Though I was enjoying it thoroughly I was giving this book the side-eye because I find it hard to accept that any fiction set in the near future will not be dominated by climate change. Then as I realised what the book was doing, the rationale became apparent. Just as removing the book from the current setting does away with the distractions of current dominating personalities and issues in order to examine the fundamental problems of information and democracy, so too does sidelining what is sure to be a major concern for any political process in the century to come in order to avoid distorting the books central concerns. In one throaway paragraph near the end one of the main characters stops playing a popular game in disgust because the main villain has been changed to resemble a populiast figure mired in scandal - so much for the utility of culture in dealing with political problems, which is perhaps ironic in a science fiction novel. 

Anyway, it's been a while since I've read a science fiction novel so throoughly centred on political process - Bruce Sterling's Distraction and Interface, co-authored by Neal Stephenson are all I can think of - and it really is amazing how much thrills and drama can be wring from wonkish folk wrangling data and trends. there's the odd chase and the retaking of an office block, but it's all about the election in a future system where democracy has been broken down to areas of 100,000 people, or centenals, each one goverened by its own govrnement, whichever group has the most centenals is the Supermajority. It's a new system, going into its second election of a ten-year cycle, managed by Information, a neutral body that disseminates data and counts votes and oversees campaiging. 

Ken works for Polcy1st, a wonkish group, slipping into centenals to guage the likelihood of turning them Policy1st's way. Mishima works for Information, running security and general troubleshooting. Seperately they start to hear rumblings o f dodgy goings-on in ceratin dominant groups, and together, if they can somehow manage to trust each other, they can prevent the whole system becoing corrupted. Through an earthquake, an information blackout and a contentious election, they commit to the drudgery of monitoring yrends and keeping the data flowing, and somehow, it's exciting and readable and even important - just the right balance of idealism and disillusionment (and enthusiams and burnout) to keep the non-glamorous work of keeping democracy working to explore the central issues of our political systems without being jaded or cynical.