“With the pace of a thriller and the heart of a drama” [Taylor Lorenz], The Editors is unnervingly familiar to anyone who has googled, scrolled, or browsed online in the past decade.
Aim for Neutrality. We Need Better Sources. Anonymity is Fundamental. Keep Developing.
The editors know these principles. The editors follow them every day – usually. The editors may not be recognized on the street, but they craft the information that is seen on nearly every internet search. Through Infopendium, a global, crowd-sourced internet encyclopedia, the editors influence the world.
Freelance journalist Morgan Wentworth, recently laid off from PopFeed News, attends the Global Infopendium Conference in New York expecting a straightforward story to help pay the rent. But the so-called “pendium people” are full of surprises. PhDs rub shoulders with high school students, all quoting the project’s rules and regulations like a second language. Sure, millions of people see the facts curated by these editors, but who really cares about the free encyclopedia?
When a hacker attacks the conference and posts a cryptic message, it becomes clear that somebody does. And Morgan decides to find out who. But the path through an online information war is far from clear. Foreign governments, billionaires, and a global virus threaten to sway the truth on Infopendium.
And far from Morgan’s sight, in places as different as Beijing and Kansas, some of the editors have plans of their own . . .
Assessment:
Plot/Idea: Harrison offers up a timely and entertaining thriller that confronts the perils of misinformation on the eve of a pandemic. Through thinly veiled allusions to real-life news sources and a prominent web encyclopedia, the author assures that readers will become invested in the circumstances.
Prose: Harrison's writing chops are on full display, and effectively capture a moment in our recent collective history. The Editors also integrates passages from "Infopendium," often in various stages of editing, which amplifies the overlying notion that the 'truth' is often (to great detriment) being rewritten in real-time.
Originality: The author takes a unique approach to the weighty topic of online misinformation, injecting some welcome levity in the process.
Character/Execution: Making the good guys in the book be a little self-serving in their own right, lends them welcome depth (for example, Morgan keeps editing her dad's page to help salvage his reputation). Additional characters (like Deja and Yu Yan) may have benefited from additional growth. Ultimately, the work's greatest flaw may also be its strength: the topical issues explored may hit a little too close for comfort.
Date Submitted: August 16, 2023
