government were fascinating the story never came together for me. The story was most successful when it focussed on its characters and explored the internal struggles they were facing; Joey with her job and Rudra with his family and how these shaped their identities. The invented jargon used to describe Joey and Rudra's world felt like an intentional barrier but rather than draw me in to this new world of "Flowstars", I realised that it just further distanced me from being invested in the characters. It begins with an intriguing premise that has Joey at it's centre, as she grapples with the realities of her situation and her complicity in its continued existence. This gives way to convoluted conspiracy plots and a focus on Rudra's sexual escapades that seem to serve nothing except themselves.

Unfortunately, this just didn't land for me.

Let me start by saying I’m not sure I’m smart enough for this book. I gave it an extra star to cover my own stupidity.

Bottom line, it is an immersive and ambitious dive into a future Delhi that is dizzyingly insular and isolationist. The dystopian leanings combine that cut-off feeling with the constant political and social upheaval that feels like Big Brother on steroids, so no one ever knows where their loyalties should lie.

Following Joey through her depressing, high-stress life becomes pure nightmare fuel at times. Between desperately sheltering her disillusioned parents, nursing her man-child star, and trying to stay present in an increasingly virtual existence, she never feels like her feet are on solid ground. The same is true for her cousin, Rudra. They both flounder through life one step from ruin and are completely aware of how precarious their existence is.

So the final character arc was incredibly jarring. In fact, the last two chapters gave me severe whiplash. Not only that, but so many questions were left unanswered. I wish there had been 4 more chapters to make sense of the direction the author took us in. Is there redemption? It seems possible, but its landscape is woefully unclear.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

I DNFed around 60%. I enjoyed the premise and actually enjoyed learning more about the writing style and being exposed to fiction written in Indian English. However, there were several throwaway lines in the book that really rubbed me the wrong way and made me not want to continue. This included very casual use of the r— slur in one line and objectification from the narrator of the female POV character within the first page. While I understand these things are likely intended to illustrate the culture that the book critiques, I think there are ways to do that without such comments. Overall, despite the author’s good intent to critique and the timeliness of the topics, the whole book felt ensconced in misogyny and left a bad taste in my mouth to the point that I just did not want to finish it.

I was really certain that The City Inside would be perfect for me, and I did enjoy certain aspects of it. But there were a few ways it missed the mark for me, so let's break it on down, shall we?

What I Liked:

►I mean, the concept was cool as hell. There is a whole job devoted to basically producing people's lives for goodness sake! It is very plausible, too, that social media could kind of take over reality, right? And of course, those with a financial stake in these lives are going to be messy and powerful and probably awful. So it really sounds legit!

►I enjoyed the world and characters. While I didn't feel super connected to them, I enjoyed the stories of Joey and Rudra. The world itself is of course quite fascinating, and I liked it from that perspective.

►I definitely appreciated the messages. Obviously this is something you'll have to find out for yourself, but the overarching messages that we make the same mistakes again and again are certainly important.

What I Had Trouble With:

►There wasn't really much of a plot. I mean, outside of the reality controlling and the corporate stuff and the daily life dramas, not much happened? It was more of a character and concept driven book, I suppose, but it definitely wasn't a quick read.

►Tons of info dumps and long chapters made it feel pretty long. Speaking of not being quick, another big reason it seemed slow was that there is a lot of world and society information given in pretty big chunks. And while I did appreciate that we were given context, but not necessarily in the method. Add to it chapters that were very lengthy, and at times it started to feel like a slog.

Bottom Line: Very cool world and concept, but the plot just kind of... meanders.

I was expecting more of this book, specially in the character department. The world-building was phenomenal and by far the best thing about this read. i could picture things really vividly and it all made this reading experience far more enjoyable. As for the characters, I didn´t really connect with them and I didn´t feel much development from them, at least not what I think they deserved. The writing was unique but sometimes confusing, you would have too think really deeply during some parts. Overall, I still think it is a solid read and recommend it if you´re a fan of current themes along with a fantastic set-up. My thanks to the publisher, the author and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

The City Inside is a near future sci-fi set in Delhi that follows Joey, a reality controller for a hit livesteamer, and Rudra, a down on his luck/estranged from his family former rich kid.

Joey and Rudra's paths cross when Rudra is drawn back into his family's lives and business schemes following his father's death and Joey (attending the funeral with her parents) offers Rudra a job, and a helpful excuse to escape the life he's never wanted.

Overall, this was an interesting book. The worldbuilding stood out for me, possibly because I had recently read a book with a really similar setting that just didn't do it very well. But even on its own, the world and its social/political problems are really vivid.

This is not a happy near future setting - the world is rife with surveillance capitalism, income inequality is clearer than ever, emigration is nearly impossible, and even speaking about poorly of the government/the social order in your own home is unsafe - but none of this feels overdone. Even this harsh reality speaks to the truth of our present from the radicalized right, to social/corporate/government surveillance, to details like the Indian government's treatment of farmers.

Joey's parents' young adulthood and Joey's childhood are characterized by a period of civil unrest that is referenced throughout the book and I enjoyed seeing the way Joey engages, or disengages, with the ideals of her parents/her awareness of social inequality, especially in the context of her own ill feelings. I enjoyed her character and perspective, but I would have enjoyed seeing her actions toward the end more plainly/with the same level of narrative flow as the rest of the book.

Cons for me were Rudra's character/storyline (I just wasn't engaged by his character and motivations) and generally the way the storylines ended/the lack of clarity/conclusion. It all seemed to come on rather quickly when the book had just started to pick up pace and it didn't flow well with the rest of the narrative style.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but the ending left me unsatisfied.