Book Review: The Maker's Dream

Wouldn't it be awesome if your friend wrote a debut science fiction novel - and it was actually good? Well, that happened this week.

Arvind Nagarajan, my long-time friend and investment partner, released his long awaited book, The Maker's Dream. Here's the description:

Technology has unlocked a door to utopia: a global community, interconnected by a perfectly-adapting intelligence, designed to satisfy every whim for everyone.

The Maker’s Dream, explores an Earth whose lifeblood is the iLink: a thought-technology interface that allows its users to command swarms of nano-drones, explore virtual worlds indistinguishable from reality, or enter a dream state designed for self-improvement. Keitaro, a set of sprawling settlements connected by their inhabitants’ iLinks, brings more cities every year into its embrace.

KB is a headstrong girl enjoying the utopian lifestyle afforded by her iLink. When her mother turns up dead in a freak drone accident, she and her contrarian uncle Chakra start digging deeper, to the roots of Keitaro and the godlike Maker that created it. Was her mother’s death truly a one-in-a-trillion mistake, or was it a deliberate attack? And is the Maker the benevolent molder of a thriving society, or a far more sinister force?

Honest evaluation: I loved the book

It was well-written, thought-provoking, and engrossing. I didn't skip a paragraph. It explored the relationship we have with technology and a future where people spend most of their time on self-actualization and pursuing their passions. The question it poses is how free will we be if we are still reliant on software for minor but frequent conveniences (even more so than we are today). It's about the same length as the original Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and I read it over two evenings.

The Maker's Dream. Free online copy here. Buy a signed author's copy for $5 here. Author's intro video.