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Gamechanger

(The Bounceback #1)

L.X. Beckett

3.74 · Rating details · 380 ratings · 98 reviews

Neuromancer meets Star Trek in Gamechanger, a fantastic new book from award-winning author L. X. Beckett.

First there was the Setback. Then came the Clawback. Now humanity thrives.

Rubi Whiting is a member of the Bounceback Generation. The first to be raised free of the troubles of the late twenty-first century. Now she works as a public defender to help troubled individuals ...more

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Hardcover, 567 pages

Published September 17th 2019 by Tor Books

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Nov 03, 2019 Suddenly Life rated it did not like it

After the first few pages (following the long prologue) I imagined the author to be a boomer (a person in his late 40s to early 60s) trying to write a book that would appeal to millenials. The more I kept reading, excruciatingly I might add, the more that image became cemented in my mind. It's as if the author doesn't understand this culture and has written a completely detached and deeply flawed analysis of it.

First of all, a writer that adds sound effects (boom, bang, crunch, screeeeeeeech [I ...more

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Apr 26, 2020 wishforagiraffe rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020

I knew, when I first heard about this book last year, that it would probably tick a lot of my boxes. What I didn't expect was just HOW MANY that would end up being.

Gamechanger is a fairly near-future story, but one that I think could have only been written in the post-2016 US election world. It's a story that sharpens the impact of our current trajectory, politically, economically, ecologically, but one that ultimately feels believable.

Social media becomes omnipresent, but as an almost too sim ...more

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Nov 23, 2019 Sarah rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

2.5 stars rounded up?

This is not the worst book I’ve read this year- but I have to say, it’s probably the most unsatisfying.

We’re given all these awesome ideas- immediate and public social justice, a world that seems relatively free of judgement concerning race and gender, cool tech, small jobs and volunteer work on the fly, virtual assistant AI, gaming.. the list goes on.

I mean really- the world building in Gamechanger is almost as impressive as a personal favorite of mine: Too Like the Lightni ...more

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Sep 12, 2019 Paul rated it really liked it

Gamechanger at its heart is a mystery of one entity that has cracked the code and become a thorn in the side of society’s new regs. The novel is an exploration of the relative near-future. It is scary, exciting, and a look through your fingers as you cover your eyes.

The worldbuilding is tremendous. Immersive and mindbending, but somehow totally realistic. To be honest though, it took me awhile to read this one. It was hard at times to get back into the future speak. It’s not a world that is easy ...more

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Dec 04, 2020 thefourthvine rated it it was ok

Shelves: dystopia, near-future, apocalypse

Let's start with the good stuff: I really do like that authors are trying to imagine new ways we might live, ways to be human without destroying the planet or ourselves. And this is one such book.

Okay, that said, let's move on to what didn't work, which is: the entire rest of the novel!

So, first, while I do love to see a good "how we can live differently" book, ideally the answer wouldn't be "by creating a panopticon dystopia." Now, I don't know for sure that Beckett knew they were creating one, Let's start with the good stuff: I really do like that authors are trying to imagine new ways we might live, ways to be human without destroying the planet or ourselves. And this is one such book.

Okay, that said, let's move on to what didn't work, which is: the entire rest of the novel!

So, first, while I do love to see a good "how we can live differently" book, ideally the answer wouldn't be "by creating a panopticon dystopia." Now, I don't know for sure that Beckett knew they were creating one, but that is sure what they did. First and foremost, that panopticon thing: in this future world, every single word you say and move you make and thing you see goes on your transcript, which can be accessed by anyone at any time. That alone made my flesh crawl. And then the rest of this world is essentially "the internet, but with stricter moderation, but that's the entire world," which -- okay, we'll get to the worldbuilding problems in a second. In the meantime: oh god what an absolute fucking nightmare. This is indeed a dystopia, and the fact that everyone is cheerful doesn't change that.

So now let's talk about the worldbuilding. In this universe, we've been through the Setback (what we're doing right now, when everything tips over into apocalypse) and the Clawback (when people are forcibly moved into camps, plagues run rampant, the climate collapses). The book is written during the Bounceback, which is an attempted recovery from the apocalypse. And. After all of that, and despite the panopticon dystopia thing, nothing is actually different. This world is basically "memes and 2020 internet lingo and old fandom references as a culture" and I don't understand how it could be. Also, the author makes a ton of unwarranted assumptions about how humans work. A single example: according to this book, having your every move watched all the time and instant sentencing for any infraction will basically end violent crime. Do they ... not understand why humans commit violent crime? Do they think logic comes into it? (Are they aware that that has been tried before?) And everything is like that. D-, please try to meet some humans before you attempt worldbuilding again. Also, let's just say the political structure of this world is -- vague. There are countries? And a world government? And local authorities? And there is NO explanation of how any of this works together at ALL, or (despite the fact that our main character is a lawyer) how the law actually functions. Again: no.

And I'd like to highlight an especially terrible aspect of the worldbuilding. This is the whitest diverse future I've ever read, and boy, I've read some dillies. People are various shades of brown! That's it, that's the diversity. Oh, sure, we get a mention that Asian countries are the superpowers now, but is there any reckoning with racism? Is there even an acknowledgement that racism existed? Is there any explanation of where it went? No. Does the author acknowledge that their Reddit-inspired social currency (you get strokes for doing well and strikes for doing poorly, and anyone can give them at any time) would be unjustly rigged against specific groups of people? No. Also, Indigenous people -- stewards of the land in many places and EXACTLY who you would want leading your effort to repair the world -- just. Do not exist, apparently. And there's a lot of discussion of Catholicism and its special privileges, and one mention of the Amish, but zero mention of other religions, or how they fit into this weird new world order and what privileges they are accorded. (Also, and this will not surprise you: this book is ableist as all hell. There's a fun note that the father of the main character is no longer entitled to medical care because, uh, he has PTSD, had an episode, and self-harmed. Remember when I said this was a dystopia? YUP.) You get the feeling the author can really only see in shades of WASP.

Beyond that, this book is simultaneously trying to do WAY too much -- there's a plot twist, predictably, about every four chapters, and there are a LOT of chapters in this book, so eventually I was just laughing at the new ones -- and boring as hell. It just. Drags. On. Forever. And then, just when you think it cannot be any duller, you are forced to read a lengthy, play-by-play description of someone playing a video game, which is somehow even less entertaining than you would think it is. And yet it happens SEVERAL TIMES.

I'm going to sum up this review in a way both the author and the characters, despite their immense differences, would find #relatable. TL;DR:

...more

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Oct 16, 2019 Tante rated it did not like it

One of those books I give up on after a while.

I liked -bits- of it, but... Well, usually I'm 'ok' with character names and whatnot, but this one just kept throwing names at me and introducing people (or non-people) once and then just assuming I knew immediately who was who and which was which. It got frustrating quickly and since the story was interesting but didn't fully grab and drag me along by the collar, I let this one go.
To go with the style in the book: #shrugemoji? ...more

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Nov 01, 2019 Mike Stolfi rated it it was ok

I stopped about a third through, no really compelling characters & the kind of tech fetishism that annoys me when reading copies of Wired.

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Oct 12, 2019 Jon Tyler rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 05, 2020 Kevin rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2-star

2 stars, a bit of a noble failure

Noble failure is my way of saying that this book has many admirable qualities, one that I still kind of want to like even though it failed to win me over. I guess I'll start by saying what I liked because I do think this is a book worth checking out and others might enjoy it more than I did. The worldbuilding is wide-reaching and pretty good at projecting to what a near future world dominated by social media might look like. I also really like this book's optimis ...more

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Sep 29, 2019 Carien rated it it was amazing

This book takes you on a wild emotional ride while challenging your views on what humanity actually is.

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Nov 30, 2019 Brad rated it did not like it

Oof. Where to start.

I really wanted to like this book. It purported itself as a post climate crisis "bounceback" society trying to fix itself. Instead, I got nearly 600 pages of Mary Sue Extraordinaire Rubi Whiting, the lawyer/pro gamer/world renowned climate activist/street fighter/friend of world leaders/AI expert/anything else she needs to be tromping through multiple realms of meatspace and the internet...I mean "Sensorium." Gamechanger suffers from the classic high school writing assignmen ...more

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Nov 12, 2019 Paula Lyle rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2019, dnf

Made it through chapter 23, but gave up. There are just too many words that don't really add to the story. #, @, TM, all avatars from the "future" (not really sure that's true), but just clutter in the story. Too much flash, not enough actual. ...more

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Mar 03, 2020 Peter Tillman marked it as to-read

Shelves: at-bg-pa, new-tbp, science-fiction, to-read-maybe

I had marked this one as "probably won't read," based on a LOT of neggies here. But I just came across Liz Bourke's review. She liked it, and has been a pretty reliable guide for me in the past:
https://www.tor.com/2019/11/19/sleeps...
"Beckett has written a science fiction novel that’s immensely hopeful about human potential while also realistic about human flaws—and they have, as well, avoided portraying their future as utopian. The innovative features of society are treated as quotidian, with m ...more

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May 10, 2020 Becky rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019-becky-awards-longlist

For whatever reason I’d decided this would be a breezy sci-fi romp that I could fly through in a few days despite being a solid NOV at 567 pages, but I should have heeded the Neal Stephenson comparison in the blurbs and realized I was in for a book dense with world building, tech details, and a whole lot of plot. None of which is a criticism! I thoroughly loved this book, it’s just definitely got the most complex world building I’ve read in a sci-fi novel in a minute, and I spent a lot of time d ...more

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May 12, 2020 Sam Benson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: queer

I love me some future earth world-building! And lots of queerness. So obviously I’m the right demographic here... plus I do enjoy authors who can imagine a future that manages to skirt both dystopian atmosphere and...utopian vibes (somehow?). That feels really true to my own experience of the world. It is so awful and shitty and at the same time full of hope of you know where to look for it. The book definitely takes on way more than is advisable in one story (it seriously almost jumps the shark ...more

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Nov 28, 2019 kari rated it really liked it

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for a review.

This book really is a gamechanger. It redefines cyberpunk and offers a sustainable alternative to the grim, dark, corporate-owned settings while it never sugarcoats its failings. A clever, complex story set in a fast-paced yet humane world, it was a delight to read.

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Dec 01, 2019 Doctor Science rated it really liked it

Shelves: its-a-queer-world, hugo-poss-2020

Very solid hope/solarpunk set in 2101. It's about: generational change from the Setback generations (that's us), who destroyed the world, to the Clawback, and now to the Bounceback generation, people born c. 2070+ who are still working on saving the world, but want to have *fun* doing it.

It reminds me of Snow Crash and of Stand on Zanzibar, in presenting a near-future that is very much an extension of the current world -- which may mean it will date pretty badly. But it's got social media and so ...more

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Sep 11, 2019 Johan rated it liked it

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but in the end it just didn't grab me. The setting had all the right ingredients: a post #climatefail future where mankind is still squabbling and unable to pool their resources enough to #bounceback - our main character, Rubi, is having trouble getting face to face with a legal client. The reason might be an emerging AI, or is it?
Climate fiction, a setting where humans seem to have merged their "surface" (real world) and "VR/sensory" (online) worlds, the race ...more

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May 20, 2019 V. West rated it it was amazing

Love the world L.X. Beckett has created! Hope for the future of humanity through the tech that is currently thought to be destroying society. Thumbs up for this take!

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Jun 12, 2020 Misha rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, doorway-people, lgbtqia, politics, book-group, doorway-place, female-protagonist, read-2020

This was a bit too dense with world-building and jargon for me to process atm. It does depict a world without policw which is a bonus.

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Oct 06, 2019 Sara Norja rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I received a copy of this book from the author.

What a fascinating world L. X. Beckett has built here! I loved that the narrative focused on a future where huge steps have been taken towards a more sustainable way of life, but it was in no way a utopia. I wouldn't want to live in the future where there's so little real food and half one's life is spent in the Sensorium, but it was great to read about.

I'm not really into gaming myself, so often narratives that centre games and VR don't grab me. B ...more

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Jul 22, 2020 Rana rated it it was amazing

Good dog damn. This was the most brilliant of mind-fucks of a book. Partly a mind-fuck because it's so clearly rooted in the current landscape (social media, governmental leadership, capitalism as a death cult, even the gig economy, etc) but also a mind-fuck because it's such a tangled web of stories. The plot lines are all like "WHAT IS GOING ON AND HOW DOES THAT WORK AND COME ON ARE YOU KIDDING ME SERIOUSLY" but all beautifully mesh by the end. I love all the characters and the world-building ...more

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Aug 10, 2020 Noah rated it it was amazing

This is my favorite book now. I want to live in Sensorium and be best friends with all the characters. I adore every aspect of the worldbuilding, especially the linguistic conventions.

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Aug 27, 2019 Jeremy Brett rated it really liked it

I was lucky enough to acquire an ARC of this wonderful book, and I feel blessed at my fortune at getting to read it before everyone else. :) "Gamechanger" is a wonderfully thoughtful novel, deep with both concern for our future and with optimism that we might overcome the challenges before us and make a more acceptable, equitable society. Beckett draws a series of complex characters who realistically engage with an equally well-constructed post-soft apocalyptic world, that feels so very real and ...more

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Nov 05, 2019 Peter rated it really liked it

Decades after the climate crisis reached a head and killed far too many people, things are finally starting to get better again... thanks to universal rationing and reputation-based economy where those who aren't civic-minded get punished. You may not physically travel much but you can still interact with people all over the world, sometimes as though you are in the same room. Reproduction might be limited, but children are cherished and large families form to support them. But there are still r Decades after the climate crisis reached a head and killed far too many people, things are finally starting to get better again... thanks to universal rationing and reputation-based economy where those who aren't civic-minded get punished. You may not physically travel much but you can still interact with people all over the world, sometimes as though you are in the same room. Reproduction might be limited, but children are cherished and large families form to support them. But there are still risks to the planet, and some people trying to sabotage the recovery, including a mysterious malcontent named Lux, who at first seems to be a social work case but turns out to be a much more complicated problem.

Disclaimer: I won a free advanced reader's copy of this book through a contest on Twitter. I don't think it affected my review.

So this is a near-future tale with a lot of worldbuilding behind it, which might make it hard to get into immediately. What with augmented reality games (far more immersive than our own), ubiquitous telepresence, and the lack of traditional jobs (most people having several that they do whenever one they're qualified for is available), is can be hard to get a handle on what's happening. And there are some elements that are the kind that might mildly inspire eyerolling as being 'too topical', like people occasionally communicating in hashtags. It's not enough to be annoying (at least for me), but early on I was worried it might. But once I got into it, I really enjoyed the worldbuilding... even things that I'd seen done before (such as the ability for everyone to give everyone else 'strikes' or 'strokes' for bad or good behavior, respectively, with consequences for getting too low or high), was more thought out than I've usually seen it, not presented as a bad or good but just a new part of life that has elements of both and you can see both the flaws and benefits. The use of augmented reality games also was handled very well done, with a regular sense of what was actually happening in the 'surface' in addition to the game, so I could visualize both as required... that's something that often I find lacks in other stories using fantasy games as an element (unless it's the type where the body's in a pod while they're in an immersive virtual reality).

The main plot took a while to get going, but once it did I really liked it, my only complaint being that towards the end when the villains were revealed and acting openly it lacked some of the nuance. Also, a problem throughout, but particularly towards the end, is that I often had trouble telling exactly what was happening where, and where everyone was in relation to each other. I freely admit that part (maybe even most) was my own fault, being a bit too distracted as a reader to really pay attention to the cues I needed and remember the details to keep careful track, though the mere fact that characters can interact as though they're beside each other when they're half a world away certainly didn't help matters.

The book's got a largely optimistic tone, which is nice, and some of the solutions, although some might seem grim and spartan compared to our own society of excess, still remain hopeful in that they present a future where people can live fulfilling, even fun lives having to make those sacrifices.

So I didn't really know what to expect going in (I believe a description was going around calling it Neuromancer meets Star Trek which is such an odd pairing that the combination could mean almost anything), but I wound up really enjoying it and would love to read more in this universe or from this author.

Four stars, maybe a little rounding up involved in that, but only a little. Even if Goodreads allowed half stars (and seriously why not by now) it'd need quarter stars to not round up to a four. ...more

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Dec 12, 2019 A.C. Wise rated it it was amazing

In the Bounceback generation, humanity is recovering from the environmental and social damage done by prior generations. Everyone is networked, every move and conversation recorded for the sake of transparency, and the currency of the day is social capital – strokes and strikes for good and bad behavior. Instead of single jobs, there is a gig economy, where individuals can sign up as needed to pilot drones, work clean-up crews, provide security, and more. Family units consist of multiple spouses In the Bounceback generation, humanity is recovering from the environmental and social damage done by prior generations. Everyone is networked, every move and conversation recorded for the sake of transparency, and the currency of the day is social capital – strokes and strikes for good and bad behavior. Instead of single jobs, there is a gig economy, where individuals can sign up as needed to pilot drones, work clean-up crews, provide security, and more. Family units consist of multiple spouses, elders, and there’s a strict one-child policy in place; the right to have children must be earned. AI and VR are ubiquitous, with the majority of human interactions taking place in personal e-states, public gaming gyms, and other virtual spaces.

Rubi Whiting is one of the top gamers in the world. She’s also a legal advocate, currently balancing work for her client, the mysterious Luciano Pox, her rivalry with Gimlet Barnes, her in-game arch nemesis, and protecting her father, Drow Whiting, the so-called Mad Maestro, a musical genius, with extreme PTSD and a history of trauma and attempted suicide. Rubi’s pet cause is SeaJuve, a project to rejuvenate the oceans and put an end to oxygen scarcity. In the course of trying to secure funding for the project, unravel the mystery of her client’s true identity, and care for her father, Rubi becomes embroiled in a much larger plot than she ever imagined – one that may involve a secret immortality cult and the emergence of sentient AI. And the key to unravelling it all is winning a match against Gimlet Barnes in a Revolutionary France-inspired sim, a proposition complicated by Rubi’s growing attraction to her best frenemy.

Beckett weaves together multiple threads and storylines in Gamechanger to create a story that feels truly sprawling and epic. Their characters and world feel deep and lived-in, and the future they offer up a highly-plausible, extrapolating forward the way society currently engages with social media. The novel’s scope can almost be dizzying at times, but the story is always engaging and at over 550 pages, it still manages to be a fast-paced, page-turning read. The characters are fantastic, and each gets their own journey and arc to complete. Beckett writes them all with compassion, allowing them to be simultaneously strong and capable, but also vulnerable and capable of leaning on each other. Gamechanger is a wonderful read, and I’m already looking forward to Beckett’s next work! ...more

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Jun 08, 2019 deep marked it as to-read

PW Starred: As this exuberant, exciting near-future yarn keeps reinventing itself, the action gets wilder and the scope wider, until the future of humankind is at stake. Though the Clawback project is beginning to rejuvenate an ecologically ruined Earth, public responsibilities are still unsettled and fluid. Cherub “Rubi” Whiting, a popular star of elaborate multiplayer virtual reality games, is excited to become a lawyer, but her first client, Luciano Pox, turns out to be difficult—and dangerou ...more

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Oct 28, 2019 Julia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adult, sci-fi, audiobook

I was at CanCon recently and was at two panels that LX Beckett moderated. They are a delight to listen to, and I knew instantly that I needed their book.

I picked up the audiobook, but a part of me wonders if this book might be better served reading it with eyeballs as opposed to ears. This is not a complaint on the narrator - they did an amazing job, especially with all the hashtags, and internet lingo. But their is a significant amount of world building happening here, taking our current teck ...more

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Nov 09, 2019 Elvin rated it it was amazing

Gamechanger is an absolute treat to read- the thoroughness with which the author answers, "What if the world ends, and we figure out a new way to survive?" is very satisfying. I stayed up all night to finish it, and I cannot wait for the sequel so I can get back into this universe!

The book switches between different character perspectives, and the differences can be jarring- I'd hate to try to listen to this book on audio-book, honestly, as I think it'd be very difficult to follow. However, as t ...more

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Dec 01, 2019 Morgan McGuire added it

DNF, I stopped around chapter 4.

The sci-fi world is good, reminiscent of Ready Player One, Elysium, and Judge Dredd rolled into one, and ready for interesting stories. There's a mixture of augmented reality, virtual reality, internet stuff, and near-dystopian setups.

I found the style hard to read for two reasons. First, characters frequently react to situations before the situations are themselves described. For example, there will be a previously undescribed character in a room. It feels like e ...more

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About L.X. Beckett

L.X. Beckett

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L.X. Beckett is a queer science fiction author and editor who lives in Toronto, Ontario. They are the author of “Freezing Rain, a Chance of Falling” a new novella coming soon to the pages of Fantasy and Science Fiction, as well as the upcoming novel Goldilocks Conditions from Tor Books.

L.X. Beckett used to kick trolls out of a Star Trek chat room for the TV channel now known as SyFy. These days th ...more