Microchip: The Agenda Is Now

Humanity is on the cusp of a dark age in which everyone will be microchipped from birth, making privacy nonexistent and linking the masses to an enslaving global machine intelligence that serves the ruling elite. Those few who oppose the microchipping—including crude biker Glick and 74-year-old grandmother Emma Jackson—must find the self-sufficient haven called Hidden Village in Utah in order to stay off the grid and survive. Interesting characters and rising tension often screech to a halt for pages of info dumping (sometimes including footnotes) that blend disturbing reports of economic manipulation, the possible use of broadcast towers for mind control, and statistics on the execution of dissidents in nations with gun control laws. Readers may also cringe at an encounter with generic Indians that reads like a master list of stereotypes. Barnes never quite strikes a balance between novel and polemic, and the farther-flung ideas will leave readers cold to the more solid facts and story alike. (Jan.)