A wonderful piece of speculative fiction that is immersive and page-turning, even if flawed in some places. Maughan, a journalist with a strong interest in electronic music (a recurring theme in the work), poses a very simple question in Infinite Detail: what would happen were the internet to be turned off and cease to exist? Divided into ‘before’ and ‘after’ sections, the novel deals with the consequences, both intended and unintended. The former is a plausible near future where the extremes of access to (an infinite detail of) information needs to be countered against the same (infinite) level of surveillance. Revolution might sound naturally appealing and liberating, but the fomenters of such change need, at least in Maughan's view, to build some form of superior alternative. How the post-traumatic stress (physical — from violence — and mental — often from loss) of a post-connected world is dealt with is also important for Maughan. Some form of decentralised, more localised mesh networks may be a partial solution. Not all of the characters in Infinite Detail are perhaps as fully detailed as they could have been. The subject matter may also have been handled better by a more experienced author. I would have loved to see Ballard write on this topic. Infinite Detail wasn't the first (think of Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story) and won't be the last novel to deal with the limits of online connectedness. We're all here to strike a tough compromise. Eight and a half out of ten.
By Tim Maughan