First published on my blog http://ringothecat.wordpress.com/ 
 Maybe a bit surprisingly, but the cat remembers a time when there were no cell phones. Yes, indeed, in the not so olden days, people were not reachable at all times and places. The cat also remembers a time when computers and laptops were not as ubiquitous as they are now. There was a time when there were no iPods, no iPads, no Internet, no Wi-Fi... In 2002, when M.T. Anderson's Feed was published, all of these high-tech 'gadgets' were either niche products or only in their early amateurish stages of development. 
 In Feed M.T. Anderson presents a world where those still premature high tech play thingies have been taken to the extreme: the internet is basically implanted in someone's brain, fusing mind & body with technology. The most important consequence of this direct feed is of course the huge potential to be manipulated by "the media" on the most basic of levels...there where it matters: in your brain! Rebellion or revolution against the companies that supply the feed will of course be nipped in the bud also on the most basic of levels: your brain and your body. Resistance is futile, so the Borg would say, but of course it's all about the trying... 
 Feed has the visionary power of a novel like Brave New World or 1984. Intellectually, this is a book that delivers all. It is a satire as well as a cautionary tale. It's dystopia as well as a tragic love story. It really is positively scary in its entirely credible depiction of the near future. It asks the most important of questions about the right to privacy, the need for independent thinking, the want of, and the right to personal emotions & thought. 
 M.T. Anderson continues to surprise the cat with his consistency: consistent in how he has an idea, a thought, and just takes it all the way, on all levels. He did this in Octavian Nothing, and he does it in Feed: language, behavior, the world depicted: everything fits. This is the work of a truly intelligent person who does not settle, who doesn't deal with compromises. Great stuff!