418: I Am A Teapot by Edgar Scott-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 23, 2021

418: I Am a Teapot is a near-future dystopian science fiction novel that explores a world where people by choice, birth, or punishment, relinquish the rights to their physical body. Their brains exist in a constantly-connected virtual interface where they enjoy a fantasy world of endless indulgences. However, while their minds have fun, their bodies are controlled by implants doing the filthiest and most dangerous jobs known to humanity.

Stripped of their identities, these dredges of society are simply called staff and they are disposable. But what happens when a staff becomes cognizant of its situation and tries to break free?

When staff number 418’s physical body is broken, he must come to terms with reality before a kangaroo court determines his fate. Will an unlikely friendship save 418 from permanent retirement?

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REVIEW:418: I AM A TEAPOT by Edgar Scott is a futuristic, dystopian, sci-fi story line focusing on ‘staff’ 418 aka George, and Brian ‘King’ Agarwal, who runs a staffing business.

Told from first person perspective (418) and third person (King) 418: I AM A TEAPOT follows 418 aka George between his daily routine as a staff, and his virtual persona online. Staff are considered the lowest of the low, either born into poverty and the lower class, or relegated by punishment to become one of the many minions to do the work that no one else wants to do but an accident, also known as an exception, finds 418 fighting for his life, a life that is about to change in many ways. Believed to be ‘brain damaged’ as a result of the exception, 418 is saved from ‘retirement’, and in the ensuing days and weeks quickly realizes that his virtual interface is no longer working as it should. Sentient, and with the ability to become self-aware, 418 begins to reconsider all that he knows, in both his virtual and real worlds. 418 works for King, and in this King is about to set 418 on a path to self-actualization and freedom from control. But all is not well in King’s once-ordered world when King finds himself facing the possibility of a life of outside control.

As mentioned above, staff are the lower class, the workers and minions who have been surgically and pharmaceutically altered as mindless drones to do the work no one else wants to do. While their minds and brains are connected to a virtual world, their bodies are controlled by artificial intelligence, and subjected to outside forces where death and dismemberment are frequent and considered part of the job-‘retirement’ is met with indifference by the people in charge. With his virtual interface working at less than optimal levels, George begins to re-evaluate the meaning of life, and his place in the world.

418: I AM A TEAPOT is, like many futuristic, dystopian, sci fi tales, a philosophical and sociological look at discrimination, power and control. I am not sure where geographically the story line takes place, or when, but the first names are all anglicized and the surnames are all East Indian in nature.

418:I AM A TEAPOT is another, complex and detailed story line of what ifs and hows but I struggled with the lack of delineation between perspectives that changed often and without preamble. A slow building story line, 418: I AM A TEAPOT does not pick up speed until part way through the book.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy