The Ten Percent Thief - Lavanya Lakshminarayan - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Lavanya Lakshminarayan

GENRE: Dystopian Science Fiction.

RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A dystopian sci-fi presented in an innovative format – a mosaic novel. Took me a while to get used to the structure, but overall, it was worth it. Found an outstanding Indian fictional work after a long time, though the story isn’t Indian as such.

Story Synopsis:

In the near-future, everything in Apex City (formerly known as Bangalore) is ruled by Bell Corp and its Bell Curve. Citizens who are born into or fit into the top twenty percent in terms of productivity/success/wealth dictate terms. They are the Virtual Elite, lording it over the next seventy percent who live in constant fear of deportment if their productivity index dips. The bottom ten percent are the Analogs, the ‘scum of humanity’ who live outside the technologically segregated zone, with no access to even the basic facilities such as running water or electricity. The system is perfect, or at least the Virtuals think so. However, unknown to them, a ‘ten percent’ thief has stolen a jacaranda seed from Apex City’s lush climate-protected gardens, and planted it in the barren soil of the Analog world, thereby setting off a revolution.

The novel is written as a series of vignettes coming from the first-person and third-person perspectives of various characters, both Virtual and Analog.

The cyberpunk elements in the story are quite dominant, what with the astounding details of the futuristic technology coming to the aid of every Virtual. Many of the episodes are satirical, containing exaggerated harmful versions of today's technology, focussing on the obsessions with social-media influencers, and poking fun at the heavy dependence on technology for even basic tasks. It also highlights how digital influence and nepotistic connections are valued over genuine talent, a problem even in our own world. All the sarcastic jabs at our generation’s expense are funny yet thought-provoking.

The Analog world is also sketched realistically, reminiscent of the overpopulated dystopia of ‘Ready Player One’ but without the gadgets or games. Their life, their frustrations and their aspirations all come out well.

The story hits hard in many ways through this strangely straightforward yet convoluted approach. The guaranteed limitations of hubris ensure that we can see the ending coming, but it is still fun to read.

The book was originally published in India a few years ago as ‘Analog/Virtual and Other Simulations of Your Future’. ‘The Ten Percent Thief’ is the title of the new US edition, published on 28th March 2023. I am not a fan of the new name; while it is catchy, it doesn’t represent the novel well.

I will not mention any individual characters who made a mark, because unlike what the title suggests, the story doesn’t belong to any single character. On the contrary, every character is necessary for this story to come together into a convincing whole.

I had never heard of the term ‘mosaic novel’ before, and this book was a great way of experiencing this unique style of storytelling. The scenes are set in the same world but come to us from different characters. It takes a while to get into, and the start is especially rocky, but with time, we get to see the jigsaw come together piece by piece. The story is still linear, and we get to see a proper start-middle-end progression, albeit from different perspectives that are almost never repeated. Some characters make an entry in another character’s episode, so if you are reading this through print or audio, better make a character list. Kindle search will come to the help of digital readers.

That said, I don’t think this story will work well on audio – it will be too tricky for most readers to stay abreast of the long list of characters and to track when they make guest appearances in others’ scenes.

Though the story is set in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) in South India, the only thing “Indian” about the novel is the names of the characters and the locations. The dystopian world is so neutrally depicted that it could very well be any metropolis. The world-building is amazing without feeling overwhelming, especially in terms of descriptions. There was only one doubt I had in the world created by the novel: How on earth do the Analogs have physical newspapers if they have no trees?

All in all, I enjoyed this imaginative dystopian sci-fi story, though it took me a while to get into it. The author’s creativity is mind-blowing! After a long while, I feel proud of an Indian writer’s work, and I can’t wait to see what’s coming next from her pen.

Strongly recommended to fans of dystopian sci-fi.

My thanks to Simon & Schuster, Solaris, and Edelweiss+ for the DRC of “The Ten Percent Thief”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.