I highly recommend Cory Doctrow's novel, Walkaway. Yes, the characters in Walkaway are not deeply developed. And, yes, jargon and slang infiltrates the dialogue like kudzu unfurling in a temperate forest baked by climate-change. However, Doctrow's amazingly successful world building made it easy for me to get past those issues. This novel is a member of a rare species, a Must Read that is also fun to read.

The world that Doctrow creates in Walkaway is one of the most difficult to pull off, I think. It is a world very close in time to our own, and very like our own. The science and technology we read about is not unobtainable, and although the airships used by Walkaways to flyaway bring Steampunk to mind, this is not a Steampunk world. Socially and economically, the world in Walkaway follows paths already in place in "our" world.

There is much commentary in Walkaway, on topics ranging from political to economic to social. The commentary is primary embedded in character dialogue, and that approach works about 85% of the time. Admittedly, there are points when spoken ideologic observations work against the development of an character into someone we can believe in and care about. In my opinion, this drawback does not affect the overall success of the novel.

Of course it is difficult to write about the conversations that occur in Walkaway without treading into Spoiler Territory. However, I think most readers will find that novel contains thoughtful observations that go beyond, and push the reader to think beyond, introductory level concepts. For example, (and this will not be a spoiler), when a member of the 1% and a Walkaway debate the value of charitable non-profit foundations set up by the wealthy... the usual glowing accolades accorded to selfless wealthy individuals who "give away" so much money are refuted by the Walkaway. These foundations are not created out of the goodness of your heart, she asserts. They are created so the rich, like you, can stay in control of where their money goes, running the world like it is another of their private cooperations. Expressing this viewpoint, I think, calls for a certain fearlessness. Walkaway contains the fearless expression of many such observations.

Of note, I admit to being inclined personally toward a "Bernie" viewpoint, and lean far away from Trump's ideology. So I embraced most of the observations and comments I read in Walkaway. However, readers with different viewpoints may well react to the novel with less delight than I did. I hope, however, that the majority of readers will take on, and finish the novel, even if the urge strikes to walk away.