The Cloud Intern

Greenwood debuts with an acerbic near-future tale of tech and the desire for connection. Eddy, the company cofounded by Chris Curtis, has reshaped the world with its handheld communication devices and emulations of real people, designed to bring comfort to users. Now, in the wake of his business partner’s death, Chris has become unmoored, spending his days on Sky Yacht, the company’s dirigible headquarters. After the yacht’s security system flags suspicious messages sent by his new intern Zoraida Simpson, he becomes fixated on her. He surreptitiously reads Zoraida’s messages and learns of how she relies on an emulation of her younger self for advice. Eventually, he gleans her true intentions and makes a series of impulsive decisions, which steer the novel toward its crisis point. Greenwood captures Chris’s mental state with wry humor (“It was... gratifying to make such use of my unsung facility for justifying my own inertia”) and offers surprisingly moving insights on the characters’ relationships with technology (when ordering emulations, Chris’s customers gravitate toward the “beloved people who have since for whatever reason ceased to love you”). This appealing satire has plenty of bite. (May)