Neon Empire is a dystopian novel in keeping with works by George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. The author vividly describes a plausible near-future world in which social media is even more overt than it is now. The city, Eutopia, has been built on a Native American Reservation and thus can avoid various legalities in other parts of America. Eutopia is like Las Vegas on steroids, with various sections of the city duplicating the Old World (Paris, Berlin, Rome, etc) sites as Europe is now under travel advisories. The buildings, like the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, are shells with the insides being stores for high-end consumer goods (Apple, trendy Italian designers, etc), spas, and casinos. Tourists can monetize their stays in the city. Life there is frenzied and glittering while f filled with drugs, sex, and murder and other violent crimes (some of which are staged and other real).
The world-building and story were enough to keep me turning pages. Jaded, manipulative, self-centered, and self-promoting, the characters were appropriate, in keeping with life in Eutopia, though not necessarily agreeable to read. There is a big plot point left hanging in the air, so perhaps a sequel is in order?
Not an enjoyable read, but a necessary one, as our culture is becoming more and more dominated by social media. People need to be shaken up from time to time, and Minh’s novel does that. Neon Empire shows us where we are heading—and it’s more scary than 1984.
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