+ My new novel, Bandwidth, launches today +
I started this newsletter to share books that champion big ideas, entertain with wild abandon, and help us find meaning in a changing world. Today, I have a single book recommendation that I know will hit your precise sweet spot, because I've been pouring my heart and soul into it since 2016.
After two years in the works, my new novel Bandwidth is out today. Bandwidth is a science fiction thriller featuring hackers and spies grappling over the geopolitics of climate change, with a group of techno-utopian activists hijacking the global feed to manipulate world leaders. Fast-paced, lush, and philosophical, it will suck you in and stick with you long after you reach the end. Brad Feld calls it "spectacular near-term science fiction" and Ramez Naam describes it as "an all-too-plausible thriller of power, morality, and global consequences."
The rough draft grew in fits and starts. This was a turbulent time in the United States, and it was impossible to escape the chaos and outrage of the presidential election. Technology played a disturbing and divisive role in that election, defying the starry-eyed pronouncements all too common in Silicon Valley. Judging by the current news cycle, there is still ample material for investigative journalists to dig their teeth into.
But great novels offer something different from great reporting. Fiction shines when it entertains and challenges us at the same time. It transports us. It offers an opportunity to move beyond intellectual debate and play out ideas in the gritty, intimate, messy context of people’s actual lives. It forces us to put things in perspective and to ask hard questions even if we don’t have ready answers.
If we are the stories we tell ourselves, what happens when someone else controls the narrative? If every detail of your life was algorithmically engineered, would you even be able to trust yourself? What does it take for a cynic to rediscover authenticity? How is technology changing the structure and exercise of power? When absolute data corrupts absolutely, what price would you pay to change the world?
These were some of the recurring questions that surfaced again and again as I worked my way through Bandwidth chapter by chapter, scene by scene, word by word. They are questions I am forced to consider every day when I succumb to the distraction of social media, find myself ignoring injustice because it all just seems to be too much, or contemplate just how out of touch our social institutions are from a world of accelerating innovation.
These are dark thoughts, and there is a dark vein running through Bandwidth. But whenever I struggle, I try to channel the protagonist's passion for history. I’d rather live in 2018 than in 1918. Or 1818. Or 1718. Or any other time.
By historical standards, most people alive today enjoy miracles that the emperors of old could only dream of (and likely didn’t). We are a lucky and privileged few, and whatever corruption and injustice we seek to overcome isn’t new or unique. And that leads us to a challenging conclusion.
The world is what we make it.
If we throw up our hands when the going gets tough, we get what we deserve. So take a deep breath, do some gentle stretching, and make the world a better place. Do a favor for a stranger. Be kind when instinct calls for harshness. Question your assumptions. Make good art. Tell your loved ones how grateful you are to have them in your life. Lend a hand to those in need. Take real risks to do the right thing. And, of course, read Bandwidth!
I may have written Bandwidth, but its success depends on you. Here's what you can to do help:
Buy a copy right now. Early sales make an outsize impact on a book's success. They catapult it up the Amazon rankings, contribute to it getting featured as a hot new release, and attract attention from press and booksellers. This matters. The ebook will appear instantly on your Kindle, the audiobook narration is A++, and the hardcover has some gorgeous design touches, including velvet lamination on the eye-popping cover.
Leave a review ASAP. Early positive reviews give books a critical boost in Amazon's algorithms (Goodreads too!), exposing it to new readers who depend on your good judgement. It only takes a few minutes and makes a huge difference. Oh, and I read every single review so I can't wait to see what you have to say.
Share it with your friends. We discover our next favorite story thanks to someone we trust recommending it to us. I can't emphasize enough how important this is. Whisper about it in the shadows and shout about it from the rooftops. Post about it on social media and gift it to folks who might love it. If you have an audience of your own, I'm happy to field any questions.
You are the best readers any writer could hope for. You are the people who inspire me to push through when I struggle. You are the people who challenge me to dig deeper, work harder, and take things to the next level. You are the people I write for.
Books live and die based on word-of-mouth and Bandwidth's future is in your capable hands.
A thousand thanks, Eliot
If this email was forwarded to you and you'd like to sign up, just click here.