Join by Steve Toutonghi

Join by Steve Toutonghi

My Rating: ★★★★

As humanity faces devastating storms threaten their future on Earth, new technology emerges that allows multiple consciousness into a single mind across each of their bodies. This technology, Join, gives humanity a chance at immortality because their mind will outlive their bodies as long as it's joined with at least one living person. The joined slowly ignore the environmental threats to their habitat in favor of what emerging technology can bring while those who choose to remain solo are more concerned about fixing Earth. When the shroud is ripped from the eyes of two close friends, Chance and Leap, they soon discover that Join and the companies behind it are not what they've been led to believe.

I was a little confused at first because each person who is joined has one name, so it threw me off that Chance was Chance One, Chance Two, and so on. I was able to fully get into the story once I got used to how the clusters worked. After that, I enjoyed this complex story that covered the science and human aspects of the world it takes place in. At some point, I was reading it like Join was a totally normal and real scientific discovery. The science behind it in this world is fascinating. Picture something like Sense8, if you've seen it, but taken to another level where each person in the cluster are all one person once they've joined. Add how anyone can complete the procedure as long as they pass all the medical and psychological checkpoints and afford it, and you've got Join.

Underneath the science of this world, it's a story about mortality, technology, and environmentalism. Many people wish that they could live forever, and technology solves that in this story. People are dazzled by new technology and begin to overlook how it can help us save the environment. It's a great dystopian novel that amplifies the things that concern many on a daily basis and turns it into a scenario covering what could go wrong.

Above all, it has complex and rich characters that had a hold on me. I loved learning about each of the characters and why or why not they chose to use Join. The way these people interacted with each other and brought their valid concerns to light is extremely captivating. The mystery plot that surfaces is just one of the many elements that goes on to answer questions one may or may not have. I'm excited to see what Toutonghi's future work has in store for us.