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The Municipalists

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A novel about an unlikely pair of lonely outsiders--one human, one AI--on an adventure to save the great American city of Metropolis written by "one of the most exciting new voices in fiction" (Charles Yu)

*Named one of the best books of the month by Library Journal ("Debut of the Month"), The Verge , io9 , Amazon Books , Book of the Month Club, Vol. 1 Brooklyn , NYLON, and Tor.com *

In Metropolis, the gleaming city of tomorrow, the dream of the great American city has been achieved. But all that is about to change, unless a neurotic, rule-following bureaucrat and an irreverent, freewheeling artificial intelligence can save the city from a mysterious terrorist plot that threatens its very existence.

Henry Thompson has dedicated his life to improving America's infrastructure as a proud employee of the United States Municipal Survey. So when the agency comes under attack, he dutifully accepts his unexpected mission to visit Metropolis looking for answers. But his plans to investigate quietly, quickly, and carefully are interrupted by his new partner: a day-drinking know-it-all named OWEN, who also turns out to be the projected embodiment of the agency's supercomputer. Soon, Henry and OWEN are fighting to save not only their own lives and those of the city's millions of inhabitants, but also the soul of Metropolis. The Municipalists is a thrilling, funny, and touching adventure story, a tour-de-force of imagination that trenchantly explores our relationships to the cities around us and the technologies guiding us into the future.

"A new and irreverent take on both real-world politics and sci-fi history."-The Wall Street Journal

272 pages, Paperback

First published March 19, 2019

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About the author

Seth Fried

15 books117 followers
Seth Fried is a recurring contributor to The New Yorker’s “Shouts and Murmurs” and NPR’s “Selected Shorts.” His writing has also appeared in Tin House, One Story, Electric Literature, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, Vice, and many others. His short stories have been anthologized in the 2011 and 2013 Pushcart Prize Anthologies as well as The Better of McSweeney’s Vol 2. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his fiancée and their two goldfish.

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5 stars
499 (16%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 473 reviews
Profile Image for Book of the Month.
262 reviews14.1k followers
Read
March 1, 2019
Why I love it
by Siobhan Jones

A civil servant and a supercomputer team up to stop terrorists. A Dark Matter-esque take on the life and death of great cities. A touching and funny story about an unlikely friendship. I’ve been trying, for weeks now, to come up with a zinger of a sentence that perfectly describes this book and makes everyone want to read it. Yet the words have eluded me. I’m beginning to think The Municipalists—a humorous sci-fi adventure with a mystery at its core—cannot be summed up so easily.

In the near-future, in a cramped office of the United States Municipal Survey, Henry Thompson—efficient, diligent, and generally disliked—spends his days solving the abundant problems of city improvement projects all over the country. When the agency suddenly comes under attack, he’s dispatched to Metropolis, a teeming city resembling New York, to find out why. A true loner, Henry is dismayed to be assigned a partner for the mission: a smarmy, fast-talking, alcoholic supercomputer-in-human-form named OWEN. Can they overcome their differences and find the criminals trying to destroy their agency—not to mention millions of lives—in time?

If that sounds like a simple premise, let me add that there are a host of other elements—forbidden love, ticking time bombs, gentrification, etc.—complicating this story in all the right ways. Having finished writing this piece, I feel simultaneously disheartened and elated; disheartened at not being able to fully describe the weirdness, the originality, the sheer heart within this book, and elated because thousands of readers are about to experience it for themselves. Why am I still talking? Just read it.

Read more at: https://bookofthemonth.com/the-munici...
Profile Image for Petergiaquinta.
547 reviews119 followers
April 30, 2019
The Municipalists isn’t a bad book; it’s actually a lot of fun. But it’s not a particularly good book either, a first novel from author Seth Fried which is both too thin and too reliant on exposition from its overly talkative and socially stunted biological narrator, Henry, an agent for the United States Municipal Survey, who finds himself teamed up with the artificial construct OWEN, the Object-Oriented Database and Working Ekistics Network, and sent to Metropolis, the shining city of the future, to look into the mystery of an urban planner gone rogue.

Fried’s story of a machine helping its human counterpart become more human feels familiar, as it has been done many times before and better...Data and Bender both immediately come to mind, along with a host of other lesser robots and androids. Nonetheless, the dynamics between OWEN and Henry make for good buddy hijinks in this futuristic world where urban planning seems a whole lot sexier than in the world where we live right now.

There’s a bit going on beneath the surface of this short novel regarding urbanization and the inherent inequities that go along with regentrification and reclaiming urban spaces, and the author has a lot of fun with the figure of OWEN, but the book needs more to it, and I kept thinking (unfairly maybe) how much of a better job someone like William Gibson would have done with the same story line.
Profile Image for Courtney.
122 reviews8 followers
April 30, 2019
I picked this for my March Book of the Month box, and if I get anything less than Hermes and Bender save the day I'm going to be very disappointed.

EDIT: So, not quite Bender and Hermes, but not disappointing. Quite enjoyable, and very fun to read aloud.
Profile Image for Marthine.
87 reviews16 followers
December 31, 2018
A fun, breezy adventure book in which straight-laced suits set on upholding the current world order are battling armed rebels who see the destruction of civilization in the most complex city in the US, Metropolis, as the only way to redistribute opportunity and resources in a place that has become the playground for the rich. In a somewhat surprising turn of events for a futuristic novel with a wiseacre AI with optical illusion capabilities, the rebels fighting for equality are the evil enemies who must be defeated. Their motivations for turning violent are never really explained, but I suppose it's a bit like the Weathermen or the SLA. The system refused to change, so the only option was to get rid of the system.

There's a lot of summary rather than scene building, and like any police procedural, solving mysteries and violent clashes are the central plot devices. I am a sucker for strong world building, and I would have loved some more exposition and explanation for the structure of this alternative USA, in which a federal agency seems to be in charge of funding city-level infrastructure.

I enjoyed the author's voice, and the inventive pairing of an AI as the wild card with the straight man being his human partner was fun. Toward the end there were some interesting twists that made me wonder if he might have a sequel in mind, and which did throw some grey shadows over the black-and-white of the good guys versus bad guys structure of the book.

I think this book would probably make a fun movie, as the author built a really strong visual imaginary experience. I finished this book in an evening and would recommend it to anyone who wants a quick fun trip to a comic book world in which you sympathize politically with the protagonists' opponents, but emotionally with the narrator/protagonist.
Profile Image for Peter Tillman.
3,727 reviews406 followers
September 28, 2022
So far, not so good. I don't like the MC, the setup & world-building isn't plausible enough to keep my interest, and the antic-holographic AI is, well, *weird.* And not in a good way. The bureaucrats in Metropolis have turned thuggish.... OK, there is invention here, but the (alleged) humor is falling flat, for me, and the writing just isn't very good. I'm about 1/4 in and this is looking like an early DNF. Do yourself a favor, if you are thinking of reading this one, take a look at the 2-star reviews here. Mine (and theirs) are minority opinions -- but so what?

Abandoning @ p. 75/264. It's been sitting on the shelf for about three weeks, and I don't have the slightest interest in resuming reading. Not for me!
1,792 reviews59 followers
March 8, 2019
For me this was a really fun book. It had a novel concept with some really interesting characters. I loved the role reversal of the staid, boring human and the flippant, unrestrained OWEN. The story was multi-dimensional with humor, pathos and a bit of adventure. It also gave me something to think about the where the future of AI is taking us.
I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway for this honest review.
Profile Image for The Captain.
1,138 reviews452 followers
September 27, 2019
Ahoy there me mateys! This was Seth Fried’s debut novel and I picked it up because it deals with an AI and a mission in the greatest city in the United States. This book was worth reading for the relationship between the protagonist, Henry Thompson, and the AI named OWEN. I absolutely loved crazy OWEN and his sense of humor. I also rather enjoyed stick-in-the-mud loner Henry. I completely sympathized with Henry and his background and wanted him to succeed. I thought that the juxtaposition of the two characters was awesome and I was always wondering what they were going to do next. In addition, I loved watching them change and improve each other.

Unfortunately, I thought the mission, the world-building, and the bad guys were lackluster. For a town that is supposed to be the “gleaming city of tomorrow,” it really felt like any regular city with a couple of additions like more drones. The mission proceeds in a haphazard way and makes no real sense in terms of how the detective work is done. And the bad guys are boring and have dumb reasons to want to destroy the world. So aye, the plot was not to me taste even if I enjoyed the silly moments. But OWEN and Henry made up for it in the long run and kept me reading. Seriously OWEN is worth picking up this book and his and Henry’s friendship is awesome. Arrrr!

Check out me other reviews at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordp...
Profile Image for Coral Rose.
370 reviews18 followers
April 22, 2019
My husband to me as I finally sat down and read this book this weekend: "You must be pretty excited about that one."
Me, puzzled, since I half-started it three weeks ago: "What do you mean?"
Him: "It's a male author. I know you don't read those unless you're really excited."
Lol.

It was worth it. Wish he had written Artemis instead of Andy Weir the man child. This was funny, poignant and managed to be a buddy comedy without weird overt sexual innuendo and sexism.
Profile Image for Reaperne.
151 reviews24 followers
February 2, 2019
This book made me want to quit reading. Maybe that's a little harsh but, oh man.
There was one thing I liked about this book and that was OWEN and Henry's relationship. That was the only thing.

Let's break it down (I'll try to keep this brief).
In the first few chapters of this book, it read like a wannabe deep and philosophical intro. okay.
This book made me ask questions like "what even is world-building?" "What is an interesting character?" and such.
Honestly, Henry was so fucking boring. We're told that he's an uptight little bitch who loves trains and people want to avoid working with him and I get that; nothing about him is even remotely interesting, to be honest. The most exciting thing he did was probably drink whiskey. Overall, the characters in this fucking book were so underdeveloped, it drove me crazy.

The first 60% of this book made me question what the fuck was happening in the sense where it was just so unlogical but then some action happened and I was mildly intrigued but BOY. The over-descriptions were killing me. It got to a point where I'd read one sentence at the beginning of a page then jump to the last sentence and everything in between was just useless filler. Like no, I do not give a flying fuck about the history of Metropolis on 4 pages. No, I do not care about the teenager that's drinking coffee.

Also, are you telling me that highly trained agents that are a part of an illegal scheme that has been on the low for months just happen to fuck up whilst Henry and his magical ass comes and finds you? that they get caught? w h a t.

This took me fucking ages to finish and it's only 272 pages for fuck's sake.
This book annoys the living daylights out of me.

Is this review a fucking mess? yes but I do not have any patience to care.

-This arc was provided by Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Bill Hsu.
837 reviews165 followers
May 6, 2019
If you're concerned about yet another tech thriller with an AI character, so am I. But this is mostly smart and funny, and good light entertainment, quite different from my memories of The Great Frustration. There are somewhat lengthy digressions into urban and transit planning, and handling social injustice; but these are issues that I care about. Also probably more action/thriller mechanics than I care for, but with some clever tricks. Light skimming can help those less tricks-y moments breeze by.

I wouldn't be surprised if this has been optioned for a movie already.

The conversations and ruminations in the last two chapters are actually quite nuanced and thoughtful. Why did it take so much shooting, explosions, and general running around to get there? On the whole, this has been a frustrating novel for me.
Profile Image for Katherine.
6 reviews
May 17, 2019
I really enjoyed half of it and really wanted to fight the other half.
Profile Image for Evy.
79 reviews16 followers
March 26, 2020
I thought this book was great! It’s hard to classify this book as one single genre because it has elements of political fiction, science fiction, and dystopias. The fictional world built in this novel was incredibly well-developed and explained. Overall, it was a really good read and I found it to be light and funny as well as action-packed, fast-paced and enlightening.

SPOILER-FREE SUMMARY
In Metropolis, the gleaming city of tomorrow, the dream of the great American city has been achieved. But all that is about to change, unless a neurotic, rule-following bureaucrat and an irreverent, freewheeling artificial intelligence can save the city from a mysterious terrorist plot that threatens its very existence. A thrilling, funny, and touching story of friendship and adventure, The Municipalists is a tour de force of imagination that trenchantly explores the modern American city and questions the role of AI in our human future.

Despite it perhaps being a sci-fi novel at its core, this book also discusses issues like classism, racism, sexism, gentrification, poverty, and the abuse and neglect of the poor by governments and big businesses. There were many moral and ethical debates coming from our narrator Henry and other main characters. A big theme in this book is the unjust distribution of wealth.

Additionally, OWEN our AI character provides a lot of comic relief, sarcasm and wit. It is also worth noting that he found a way to play with his code and get himself “drunk,” so to speak, which was hilarious to watch throughout the book as he accompanied the neurotic, over-analytical Henry on their mission. I definitely recommend this one to anyone who likes any of the genres I’ve mentioned!
Profile Image for DrWarthrop.
125 reviews109 followers
August 20, 2019
Ja ja, überall diese grauenhaften, nihilistischen Dystopien, wo man nur hinschaut. Mörderische KIs, zusammenbrechende Systeme, moderne Sklaverei...ihr wisst schon.

Seelenheil kündigte sich jedoch in Form einer Mail an, die mir „Der Metropolist“ anbot. Reißerisch wird das Werk von Seth Fried mit den Worten ‚Pulp Fiction meets Science-Fiction‘ beworben, was nicht nur in Hinblick auf den neusten Geniestreich Tarantinos interessant wirkte, sondern auch ein breites Grinsen in mein hart antrainiertes Kellerkindgesicht zu zaubern vermochte.
Aber kommen wir mal zu der Geschichte, oder wie die Experten sagen würden „Narrative“. Schauplatz ist die Stadt Metropolis, die durch ausgefeilte Verkehrstechnik (kein Scherz) schnell zum finanziellen Aufsteiger der USA avanciert. Einer der erbittertstes, pedantischsten und eigenwilligsten Angestellten des Verkehrsamts ist Henry Thompson, der durch den tragischen Verlust seiner Eltern alles mögliche in seiner Macht stehende tut, um weitere Unfälle zu verhindern. Dabei behilflich ist die KI OWEN, die dafür sorgt, dass die Pläne eingehalten werden.
Eines nicht so schönen Tages erhalten sämtliche Angestellte eine Handynachricht mit seltsamen Symbolen. Zeitgleich fällt der Strom aus und um die Katastrophe abzurunden explodieren im nächsten Moment sämtliche Handys und richten damit schweren Schaden bei ihren Besitzern an.
Nachdem sich der Staub gelegt hat wird klar: das war einer dieser superbösen Hacker aus den N24-Dokus! On top wird dann auch noch die Tochter des Bürgermeisters und Publikumsliebling der Stadt auf mysteriöse Weise entführt.
Long story short: der pedantische, regelkonforme Henry muss aus etwas dubiosen Gründen zusammen mit dem beschädigten und dadurch Streit- und trinksüchtigen OWEN investigative Recherchen zum Verbleib der jungen Frau anstellen und sie heile wieder zurückbringen. Sherlock-Holmes/Dr Watson Style...im wahrsten Sinne.

Seth Fried leitet mit fokussierter, spannungsgeladener Diktion durch die unwirschen Gefilde seiner eigenen Welt. Diese ist dabei selten wirklich organisch und fungiert größtenteils nur als schönes Hintergrundbild, wird jedoch kaum als Schauplatz (bis auf wenige Ausnahmen) ausgenutzt. Dafür entfaltet sich ab der Hälfte eine rasante und zugleich charmante Action/Buddy Geschichte, die zwar in bildender Hinsicht nicht zu überzeugen weiß, dafür jedoch den Unterhaltungsfaktor zu 100% bespielt. Belletristik pur! Die vielen klassischen narrativen Elemente vereinen sich, trotz oder gerade wegen der teilweisen überlappung mehrerer Genres wunderbar einzigartig und erzeugen so eine ganz eigene, moderne Klassik.

Charaktere sind dabei Genretypisch spleenig und schräg, wodurch ein flamboyantes Personen-Kaleidoskop verschiedenster Einflüsse entsteht. Konsequente Entwicklung sucht man hier zwar vergebens, doch gerade diese kreative Basis und eklatante Eigenheiten machen das Buch zu einem Erlebnis.
Die beiden Protagonisten agieren dabei klassisch erst als Rivalen und werden (surprise, surprise) am Ende die dicksten Freunde, was durch zahlreiche Anekdoten, Slapstick Einlagen und Schlagabtausche leicht indiskret gefestigt wird. Die Reibereien der unterschiedlichen Persönlichkeiten und Machtverhältnisse sind in humorvoller, verspielter Art verankert, ohne jemals einen ersten Ton treffen zu wollen.
Kleine Besonderheit: mit der in diesen Genres sonst so klaren Linie zwischen Gut und Böse wird hier kreativ ironisch gespielt, wodurch zumindest das Ende noch einige Überraschungen bereit hält.

Ein tolles, rasantes und über die Maßen hinaus charmantes Buch, dass sich seine reißerische Werbung durchaus verdient hat. Actionreich und forciert erzählt der Roman einen etwas überdrehten Buddy-Movie, der mit schrägen Charakteren und ikonischen Dialogen aufwartet, jedoch nicht an das Genie eines Tarantinos heranreicht.
Profile Image for Realms & Robots.
196 reviews4 followers
June 2, 2019
The Municipalists is a collection of strangely compelling elements that coalesce beautifully, resulting in one of the more unique novels I’ve read this year. I was surprised to find a novel centered on an uptight civil service worker whose defining feature is an obsession with trains and the transit systems of various cities. Coupled with a hilariously down-to-earth AI named OWEN, the novel sets off on a fun, albeit dangerous, mission in an enormous city named Metropolis. The story has a noir feel to it, coupled with a few absurdities that make the tricky situations lighthearted and fun. You’d be surprised at how fun a work trip can be.

While the story and the setting are done well, the author’s greatest achievement is the creation of two completely different, yet equally fascinating, main characters. On the one hand, we have Henry, the lonely outsider whose life is his job. Coworkers hate him because he’s the worst. He follows every rule to the letter, occasionally stopping dead in his tracks in an extremely deadly situation to point out that a rule is being broken. On the other hand, we have OWEN, the artificial intelligence who acts as Henry’s partner on the mission. OWEN is hilarious, always giving Henry a hard time and forcing him out of his shell. There are no obstacles for an AI who cavorts around in digital form, quick to turn from a man to a woman to a tiny dog to an enormous clown (no joke). As the story progresses, they grow closer to each other and begin to open up. You begin to realize they’re not so different and that camaraderie presents a solid dynamic.

Overall, The Municipalists is an original mix of genres, combining elements of sci-fi, classic movies, and bits of other sub-genres along the way. You never know what trick OWEN has queued up and that element of surprise leads to an extremely entertaining reading experience.

NOTE: I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.
Profile Image for Andy.
1,190 reviews89 followers
September 18, 2019
Der "Metropolist" ist wirklich recht speziell. Einerseits ist er lustig, dann wieder nüchtern und gesellschaftskritisch. Ich würde ihne als Bürokratiethriller mit anarchistischen Aspekten bezeichnen.
Das Gespann Owen&Henry ist schon recht originell. Die KI und der Protagonist sind sich ähnlicher, als Letzterer es vielleicht mag.
Doch darum alleine ging es dem Autoren bestimmt nicht. Oder? Und wenn nicht, worum ging es ihm dann? Topographie doch wohl nicht. Wie unterschiedlich sich Topographie auf die diversen Gesellschaftsschichten audübt? Sry. Doch da hat mir eine klarere Aussage des Autors gefehlt. Denn dass ihm da etwas am Herzen lag, dass liest man zwischen den Zeilen.
Profile Image for Shannon.
65 reviews6 followers
March 25, 2019
PLEASE WRITE A SEQUEL!!! This story was so incredibly fun and well-written. Fast read, but a crazy fun adventure! I am completely obsessed with OWEN and need more of him! The relationship between OWEN and Henry was fantastic!

Mr Reid, please please please write more about these characters! 💞


(Read this as my March 2019 Book of the Month Club pick!)
Profile Image for Kit (Metaphors and Moonlight).
925 reviews136 followers
March 22, 2019
3 Stars

Review:
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher. This has not influenced my review.*

If you want to read about a lovable AI getting drunk, flirting with other AI units, learning about the fragility of humans, imparting life lessons, and making a friend, then this might be the book for you. OWEN was the best thing about this book for me. Such a lovable little artificial intelligence.

I also really enjoyed the unexpected friendship (well, unexpected to the characters) between Henry and OWEN. They were such opposites, and those types of friendships are so much fun to read about.

And there was no romance! Not that I don't enjoy romance, but it's refreshing to find a book now and again that doesn't have it.

There was also an interesting mystery that unfolded as the book went along with a fair amount of fast-moving action, and the book had a mostly feel-good, light-hearted vibe, despite the gravity of the situation the characters were in. It kind of felt like a thriller with a bit of a futuristic twist.

I did have some issues though, one being there was a lot of telling-not-showing, but then sometimes there were whole pages describing a setting and the people walking around, or the history of something, though I imagine that was meant to reflect what sorts of things were important to the POV character.

I also felt that Henry, the protagonist, was somewhat emotionally flat. And by that I mean, he was this rule-following, straight-laced, pencil pusher kinda guy, and suddenly he was breaking laws and spying and punching people and sneaking around and literally putting his life at risk, and it just felt kind of off because it was like none of it even fazed him. He did at least show some growth in the end though.

But overall, I got to laugh a few times, I enjoyed getting to know OWEN, and I found this to be a quick, feel-good read.

Recommended For:
Anyone who likes quick reads, action, a bit of mystery, and lovable AI characters.

Original Review @ Metaphors and Moonlight
170 reviews3 followers
March 24, 2019
The author uses so much description, which some might find excessive, but I found both necessary and entertaining. I have long loved the science-fiction genre, also called speculative literature because of its ability to look into the future through the lens of the present. Even dystopias, with a bleak outlook for the future use the present as the jumping point. Look at Hunger Games’ Panem, built on the land of the once United State of America — look at Winston’s world of thought-crimes and double-speak in 1984, built in our world in the future. This novel looks at the present situation and comments on the structure of American infrastructure. I live in a community within Lincoln, Nebraska, which has a wide diversity of people and an even wider array of houses, none of which look the same. The neighborhoods, established years and years ago, do not appear rundown or unsightly, but they do not get the attention in terms of public works projects that the south side of Lincoln does, where the far richer populace of Lincoln lives. This book puts into perspective how our government institutions think, but the author reminds readers that policies can change and no one has ever and no one ever will establish one true way of making decisions, specifically those in regards to infrastructure, though the commentary could be true of many public policies, like education and health care. Aside from this commentary, which compliments my ideas about society, I found this book filled with comedy. I laughed out loud many times, and I smiled with every description and dialogue as it pertained to the main characters’ relationship. Though the friendship seemed likely and the ending predictable, I liked this book for the same reason I like an original Star Trek episode, it has depth and it has life.
Profile Image for Lauren Carnahan.
106 reviews3 followers
March 20, 2019
I thought this book was really fast paced and fun. It took a second for me to grab hold of all the infrastructure details and descriptions, but as soon as the hilarious supercomputer showed up, I was hooked.
Profile Image for Jennifer.
9 reviews
March 20, 2019
Such a fun read! I fell in love with the characters 100% Super fast paced and I couldn’t put it down for a second.
Profile Image for Tiff (fictionaltiff).
333 reviews14 followers
November 25, 2019
I really wanted The Municipalists to be great. It looked great and sounded great... but it did not reach greatness.
Henry and his AI best friend, OWEN, set out to save the futuristic city of Metropolis from an anti-government group who plans to blow up buildings and overthrow its largest company. Henry is an endearing nerd who lives for his job and OWEN is a freaking computer who has 10 times more personality than him. Hilarity ensues every time they interact.
The Municipalists is a fun science fiction read, but it was too busy to keep a good flow. Too much time was spent giving the history of the fake city, and the history wasn’t interesting and didn’t add much to the story. There were so many times I stopped and said, WOW this is boring. And I’m generally able to do boring if it’s building a storyline.
Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for BS, but this book would’ve been awesome if it spent more time on entertaining and less explaining unimportant stuff.
Profile Image for Cory Knipp.
27 reviews3 followers
April 15, 2023
This was a really fun sci-fi thriller! I thought Henry and Owen's relationship was enjoyable to read, but I expected more from the world-building. Metropolis just seemed like New York with some extra gadgets, rather than an out-of-this-world type city.

However, a great surprise in this book is its commentary on society. I thought this book would cover themes around AI use, but it did so much more. The future of urban planning, complex institutional structures, classism, and the dangers of moral rigidity were all themes that were touched upon.

Overall this was a great book. It had well-intentioned protagonists that you can root for and a villain that honestly makes some valid points. An author that can argue for the villain's position just as well as the hero's position forces you to perceive what's right and wrong in a new way. Any novel that can get me to do to that is worth a read.
Profile Image for Joe.
1,045 reviews29 followers
April 30, 2021
"The Municipalists" is a cool, sci-fi look at the not too distant future in America. The protagonist works for a huge city planning organization. The city, as a social structure, has come to be recognized as the ideal situation for living. They have honed cities into fine oiled machines. But all is not well. Beneath the surface someone is attacking the very pillars that hold this idea up. Mixed in with this is a version of an AI program that is fresh and fun and unlike anything I've seen in literature before.

It's a quick read and deals with some interesting real world questions. A high recommend.
Profile Image for Tina.
803 reviews46 followers
April 4, 2020
This book reminds me a lot of Punch Escrow or Here and Now and Then, both in the neverending attempts at snarky humor and the underdeveloped world-building/storytelling. Like those books, The Municipalists has a good idea, it just doesn't deliver on it. This feels more like the second draft of something good. There was a lot that still needed to be smoothed out. The plot is very thin and it seems like the author cares more about ridiculous antics than the machinations of the story, which makes for a lot of plot holes and unanswered questions. I just didn't get it. I can see where some people may enjoy this as a fun read because they like the irreverent OWEN character and just enjoy the tone of the book, but I couldn't get past the lack of real substance and the disjointed focus. I wish the author had taken the first few chapters and the last few chapters and ran with that stuff. I kept reading in the hopes that this would all come together, but no, it was not for me. Sorry.
Profile Image for Brad.
1,391 reviews64 followers
April 5, 2019
The Municipalists by Seth Fried is a quirky story about a rule-following bureaucrat and an off-the-rails AI who are thrown together to find the persons responsible for the shutdown at headquarters. Fried gives us a reality that revolves around the United States Municipal Survey, the organization responsible for improving and maintaining America’s infrastructure - one percentage point at a time. 😂 Story moves quickly with lots of hilarious moments. Another #BOTM book with zero buzz. But one you shouldn’t miss.
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