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Qualityland

(QualityLand #1)

Marc-Uwe Kling

4.19 · Rating details · 9,962 ratings · 1,167 reviews

THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY meets 1984. In the near-future, all decision-making is automated, until one man makes a brazen choice of his own, with global consequences.

Welcome to QualityLand, the best country on Earth. Here, a universal ranking system determines the social advantages and career opportunities of every member of society. An automated matchmaking serv ...more

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Hardcover, 352 pages

Published January 7th 2020 by Grand Central Publishing (first published September 22nd 2017)

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Nov 13, 2019 Lori rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewed

MY FAVORITE BOOK OF 2019

Do you know why it's called the net? Because we're caught in it.

That's a paraphrase of a quote from "Qualityland," the best book I've read this year. It's one of my all-time favorites, and while relationships with books change over time just like relationships with people do, I think this one's going to last my lifetime. It's a remarkable dystopian satire and I love it so much that upon finishing it, I immediately turned back to page one and read it a second time. For da MY FAVORITE BOOK OF 2019

Do you know why it's called the net? Because we're caught in it.

That's a paraphrase of a quote from "Qualityland," the best book I've read this year. It's one of my all-time favorites, and while relationships with books change over time just like relationships with people do, I think this one's going to last my lifetime. It's a remarkable dystopian satire and I love it so much that upon finishing it, I immediately turned back to page one and read it a second time. For days after that no other book would do. I've never had a hard time reviewing but I've struggled for almost two weeks to review it (this is around version 12.0) because I have so much to say and no matter what I write it seems inadequate. This book is phenomenal, extraordinary, fantastic: every superlative, which is apt because in Qualityland only superlatives are permitted in reviews.

This is a world in which tech reigns, the news is delivered tailored for each person (available with and without special offers!!!), people are sorted into levels and their rank can go up or down, algorithms are infallible. In Qualityland for the first time an android is running for president; his opponent is a wealthy reality star. And everything you get comes from TheShop. All of it. There's no ordering because TheShop's algorithms already know what you want. You pay with a kiss to your Qualitypad and upon delivery the drone automatically takes unboxing video (because people love them!). You have to rate the drone and off it goes.

"Qualityland" has been compared to Vonnegut -- Kling's favorite author -- and to Douglas Adams by the publisher. Asimov laid the Foundation for it and it brings to mind Arthur C. Clarke. Inside its pages you'll encounter Isaac Asimov as well as Alan Turing, Bertrand Russell and The German Code (along with Jennifer Aniston and Beetlejuice). Of course there's Echoes of Bezos, Gates, Tim Apple (I meant to type that!), Zuckerberg, you get the idea. It stands with 1984 and Brave New World (but Kling lets us know precisely how far in the future it takes place). It also brought to my inferior human mind, among others, The Wizard of Oz and Monty Python. While reading it "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" would pop into my head, it's that kind of satire too and that's mandatory for some in Qualityland.

There's a plot, very memorable characters (the most memorable ever) interrupted every so often by fake news with embedded advertising or are they adverts with embedded fake news. Kling uses sly ways of stopping the action to slip in exposition so his characters aren't burdened with it, a smart and entertaining choice.

And there's a pink vibrator shaped like a dolphin. The pink vibrator shaped like a dolphin has been delivered by TheShop to Peter. You don't order from The Shop, their algorithms know what you want and send it to you automatically by drone. And TheShop's algorithms are never wrong. But Peter doesn't want the pink dolphin vibrator and hilarity ensues as he attempts first to get customer service (you'll love it), then get some publicity and ultimately comes the quest, on which he's accompanied by a terrific ragtag group as he attempts to track down the man who runs TheShop, Henryk Engineer.

There's also the upcoming election, in which a very wealthy reality star is running against the first android to run for president. And via the son of the wealthy reality star, we get a glimpse into a marriage and home life in the upper levels. Everyone in those ranks has the standard nanny robot who every night automatically compiles a highlight reel of the child(ren)'s day for parents to watch.

There's a sex android with erectile dysfunction, a drone that has fear of flying and other charming broken machines meant to be destroyed. We meet professional commenter Melissa Sex-Worker (because last names are gone; men have the last name of their father's job and women their mother's, so Kling gives us Peter Jobless, Conrad Cook, Christina Cat-Sitter and Oliver House-Husband). There are snarky driverless cars that automatically pick up people based on level and a hilarious exchange between Peter and a car that...I'm not saying. In Qualityland history has been rewritten and novels too. But people still watch Jennifer Aniston movies, Sex and the City, individualized versions of Game of Thrones and the sixteenth set of remakes of Star Wars.

"Qualityland" is a book that has a lot to say, relevant, profound, frightening. Kling's genius is that this book is so funny (the funniest!) Qualityland is easier to take than most dystopias. Not all of it is played for laughs but most is. Kling knows NDAs aren't funny to many of us and unboxing videos are so annoying and that's precisely why they're included. At times, unexpectedly, you'll come upon something sad, something that doesn't take up much space in the book but may in your head, such as: Freedom is not forbidden, it's just temporarily out of stock.

"Qualityland" is a marvel. My mind is still blown. There's Proust's madeleine, the billboard and green light in Gatsby, Anna's scarf, Harry's scar, all of them iconic symbols in literature. And now: a pink vibrator shaped like a dolphin. ...more

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Feb 02, 2020 Manny rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Douglas Adams fans who can read German

Shelves: german-and-dutch, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, science-fiction, linguistics-and-philosophy, older-men-younger-women, parody-homage, well-i-think-its-funny, the-goodreads-experience

Welcome to my review of QualityLand! This state-of-the-art piece of infotainment is brought to you courtesy of Amazon®, everyone's favourite online retailer. Why don't you download the latest Kindle® bestseller now before your Facebook® friends reveal all the spoilers?

I'm sure you've already heard about QualityLand, the novel everyone is talking about, but let me tell you about it again! QualityLand is the best, richest, most powerful country in the world! It is formally illegal to refer to Qual ...more

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Jun 14, 2020 Cecily rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Cecily by: Manny

Shelves: humour, scifi-future-speculative-fict, dystopian, read-only-cos-of-gr-friends

“The algorithm is always right…
Machines don’t make mistakes."

I can never decide if it's reassuring or alarming when algorithms are very wrong.

Last week, Twitter suggested I expand my timeline by following six subjects: Richard Branson, Football, Manchester United, Premier League (which is football), video games, and hip-hop & rap. I have never had any interest in any kind of sport, and I’ve no idea what prompted the others. Of course, typing that list in a Google Doc on the cloud and then pasti ...more

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Jan 21, 2020 BlackOxford rated it really liked it

Shelves: epistemology-language, german-language, technology, sociology

The Peril of Eliminating Moral Peril

In 1966, Dennis Jones wrote a sci-fi novel called Colossus: The Forbin Project. Made into a film a few years later, it always seemed to me the perfect complement to Arthur C Clarke’s (and Kubrick’s) story 2001: A Space Odyssey . Neither Jones’s book nor the film caused anything like the cultural splash that Clarke and Kubrick made. This has always struck me as unjust, especially when I encounter pieces like Qualityland which seem to be direct descendants ...more

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Feb 18, 2020 Zoeytron rated it really liked it

Recommended to Zoeytron by: Lori's review

Shelves: public-library

Is it really going to come to this? I was planning to poach a phrase of a GR buddy to say this novel is "Crazy Town Banana Pants", but we may have already gone too far down the road. As our dependence on techie toys becomes rote, it may very well be that it is too late to turn back now. Gnats caught in a web, that's what we are.

Androids are a species unto themselves now. In an effort to make all Artificial Intelligence more closely resemble that of humans, a dangerous corner has been turned. ...more

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Feb 26, 2020 Jenna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommended to Jenna by: Lori

Shelves: favorites, dystopia, fiction, satire

Satire lovers do not want to miss this one!

I love books that simultaneously make me laugh and think. That's what good satire does and that's exactly what QualityLand did for me. I don't know how many times I busted out laughing, nor do I know how many times I had to pause my reading to share something with my long-suffering partner. Luckily for her, I do most of my reading when she's at work. Perhaps not so luckily for her, I then fill her in on everything as soon as she gets home and is trying Satire lovers do not want to miss this one!

I love books that simultaneously make me laugh and think. That's what good satire does and that's exactly what QualityLand did for me. I don't know how many times I busted out laughing, nor do I know how many times I had to pause my reading to share something with my long-suffering partner. Luckily for her, I do most of my reading when she's at work. Perhaps not so luckily for her, I then fill her in on everything as soon as she gets home and is trying to have her dinner.

So.... QualityLand... It's set in a country sometime in the near future. It's the best of all possible countries. Everything in QualityLand is the superlative; it's not better than other countries. No way! It's the BEST country EVER! Algorithms predict and determine everything in the lives of QualityLand citizens, from conception to death. Algorithms even predict what you want to buy before you even think it. TheShop has it delivered by drone right to you, and opening it you realise that, yes, yes I did want this! QualityPartner selects the perfect mate for you. Your QualityPad tells you everything you want to know... based on what you want to hear. Don't like foreigners? Not to worry, your personal QualityPad will only tell you negative things about foreigners.

Everything runs as it should; no one questions the system and no one sees any flaws in it. That is, until Peter Jobless suddenly receives a pink dolphin vibrator that he definitely does not want. Though TheShop has a returns guaranteed policy for unwanted products, when Peter Jobless tries to return this pink dolphin vibrator, he finds it is impossible to do so. Why? Because the algorithm predicted he wants it; ergo, he wants it and it is not an unwanted product!

There are many other characters in this book, including John of Us, a progressive android running for president. His opponent is a right wing nut job populist who is clearly based on Donny Johnny Trump-Dump (unless, since the author is German, Germany unfortunately has a similar politician whom this character is based on). There are plenty of laughs due to this alone.

This book pokes fun at many aspects of our current culture. Politics, religion, entertainment, consumerism, and our ever-increasing reliance on technology. Our faith in technology. It is a little over the top, but not by much. It shows exactly where we could be in a few years if we continue allowing corporations to collect our data and build algorithms that predict and control everything, and if we continue living in our media bubbles, where we only see and hear points of view that we already agree with.

The book goes back and forth between several memorable characters and is interspersed with advertisements, fake news, and comments from users. These additions contribute substantially to the hilarity of the book.

There is so much that I would love to share (as Simonetta knows all too well!) but instead I'll suggest that you read the book. It is reminiscent of The Warehouse and The Circle, except that it will have you laughing throughout.

Thank you to my GR friend Lori for her terrific review which led me to read this book! ...more

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Jul 14, 2020 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020-shelf, satire, sci-fi

All right!

This is hands-down the most interesting and funny and QUALITY SF I've read this year. It should be a shoo-in for a Hugo at the very least.

Not only is it an easy, funny read, but it's also an absolutely scathing a satire with fantastic pacing, dozens of tongue-in-cheek zingers, and a pitch-perfect condemnation of our modern ratings-based society.

I mean, honestly, we ARE all exactly what our profiles say... aren't we? There's NO ONE out there that isn't exactly what the credit agencies ...more

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Feb 13, 2020 Jilly added it

Shelves: funny, dnf, dystopia

I've never been able to finish reading an entire satire book. I start them, laugh at the absurdity and have a great time for a while, but then I quit reading them. Once I've got the point they are trying to make, and have a few laughs at whatever-they-are-making-fun-of's expense, I don't see the point of going on. It gets monotonous and loses its humor for me.

This book is a dystopian set in an extreme consumer-driven world. Basically, a company that is definitely not Amazon has taken over and al ...more

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Feb 11, 2018 Auntie Terror rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

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

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Aug 31, 2019 Nenia ✨️ Socially Awkward Trash Panda ✨️ Campbell rated it really liked it

Shelves: help-help-i-m-being-repressed, science-fiction, les-arcs-de-triomphes

Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest

Qualityland is what happens when Big Business takes over politics and the economy. An online retailer called TheShop is an economic superpower that runs everything and everyone with handy algorithms. So what if they invade your privacy? They know what you want better than yourself, after all. In an odd nod to medieval times, people's surnames are named after their parents' professions, and people are accorded video game-like "levels" bas ...more

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Jan 26, 2020 Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader rated it really liked it

Qualityland is unique and genre-bending, described as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy meets 1984. It is entertaining, exciting, and a quick read with short chapters, which I LOVE. I’ve also downloaded the audio to listen to in the future because I previewed the narrator, and I think it’s going even more exciting in that format.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher.

Many of my reviews can also be found on instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader ...more

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Jul 04, 2020 Manny marked it as to-read

Shelves: translation-is-impossible, not-the-whole-truth

Not's bought the English edition of QualityLand, and I've been flicking through it. As several people had already led me to believe, it isn't as funny as it is in German. "Sweetie", the name of Sandra Admin's PDA, isn't as funny as Schnucki. "Listen to soft rock", as a euphemism for "have sex", isn't as funny as Kuschelrock hören. And "To make the markets fly, we just have to buy! So never share and don't repair!" isn't as funny as Neues kaufen, das ist recht. Reparieren, das ist schlecht. To na ...more

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Jun 14, 2020 Cecily rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

My review of this hugely entertaining book is for another edition, HERE.

This is NOT a review.
It’s a messy and incomplete list of the many books, films, theories that are referenced directly and indirectly.
It may be the basis of a Bingo drinking game.
But it’s not a review.

Don’t click to view unless you’ve read the book and want to compare.

(view spoiler) ...more

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Apr 26, 2020 Judith E rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: humor, fiction, science-fiction

Algorithms and capitalism gone wild! The “most perfect-est” country has all your needs even before you know you need them. A robot is running for president. Dating, shopping, and book sites have pre-selected your choices. Your profile signals deliveries of all sorts.

Qualityland is a humorous satire that speculates on how our world could deteriorate with reliance and trust of those that have access to our computer devices. (At least, I think it’s speculative. I’ve upped my paranoia to level 10 a ...more

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Apr 25, 2018 Sadie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: medium-audiobook, 4-stars-really-liked, g-humour, read-author-male-only, ty-fiction, g-dystopia-apocalypse, read-in-2018, read-in-german

Edited on 18th September 2019: I just found out that the English edition will be published on 7th January 2020, so keep an eye on it and/or possible ARCs: Qualityland (as much as I liked the double cover of the German original, the English version is even more beautiful and clever!) I listened to the audiobook and saw the theatre play, enjoyed both and now wholeheartedly recommend this to my English speaking friends and followers, hoping the translation will do it justice. /ETA

Das Wichtigste zue Edited on 18th September 2019: I just found out that the English edition will be published on 7th January 2020, so keep an eye on it and/or possible ARCs: Qualityland (as much as I liked the double cover of the German original, the English version is even more beautiful and clever!) I listened to the audiobook and saw the theatre play, enjoyed both and now wholeheartedly recommend this to my English speaking friends and followers, hoping the translation will do it justice. /ETA

Das Wichtigste zuerst: Möglichst als Hörbuch genießen. Marc-Uwe Kling liest einfach zu gut. Auch wenn ich die gedruckte Version nicht kenne und mir eigentlich keinen Vergleich erlauben kann - die Lesung ist genial, so voll mit perfekt abgestimmten Stimm- und Sprachwitz, dass ich es vermutlich schriftlich nicht ganz so genießen könnte.

QualityLand ist eine wunderbar spritzige, satirische Dystopie, die genau an den richtigen Stellen "piekst". Das Buch ist grundlegend politisch, ist aber kein rein politisches Buch (soll heißen: Auch wer sich nicht für Politik interessiert, wird seinen Spaß haben, es gibt noch genug andere Themen). Die Zukunft, die Kling hier schildert, ist unglaublich unfassbar und gleichzeitig unfassbar vorstellbar.

Totale Überwachung überall, getarnt als digitale Helferlein und "Lebenserleichterer". Sei es der virtuelle Shop, dessen Produkte nicht mal mehr bestellt werden müssen, da das System die Vorlieben seiner Kundschaft kennt (wirklich?); der soziale Status, der den Lebensstandard und -partner vorgibt oder der digitale Helfer, der immer ansprechbar ist (Alexa, Siri und Co. lassen grüßen). Auswahlmöglichkeiten werden nur vorgegaukelt, Androiden handeln oft am Menschlichsten. Alles klingt etwas verrückt, aber es gab genug Momente in diesem Buch, bei denen ich zustimmend nickte: "Yep, wir sind auf dem gerade Weg genau dorthin."

Ein kafka-esquer Hauptdarsteller in einem orwell-esquem Plot mit ganz viel kling-esquem, systemkritischem Humor. Total schräger Satz, daher hier noch einmal in Kurzform: Absolut hörenswert! ...more

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Jun 30, 2019 Emily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 2019, german

I was halfway through mentally composing a German review of this German book before learning that it's coming out in English in early 2020, with an HBO series to follow, so nochmal auf Englisch it is.

I burst out cackling in public several times while reading this, so I think it qualifies as quite funny. It's a dystopian future in which algorithms and filter bubbles completely control everyday life. People receive packages they haven't ordered (but are predicted to want) delivered by drones that ...more

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Jul 12, 2020 Todd rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Let’s say this, I am surprised by all the love this book has received here. Because, here’s the deal folks: It’s just not very good. Artistically, stylistically, creatively.

Now, let’s take a step back. In terms of the overall message of the book and the leanings of Marc-Uwe Kling, I am sympathetic. Really. Make no mistake, Marc-Uwe Kling is well-intentioned: he sets out to write a science fiction critique of late stage capitalism. The problem is that it’s just not very well executed.

We’ve seen Let’s say this, I am surprised by all the love this book has received here. Because, here’s the deal folks: It’s just not very good. Artistically, stylistically, creatively.

Now, let’s take a step back. In terms of the overall message of the book and the leanings of Marc-Uwe Kling, I am sympathetic. Really. Make no mistake, Marc-Uwe Kling is well-intentioned: he sets out to write a science fiction critique of late stage capitalism. The problem is that it’s just not very well executed.

We’ve seen it before, and we’ve seen better versions. If you want to see genius late stage capitalism fiction check out Gaddis's JR. From my perspective, that's the bar and the standard bearer. At a considerably lower level, even my coworker at a think tank in the late aughts wrote one on about par with Qualityland. It was really fan fiction for 1984, except it’s corporations run amok. Sound familiar?

To Marc-Uwe Kling’s credit, at times he’s pretty funny. After that, there’s not much to recommend Qualityland (and dystopian and anti-corporation fiction is going through a bit of a moment). The writing is just not very good. The rule of thumb goes: show it, don't say it. Well in Qualityland we have characters saying it all over the place. Here we have characters quoting and explaining Moore's Law, Bertrand Russell, the Legend of Indian Rice Pudding, and the list goes on. It makes you feel for women getting mansplained.

Beyond that, and going deeper to the structure of the story, the climax and the falling action are both predictable and utterly unrealistic. The main gag about a dolphin vibrator was kind of funny the first couple of times, but it got old pretty quick. Qualityland places all it's marbles on the power of revealing secretly recorded conversation; it did this shtick three times. (view spoiler)

It makes you ask: what are we doing here. Are we handing out participation trophies? To my former coworker, basic decency says you have to be nice, applaud, and pretend it’s just a fantastic piece of art. That’s not the case here. We can do better. Let's expect better. ...more

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Jun 30, 2020 Krista rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020

So you're off to QualityLand for the first time ever. Are you excited? Yes? And quite rightly so!

QualityLand is set is some distant future (hard to say how distant, but they'll need to defrost the cryogenically-preserved Jennifer Aniston to film more rom-coms when her movies unexpectedly regain popularity), and despite the book itself being pretty funny (in the vein of Douglas Adams or Kurt Vonnegut), the world it describes is dehumanisingly shallow and bleak – and pretty much exactly what we're scrolling ourselves towards. Control of human lives is taken over by a few big internet companies and their algorithms; governments are cynically run by self-interested, partisan boobs; and AI is poised to take over as the apex sentience on the planet. The plot was a bit predictable – a little guy attempts to push back against the system and incidentally wakes others up to their own predicament as cogs in the machine – but this was thoroughly entertaining and I am excited to see that QualityLand appears to be the first in a series by Marc-Uwe Kling.

As you don't yet know your way around QualityLand, we've put together a brief introduction for you. Two years before QualityLand was founded – or in other words, two years before QualityTime – there was an economic crisis of such severity that it became known as the crisis of the century. It was the third crisis of the century within just a decade. Swept along by the panic of the financial markets, the government turned for help to the business consultants from Big Business Consulting (BBC) who decided that what the country needed most was a new name. The old one was worn-out and, according to surveys, only inspired die-hard nationalists with minimal buying power. Not to mention the fact that the renaming would also divest the country of a few unpleasant historical responsibilities in the process. In the past, its army had been known to...well, let's just say they overshot the mark a little.

“QualityLand”, the country, is the future rebranding of Germany (focus groups first wanted “EqualityLand”, but the initial “E” was dropped for the marketing of domestic goods), and it seems important to read the book in this context. Schoolchildren no longer study History, they study the Future (leading to such absurdities as a popular play called Hitler!—the Musical, subtitled “The Story of Ado & Eva” and described as “The tragic love story between two controversial historical figures”; two adults who go to see the show have no idea who Ado and Eva were, and that's some bold erasing of the past in the vein of 1984.) Yet somehow in this future, QualityLand has expanded its borders beyond those of today's Germany – it's an oft-repeated fact that QualityLand 7 is a hotbed of terrorists and religious fanatics and a character says at one point, “I'd far prefer it if my briefs were sewn by a machine in QualityLand 2 than by some little girl in QualityLand 8.” (And while I think that these ideas may be even more interesting for German readers to encounter, and while I have seen people musing that by dominating the EU, Germany today seems to have accomplished economically what Hitler failed to do militaristically, I don't know if I completely buy in to the concept that decades out from now, Germany will be more globally influential than, say, China.)

At precisely the moment when Peter arrives home, a delivery drone from TheShop turns up. Peter is no longer surprised by occurrences of this kind. They don't happen by chance, for chance simply no longer exists.

As for the plot: The narrative is roughly divided into three points-of-view. Peter Jobless (males are given their father's profession as a surname, females their mother's – leading to such ironies as Juliet Nun and Scarlett Prisoner) is a low-level scrap-metal press operator, and like every other person in QualityLand, he accepts that TheShop will send him all of the items he wants before he even consciously knows what he wants. He also accepts that he has been given a personal rating between 2 and 99 that affects every area of his life – credit rating, where he can live, who he can date or marry, his job prospects, etc. When a drone delivers an item that Peter decidedly does not want, he begins a journey that will lead him (and others) to publicly question the inscrutable computer codes that govern all of their lives. Meanwhile, there is an impending election (the current president is on her deathbed and an algorithm has set the next election date for the day of her calculated death), and POV switches to the domestic scenes of the privileged and dimwitted backbencher Martyn Chairman:

Martyn has made the best of his limited possibilities: he has become a politician. A popular, well-established choice, parliament being a kind of modern-day monastery; a place where the upper classes can get rid of their superfluous sons.

And the campaign headquarters of John of Us, the first android made specifically to run for political office:

“I'm not voting for John of Us in spite of the fact he's an android,” he says. “I'm electing him precisely because he is! Machines don't make mistakes.”

Facing off against this progressive android (who proposes such radicalisms as a guaranteed basic income for all, funded by big banks and corporations) is the populist Conrad Cook:

“There's no one in the world less racist than me. No one. But that doesn't change the fact that these Mediterranean types are all lazy, negroes are all criminals, and Arabs are all terrorists. These are facts, pure and simple. And yet, I must emphasize this: never in the history of humanity has there been a man less racist than me!”

Interspersed throughout the story are more entries in the QualityLand Travel Guide (as quoted in the first two passages above), pop-up ads, and passages from newsfeeds (complete with combative comment threads and paid trolling). This does not look like a nice world to live in, and it's not that far off from the one I find myself in today. Maybe it's because it seems so plausible that QualityLand didn't feel radically original to me, but as it does seem to be the first in a series, this volume may have been more focussed on the world-building than the story-telling. In any event, I found this read to be completely entertaining and I would very happily pick up whatever comes next. ...more

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Aug 27, 2019 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, giveaways

Like if Hitchhikers Guide Met Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Very funny and worth checking out if you like either of the above.

Full RTC.

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Jan 01, 2020 Tucker (TuckerTheReader) rated it really liked it

Shelves: dystopian, humor, finished-copies-physical, science-fiction, 4-stars

Many thanks to Grand Central Publishing for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

"What if we live in a world where everything is exact but wrong?

This was quite an interesting read. It was a mash-up of Robopocalypse and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and it was so much fun!

So, what's this book about?
Welcome to QualityLand, the best country on Earth. Here, a universal ranking system determines the social advantages and career opportunities of every member of soci ...more

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Jan 23, 2020 Kim Lockhart rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Rarely would I consider a lampoonish parody of our culture as worthy of 5 stars, but this novel is pitch-perfectly clever.

QualityLand begins by posing the question: what if nearly any problem could be solved by rebranding? Maybe perception truly is more important than reality.

The best rebranding is of the Nuremberg defense, but the other elements are pretty spot-on, too, in this farcical treatise about the unforeseen consequences of data mining, propaganda, and dependence on technology.

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Apr 02, 2018 Auntie Terror rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

As good as the book, maybe even better. I don't know whether that is because of the edition (black vs. gray) or because of Kling's abilities as a reader. ...more

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Feb 01, 2020 Nursebookie rated it it was amazing

QualityLand Marc-Uwe Kling

Thank you Grand Central Publishing and @librofm for the audio copy of this book that I absolutely loved and enjoyed listening to.

This was initially published in German 2017. QualityLand is part science fiction, part speculative and one hundred percent amazing!

Just imagine a world where data rules everything we do from who we date, what we buy, where we work and what opportunities presented were based on points. Predictive algorithm rules most of the day to day activiti ...more

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Mar 02, 2020 Sahitya rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia, politics-feminism-religion, 2020-read, fantasy-and-scifi

Probably a 3.5.

This satire on capitalism, tech companies and the way our lives are so dependent on algorithms set in a future where all of these things have been taken to an extreme is quite hilarious. The way language is used, or how we live in our own confirmation bias bubbles or even electoral politics - the author makes a lot of fun about all of them but we can also clearly see the parallels to our current reality and that uncanniness was a bit scary too. It’s also very easy to read despite ...more

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Nov 25, 2017 John Hatley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is an excellent read. Its vision of the future expertly combines an alarming view of where our current internet obsession could lead us (or maybe we're already there?) with an unusually refreshing sense of humour.

And besides, Marc-Uwe Kling is a good writer.

I can highly recommend this book. ...more

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Sep 04, 2020 Maria Hill AKA MH Books rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: library, science-fiction, dystopia, comedy

I really should show my independent thought and not rank this one. Let’s just say this is the BEST book about QualityLand ever written.

A satire of a near dystopian future. A future so near when this book was written in 2017 that we have already, in 2020, passed it in many ways. LOL funny, true, and totally irreverent. It has a purple dolphin vibrator that lights up – would else could one want.

Oh, another copy that is written in the original language – thanks ~~TheShop~~Amazon.

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Mar 02, 2018 Tim rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, reviewed, own, deutsch, audio

I don't read German books that often, though I hope to read a few this year. One must maintain one's knowledge and skills, which can be done in various ways: reading, listening, writing, ... separately or combined. Audio books are useful tools in this context.

The premise of 'QualityLand' looked very promising: (dystopic) science-fiction with a good slab of humour. Also perfect to listen to in the car, for example. Although the story takes place in the future, it can really be considered a satire ...more

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Jun 12, 2020 Paul Ataua rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Arrrgh! Everybody loved it except me! The two words that come to mind are ‘hilarious’ and ‘satire’. Unfortunately, I have never found anything described as ‘hilarious’ that funny, and I am not a fan of satire that goes nowhere, satire that that is just a string of jokes bound together, jokes like the one here where we have a vacuum cleaner that was mistakenly sent to a war zone that led to the general reporting that it was the cleanest battlefield he had ever seen. What puzzles me is that it has ...more

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Jun 21, 2020 Kitty Red-Eye rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: europe, fiction, fantasy-or-scifi, aa-ferdig, philosophy-ideas

Very clever, at times hilarious, parodic dystopia of a world in which nothing is private and everything for sale. Some resemblance to the «Nosedive» episode of Black Mirror, only worse, and comedic. References to a wide range of literature and movies, but the individual rating system reminded me the strongest of Nosedive.

I read the German edition, in which most trademarks and many punchlines, especially commercial ones, are in English. I’m no native speaker, but have the strong impression that ...more

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Sep 12, 2020 Sherron rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I give this all five smooches! 💋💋💋💋💋

Starting with cover design, the goodreads book cover gets a thumbs up. The author’s named looks like a rubbed out “E” and makes it clear we’re talking about QualityLand, folks—not EqualityLand.

This is a dystopian satire inspired by the rise and rise of Amazon. Its topics are smart: freedom of choice, profiling, economics, friendship, and the way the story is told is just as compelling. I want to reread it again, as well as The Warehouse. And I’m chagrined my ...more

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About Marc-Uwe Kling

Marc-Uwe Kling

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Marc-Uwe Kling wurde geboren. Er studierte an der Großen Akademie von Lagado, wie man ein Haus vom Dach her nach unten baut. Er hat über seinen Mitbewohner, ein kommunistisches Känguru, drei kapitalismuskritische Bücher geschrieben, welche sich total gut verkaufen. Außerdem macht er mit seiner Band „Die Gesellschaft“ Reformhauspunk und am Ende muss wieder der Steuerzahler für alles aufkommen. Hey. ...more

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QualityLand (2 books)

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Das Känguru-Manifest (Die Känguru-Chroniken, #2)

Die Känguru-Offenbarung (Die Känguru-Chroniken, #3)

QualityLand 2.0 (QualityLand - Saga, #2)

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Quotes from Qualityland

“Wie weise von der Regierung, dass sie den Geschichtsunterricht schon vor fünfzehn Jahren abgeschafft und durch den Zukunftsunterricht ersetzt hat.” — 4 likes

“He said: the question today is how one can convince humanity to consent to their own survival.” — 2 likes

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