Momentum (review)

In the hyper-surveilled, highly stratified London of the future, privileged Citizens, who value security and technology, are pitted against disenfranchised Outsiders, who value community and freedom and recognize the price of the Citizens' way of living. Hunter longs for a taste of real life that hasn't been sanitized and sensationalized by the virtual reality overlays that heighten Citizen existence, and he falls in with Outsider Uma after a police raid on a funeral she's attending forces her to entrust him with an artifact holding codes key to the Outsiders' underground virtual network. From there, the unlikely allies must work together to locate the next Keeper of the Codes to replace Uma's arrested aunt. Unfortunately, their chemistry doesn't justify the focus on to their budding romance, as both characters are more avatars of their respective societies than individuals with unique yearnings. The quest itself illuminates the central social conflict but doesn't move it forward—Uma and Hunter are essentially fighting to maintain plans that are already in motion—which makes for an unsatisfying arc as all the nail-biting near-misses resolve into a conclusion that looks much like the beginning, with the exception of Hunter's place in it. Still, Lloyd is careful to show the cost to the oppressors as well as the oppressed in this bleak extrapolated future, and both halves of society are well developed with complex dynamics. Hand this to readers who are interested in an action-heavy, plugged-in dystopia with a social conscience and who have already exhausted Lloyd's earlier variations on the subject (The Carbon Diaries 2015, BCCB 6/09, etc.).