Rash (review)

Bo Marsten comes from a family of hot-tempered men, and in the year 2076 in the United Safer States of America, where even a verbal insult is punishable by law, this may prove to be a liability. After Bo's annoying classmate and chief track rival Karlohs Mink falsely accuses Bo of spreading an infectious rash and Bo finally takes a swing at his nemesis, he is sentenced to work in a pizza factory in the Canadian tundra, guarded by vicious polar bears. There he meets a new enemy in the factory owner, known only as Hammer ("You are my nails," he tells the prisoners). Hammer is also the coach of an illegal football team, offering the inmates who participate early parole if they defeat opposing teams from rival prison factories. Meanwhile, Bo's school AI assignment, named Bork, has achieved sentience in Bo's absence and reappears on the scene in an attempt to marshal legal evidence against Hammer in order to engineer Bo's release. This futuristic satire is loaded with humorous touches that are also political jabs—the prisons are owned by McDonalds, the health-care system by Philip Morris, and the only currency available is in Visabucks credit. Sly touches, including almost everyone's being drugged to mute their aggressive impulses and athletic activities requiring padded suits on padded tracks, are especially amusing in this age of medication and litigation. If it's a tad too convenient that Bork achieves sentience just in time to spring Bo from prison, theirs is nevertheless an appealing relationship, achieved through rapid-fire online dialogue replete with comical misunderstanding. Those who enjoyed Anderson's futuristic wired dystopia Feed (BCCB 11/02) will appreciate this sci-fi vision spiced with generous dollops of goofy dialogue that leaven the bleakness without diluting the social commentary.