The Red Men

The Seizure #1

by Matthew De Abaitua

"Makes Michel Houellebecq seem like Enid Blyton."-Matt ThorneNelson used to be a radical journalist, but now he works for Monad, one of the world's leading corporations. Monad makes the Red Men-tireless, intelligent, creative, and entirely virtual corporate workers-and it's looking to expand the program.Nelson finds himself at the helm of a grand project whose goals appear increasingly authoritarian and potentially catastrophic. As the boundaries between Redtown and the real world become ever more brittle, Nelson finds himself forced to choose the corporation or the community, the real or the virtual.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Dystopia, Artificial Intelligence, Fantasy, Robots

380 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Glenn Russell]

Wild, wild ride.

The Red Men - a terrific action/adventure tale packed with an entire list of New Wave SF themes.

British author Matthew De Abaitua sets the frame thusly: one-time radical journalist Nelson Millar now works for Monad, a megacorporation focusing on futuristic technologies. But when Nelson oversees the creation of a digital suburb not too far from Liverpool called Redtown filled with Red Men (see below), events take unexpected turns and Nelson must face life and death moral choices.

Have a gander at my rendition of the novel's trailer:

IDENTITY DUPLICATION
Red Men (Nelson, creative type that he is, came up with the name) are, to use company jargon, the new new thing. “We record hotspots of molecular activity in crucial areas of the brain through non-invasive surface scanning, combine that with in-depth interviews with the subject, supplemented with our unique exegesis of their outline behaviour, and plug all that information into our artificial intelligence. At the end of the process, we get something which looks like you, talks like you, and thinks a bit like you.”

The exact physical reality of the Red Men, their existing exclusively as computerized avatars or manifesting as something more tangible, say, as holographic images, is purposefully vague, an ambivalence leaving room for each reader's imagination.

THE DOCTOR IS IN
This near-future world features such as Dr Easy, a thin, somewhat frail robot that can speak in a warm compassionate voice, offering humans psychological comfort or the needed attention for one's physical injuries. Here's a great video of the novel's first chapter where Dr Easy attempts to effectively deal with a gunman on the loose: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xslAP...

But when Dr Easy proves, well, too soft and easy for a crisis, there's always Dr Hard, a robot in many ways better suited for this future age of terror. Dr Hard doesn't invite polite conversation. Sheathed in indestructible metal, Dr Hard is forever combat-ready.

BALLS
Interspecies transplants also play a part in the novel's unfolding drama. Here's a snip to serve as foretaste: a burly business executive recently underwent an operation where he now has pig testicles. During a corporate cocktail hour, an attractive young lady asks if he shoots pig's sperm, to which our empowered hero asserts: “I do. Lots of it. Also when I get a surge of testosterone, I want to rut like a pig. I want to nuzzle with my snout intensely and then mount.”

CORPORATE NIGHTMARE
Nelson's nonconformist poet friend Raymond desperately needs a job to crawl out of poverty. Since megacorp Monad requires the services of creative types for one aspect of public relations regarding Red Men, they're willing to hire Raymond and other poets and prose writers. However, working for Monad carries a huge price: one must surrender one's privacy, one's individuality and any moral sense running counter to corporate goals.

Accordingly, The Red Men brings to mind two short novels of corporate horror by American author Thomas Ligotti: My Work Is Not Yet Done and I Have A Special Plan For This World. And it is this aspect of De Abaitua's thought-provoking tale I personally found most fascinating. Thus I'll zero in on the following:

CONSTANT SURVEILLANCE AND PRODDING
Nelson informs Raymond his must keep alert since he will be observed from the moment he steps into the sleek new building housing the offices of Monad. And added to these invasive corporate cameras, there's an unending ticker of information reporting customer orders, subscriber feedback and... a la North Korea, "hourly encouragement from the management". Corporate horror isn't overstatement: such jackboot manipulations are violations against humanity.

CAREER DRUGS
Nelson waits as manager Morton Eakins takes his career drugs, an absolute necessity, for as Morton explains, “Once you pass forty, your faculties recede every single day. New memories struggle to take hold and you are unable to assimilate novelty. Monad is novelty. Monad is the new new thing. Without career drugs, the future will overwhelm us, wave after wave after wave.”

Ahhh! How revolting. In this near future world, corporate types take career drugs the way our current athletes take performance drugs. And if such imbibing ruins one's health after age sixty? Hey, screw old age - my success in career and performance are all that counts.

ALBERT CAMUS REDUX
Raymond can only take off two days when his father dies: one day for the funeral and one day of “compassionate leave”. Ramond is so frustrated and emotionally conflicted. We hear echoes of Meursault (from The Stranger, published 1942) apologizing to his manager at the shipping office for having to attend his mother’s funeral. Some things never change: for both Raymond and Meursault, a family death is an unwelcomed inconvenience and interruption in the world of business and profits.

MONAD IS THE WAY GOD WOULD WANT IT
Nelson acknowledges all the sixties counter-culture prophecies have come true, especially “a fundamentalist Christian business culture.” For examples from our current day, we need look no further than Texas oil companies. Keep in mind Matthew De Abaitua was writing his novel in the aftermath of 9/11 and George W. Bush's Christian crusade.

KEEPING UP APPEARANCES
In corporate world, how you look, how you come off means so much. However, as everyone concedes, "ugliness was a perk confined to management." Well, with qualification: corporations are thoroughly sexist: you're allowed to be an ugly manager unless you are a woman. Good luck to a beautiful corporate woman who loses her looks. Honey, you've just lost a good hunk of your power.

SELLING OUT
Raymond the poet comes to a moment of truth. “Selling out had never been a problem before because no one had wanted to buy. Why are we kneecapping ourselves with artistic principles when we are yet to produce any art.” Again, artistic integrity vs. doing others' bidding to make money is a key theme. This reminds me of a picture cartoon where a writer with a beard stands up from his desk and tells his wife, “The hell with literature. I'm going to get a shave and start writing novels that will sell.”

CELESTIAL CEO
Nelson has to ask himself, "Was Hermes Spence about to launch the world's first Gnostic consultancy?" Hermes Spence heads up Monad. Hermes is supersmart and a man who insists on getting his own way - even if it means destroying others. To glean a more complete understanding of what Hermes Spence stands for and how far he will go with his vision, I urge you to grab a copy of The Red Men and strap yourself in for the ride.


British author Matthew De Abaitua, born 1971

[Tim Pendry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A superior gnostic sci-fi horror which weaves the anomie of modern corporate man and a satire on the world of business gurudom with chaos magick and a dark seam of esoteric horror.

There are shades of J. G Ballard here and, if you can get past the knowing comic writing that is now de rigueur in any post-modern science fiction that deals with inner rather than outer space, there is something important being said about the way our minds and perceptions are being changed by the new technologies.

Like many other writers in this genre of sci-fi/horror, he delights in telling a story that unfolds in real streets you can walk down today- and so it owes something to that psychogeographic genre created by Sinclair and Ackroyd. Recommended and worth stopping occasionally as you read it to think about where our culture is heading ...

[Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Yesterday we discussed how I am an artificial intelligence sent from the future who has unconsciously created a terrible enemy to evolve against. Today, we discuss my relationship with your laundry. Your company is a cavalcade of surprises, Nelson.”

I don't know why my review-writing brain has deserted me. I've been trying all day to come up with something profound to say about this excellent, hilarious book & nothing is clicking for me. Hurry back, words of mine! In the meantime, just read this. Like, seriously. Staff recommends.

[Jason]

This is the book we optioned. Excellent read and a smart book. SciFi mixed with a mid-life crisis. I've read it so many times I know it like the back of my hand now. And it's really funny to boot.

..but I would say that wouldn't I - we bought it.

[Janos Honkonen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Red Men was an awesome read, both as a sci-fi and as a literary experience. The story is a fascinating mix of corporate culture, pop-occult, themes of artificial consciousness and virtual worlds, Philip K. Dickian reality bending and interesting milieus and characterizations. The Kindle version of the book has some 13 000 words trimmed out, and apparently the more elaborate literary flourishes got the boot, which makes the text flow while feeling still rich and evocative. I picked up Red Men with no preconceptions of any kind and put it down somewhat stunned. Damn. As a writer, this is one of the books I wish I would've written.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s hard to tell what is going on in de Abaitua’s novels (literally). But they’re thought provoking, and he has interesting commentary on how artificial intelligence, Big Data and the global market are controlling us.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminded me of Seventies era science fiction, where new modes of consciousness were accessible through drugs, but now it's on a corporate scale

[Shawn Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Near future Sci-Fi offers us the ability to reflect our own times and Matthew De Abaitua does that brilliantly with The Red Men. What better devices for metaphor than the avatars displayed in this tale of corporate greed, runaway technology and human frailty. He uses Technology as a mirror of our worse selves and our ultimate master, much to our own detriment.

What De Abaituna does really well though is delineate the domestic and the personal with the corporate and technological. Some of his pithy asides on the intimate lives of his characters were wonderfully written and gave the whole tale much more depth and gravitas. Indeed, these contrasted brilliantly with the Machiavellian, goal orientated speech of those engaged in the corporate goals of commerce and the creation and exploitation of the Red Men. The human and the machine, love and commerce.

[Kars · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts out very strong with a scathing critique of contemporary tech mega corps. The red men concept is well conceived. The second section jarred me a bit by the introduction of Leto and his followers. It appears the author tried to do some high PKD style weirdness but it never really gels with the rest of the novel, at least for me. I was captivated though, a highly enjoyable read.

[Vuk Trifkovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent piece. The characters are great, the observations really sharp. Plot can be a bit rough in places, a bit rushed and confused. The SF bits are meh, but overall impression is still very good. I'm surprised it has not been more popular...

[Andy Theyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully inventive speculative fiction. More grounded than Jeff Noon, but in that same near future where the advancement of science is as much about the inside of our heads as it is about the outside world.

[Mitchell Stern · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has an interesting premise and raises compelling questions about the nature of AI and our current socio-economic system. Unfortunately it is bogged down by mediocre execution and at times confusing narrative structure.

[James Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pleasing, quick read written by someone who clearly knows my Hackney neighbourhood very well. I enjoyed the way the author played with gnostic concepts and the fact that it never quite resolved.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 3.25 of 5

Monad is possibly the world's largest corporation - they make androids. The androids known as Dr Easys assist the London police, patrolling the streets and calming the citizens.

Monad also makes the Red Men androids. The Red Men are virtual corporate workers who never tire and are highly intelligent and very creative.

Redtown is a virtual city inhabited by copies of real people doing everyday, ordinary things from reading the daily paper to serving in government. This simulated world provides a perfect opportunity for the real world scientists and sociologists to study their behavior and observe this perfect simulation in order to hopefully find new ways of address disasters and diseases.

Overseeing this virtual world is Nelson, a one-time radical journalist, now the leader of virtual people. But maybe Nelson isn't the right man for this job as when he is faced with a choice of the company or his family, he's definitely a family man and Monad needs a company man.

A lot of this book reminds me of Philip K. Dick with the blurring of the lines between real and virtual. We're never quite sure which reality we will end with when we finish reading, and the themes of 'what is real and what is not' and 'how do we live authentically' and 'authoritarianism' are equally present here.

But the danger with this type of story is in losing the reader and that's what happens here. Author Matthew De Abaitua straddles the line between virtual and reality just a little too closely and it can be difficult to follow at times, slowing the reader down.

There's enough strength here that I'm very interested in reading more, but I'd be hoping for a tighter edit.

Looking for a good book? The Red Men by Matthew De Abaitua is reminiscent of the 1970's drug-fueled paranoid alternate reality speculative fiction but loses some ground along the way.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

[Rachel Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if someone who thought his dead dad was talking to him via CCTV, other people's mobile phones (or the TV) was actually not mentally ill but being stalked by an avatar?

The blurb on the back of the book says that Nelson, the protagonist, used to work for a radical magazine, but is now a programmer for a mega-corp, but in reality the mag sounds more Sugar Ape meets Loaded. This isn’t "1980s left wing dude goes Thatcherite", this is someone who came of age in the 90s and turned 30 in the uncertain millennium. It is a is a decidedly pre-social media mid-noughts book: the anxiety is about robots and AI, yet it does a good job of anticipating social media and companies knowing everything about you. The red men of the title are copies of real people who become more real than the original- much like one's online presence today.

Despite there being 7 foot robots working with the police, this is an immediately recognisable London of failing public transport, squat-dwellers, the Hackney mole man, performance poets, as well as the gleaming spires of Canary Wharf. In the second part of the book, Nelson goes to Maghull, a badly disguised version of Skelmersdale, to simulate an entire town, to create Redtown.

There are mid-noughties concerns: 1940s nostalgia chic, vigilantes on the overground trains and some interesting philosophical points: how work demands everything form us, inc. our family life and also some rather sexist ones: women “domesticate” men, they are not happy unless their partners are doing A Task, that the endless list of Tasks stop men doing what they want - as if men living on their own sit in their own filth, microwave left over pizza and piss into a bottle (one character complains that he doesn't have time for his poetry because of The Tasks - it's a good job that podcasts don't exist in this universe).

The novel is William Gibson by way of Martin Millar with a little bit of Jeff Noon and Neil Stephenson thrown in for good measure, although the chapter of psychotropic, psychotic night wandering around pre-gentrified Lower Clapton is pure Iain Sinclair.

[Susie Munro · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think there are at least three novels crammed in to the Red Men - a near future dystopia with its tongue firmly planted in its cheek satirisng corporate culture via mid-life crisis man angst-ridden view point, an oddly half-formed weird novel involving possession by transplanted pig organs with lashings of occult and an completely out of place earnest sci-fi novel about AI, ethics and the role of storytelling in shaping our understanding of ourselves and the world. The look-how-clever I am satire dominates and the combination of the three strand is just an inconsistent mess not helped by a thoroughly unappealing narrator and the only characters with any depth being male surrounding by sketched in women-shaped props. This is frustrating because there are some really interesting ideas that just hang there. Don't bother.

[Zac Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, I had hoped for more. I first saw it on John Scalzi's "Big Idea" features, and loved the premise... but just wasn't feeling it.
The first few minutes of the book were made into a short film, which I had actually seen before (not knowing the connection). The film, called "Dr. Easy," is true to the book... and has the same kind of meh effect for me, even after rewatching with the book's context.
I might read something else from this guy, but I'm not going to hurry up and make it happen. I probably won't keep the book, either.

[Rachel Noel · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Book received via NetGalley for an honest review.

This was an interesting book. It felt like it was modeled after a 70's drug-trip dystopian movie. It goes back and forth between Nelson's perspective and his friend Raymond's with a couple other minor characters as well. I greatly appreciated Nelson's everyman perspective. He is genuinely a good person who wants to do the right thing, but wants to put his family's well being above all. I kinda wish we could've gotten to see the world from the perspective of a Dr. Easy robot. We got a monologue from the main AI, but I the things that the Dr. robots have to go through would have been really interesting.

It took longer to read than I expected, and I felt frustrated with that at a few points, bored at others, but the ending was really worth it. I finished the book feeling like I had spent my time well. There were a few time jumps that I had a little trouble following, but overall the story was well paced with the occasional needed humor, there was just a lot of story. And this is the edition that had some stuff removed!

If you like corporate dystopia books or drug-trip books, you'll really enjoy The Red Men. I greatly appreciated the philosophical/ethical discourse about those who conquer, those who fight and those who remain quiet. I kinda wish this wasn't such a book for our times, but it's got some good messages for the world today.

[Sylvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting ideas were shared through this book by Matthew De Abaitua, including the creation of an entire stimulated town. Although I enjoyed the scenario's we were shown in the first 1/2 parts of the book, the final addition in the storyline including a new competitor to the company Monad seemed a bit farfetched and too complicated (although it might just have gone over my head).
Throughout the book the author switched perspectives quite often which again didn't help the immersion.

It's not a book I couldn't wait to pick up every day, but it was definitely a book that made me think about the future of technology and a fun one to read once in a while.
I feel that I would be able to appreciate and love the book more if I would read it again, although to be honest Im not sure I ever will.

[Jerry Balzano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, what a mess. What an unrewarding, tedious slog this book was to read. The writing was choppy, the storytelling disjointed. The author's command of punctuation embarrassingly amateurish and inconsistent. Even when I was over 90% into this book, I was still tempted to stop reading altogether.

So some people actually liked this book, am I right? All I can say is, I would not welcome a book recommendation from any such person. Comparisons to Philip K. Dick? Forget it; whatever similarities there are, are quite superficial. Give this one a miss. I'm giving The Red Men two stars instead of the one it probably more nearly deserves mainly by way of extending some small "benefit of the doubt". But really, this was pretty terrible.

[Robert Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled to finish this. Too much metaphysical mumbo jumbo. I wasn't invested in any of the characters, none were particularly identifiable. Even the idea of the man against the machine didn't work for me.

[Hugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense slipstream SF, a satirical mix of newsfeeds and simulacrum, corporate authoritarianism and inhuman potential, Ballard and Dick dragged into the Adam Curtis near-future (elements of Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan) with a knowing smile and hipster sarcasm.

[Alan Fricker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled a bit. Loved the ideas but the Leto stuff was lost on me

[J McEvoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and inventive until it goes full-on Philip K Dick in druggie mode, at which point it becomes a pain to finish.

[Jerico · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a solid 3.5 with a more granular review system.

The Red Men is an interesting fusion of Literary fiction and science fiction tropes, playing in the space that Gibson pioneered but with a great deal of fascinating original flourishes. The basic narrative follows a former editor for an underground magazine after he's sold out and works for a tech company that creates partial emulations of its clients to improve their work performance. Things get screwy from there, and there's an increasingly convoluted set of circumstances that lead to the plot crescendo.

The prose is engaging, and somewhat experimental, without getting too full of itself or obscuring the action for its own sake. There's a lot of fascinating tidbits thrown around that distance it from the tropes of the emerging AI genre of books, and while the author is clearly familiar with those tropes, he's also clearly skeptical of them. Among the bits I really enjoyed was the clarity of his descriptions of how emulations aren't the people they're emulated, the balancing of how menacing the AI is and the duality of the Monad/Dyad conflict. The interactions between the red men (the pseudo emulations) and their clients is top notch, as is the change in the AI's interactions with people over the course of the novel.

Also refreshing is the humor. While not as funny as The Destructives (a later book, with rough continuity with this one, by the same author), the subtle, sullen laughs that corporate politics generate are refreshing. There's some rather interesting and challenging narrative choices as well: embedding the first part of the story into 3rd person narration from a 1st person perspective delivered by a character in the rest of the narrative allows for some great character work. The use of psychedelic imagery, of nesting narrative hints at the central mysteries of the book, all are evocative without falling in on themselves.

My negative criticisms are few and rather minor: the earlier parts are more engaging due to the speed at which we are dropped into the chaos and the enjoyment I always have at trying to figure out the world we're experiencing, and the later parts surrender to the narrative inertia but never quite hit escape velocity. The ending is fulfilling, but there's a few theories on where and how the central AI comes from that are never delivered on (this is intentional, I think, but not entirely to my liking).

I can definitely see the line from this to the Destructives, which I really enjoyed, and I probably would've enjoyed following that line directly instead of backwards, but this is an original piece of science fiction that is challenging on a lot of levels.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting near-future satirical cyber-thriller that doesn't quite manage to come off. It starts well, with the development of the Red Men, who are essentially AI copies of human personalities. These are ostensibly done to enable certain individuals to establish a sort of ersatz immortality. However, the personalities, once in AI form, do not behave and respond as would be expected based on the people they are recorded from. The physicality of the brain having a significant effect on that.
Once these get downloaded into ambulatory units, then the problems start. Meeting yourself as a robot is not always a fun idea.
There is also the creation of an entire town of people being uploaded into a model of that town to enable political policy ideas to be run through to see the effects. Once again, the bald assumption by the powers-that-be being that these simulacrum behave as the real people would. This is another intriguing idea. Sadly, the book becomes overwhelmed by the pulp SF thriller angle, which dampens down the impact of the satire.

[The Sample Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a very general way, The Red Men puts me in mind of William Gibson. This is literary scifi with a strong sense of place–London, again–and a clear reflection of the contemporary. This really appeals to me, but not quite enough to force my hand–for now. It’s right at the top of my shopping list though.

Read the full ebook Sample Reader review here.

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a dystopia for the modern era with a fair bit of added humour. The author has used the original Karel Capek concept of robots and brought it up to date. The book could have perhaps done with a bit of polishing from a sympathetic editor, but it is still worth reading. I enjoyed it and would recommend it.

[James Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the more intriguing science fiction novels I have read. It certainly gives one food for thought about artificial intelligence and its potential applications. Worth checking out if you're in the mood for dystopian near-future science fiction.

[Mathew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel about artificial intelligence, what we might use it for, and how it is likely to be literally inhuman in its motivations. Reminded me of the work of Jeff Noon, with a dash of Michael Marshall Smith.

(Sadly not available in the US.)