Louise Carey’s debut novel Inscape is a smart, modern sci-fi thriller, a dystopian tale exploring a worryingly realistic future in which corporations dominate every aspect of life, and London is held on a knife-edge between two all-powerful tech behemoths. Tanta is a Corporate Ward of InTech, raised to be utterly loyal to the company which has given her everything, and trained to be the consummate agent. When her first full mission ends in blood and loss, she throws herself into hunting down the source of leaked corporate data alongside a partner whose chequered history and weary worldview couldn’t be more different to her own. Tanta is desperate to succeed and prove her value to InTech, but as her investigation proceeds she’s forced to confront some difficult truths about the company and her life up to this point.
It’s a pacy, action-packed story that’s full of excitement, thrills and more than a few moments of genuine (in some cases stomach-churning) darkness, but its real strength lies in its characters and the emotional journey that Carey puts them through. The mystery at the heart of the story is cleverly plotted and consistently engaging, but it takes something of a back seat to the character development as an interesting relationship builds between Tanta and her partner Cole. Tanta in particular has a clever, compelling arc, as her apparent subservience and puppy-like need to please (not to mention frankly disturbing sincerity in spouting cliched corporate bullshit) is gradually revealed to have a sinister source, and while her partnership with Cole is initially troubled and awkward it grows into a strong friendship as they find a balance between their skills and outlooks.
Their investigation provides plenty of opportunities to explore the city and get a sense of this post-apocalyptic version of London, the way it’s partitioned out between corporations and what life is like for those who fall between the cracks. There’s very little in the way of named landmarks (beyond the Thames), although those familiar with London might well spot and enjoy a few hints here and there, but the strong world-building goes beyond the physical aspects of the city, too. There’s plenty of cool tech for characters to play with, with augmented reality (AR) featuring heavily, but it’s the corporate landscape that’s most effective. This particular model of politics and governance through the lens of corporate hierarchies and bureaucracy is worryingly plausible, and for all that Inscape is set many years in the future it’s not hard to see the links between this and the current realities of the real world.
Some of the themes here, like the cost of sacrificing privacy for the convenience of technology, have been explored plenty of times before, but in this context Carey mines them for interesting and effective new angles. There’s also a sinister seam of neurological programming, not quite mind control but more psychological conditioning and manipulation, while both main characters are missing pieces of themselves, whether that’s memories, emotions or ordinary personality traits. Taken all together, with the excellent world building and fast-paced plot, you’ve got a gripping, characterful novel which hits all the right notes for a breathless modern SF thriller. As the first volume in a planned trilogy there are a few arcs left deliberately hanging by the end, but the core narrative resolves in a suitably satisfying manner for it to stand on its own as a strong, entertaining novel that’s genuinely difficult to put down.
Many thanks to Gollancz and Louise Carey for providing me with an advance copy of Inscape in exchange for my honest review as part of the Blog Tour for this book.
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