Walkaway was published by Tor Books in 2017, with an introduction by Neal Stephenson. The premise is simple and radical: in a world where automation has eliminated most jobs and wealth has concentrated to an obscene degree, the rational response is to leave. “Walkaways” abandon the cities and suburbs — the “default” world — for the ruined exurbs and abandoned industrial zones, where they build communities based on gift economics, open-source technology, and mutual aid. If you need a building, you 3D-print one. If you need food, you grow it or fabricate it. If someone takes your stuff, you make more. The fundamental insight is that the scarcity on which capitalism depends is increasingly artificial.
Hubert, Seth, and Natalie (daughter of a zillionaire) walk away from a party and into the walkaway world, where they discover communities that are messy, contentious, and genuinely free. The novel follows their adventures through several years and escalating conflicts with “default” — the corporate-military establishment that cannot tolerate the walkaway alternative, partly because it works and partly because it exposes the lie that there is no alternative.
The stakes rise dramatically when walkaway researchers achieve mind uploading — the ability to scan a dying person’s brain and run it as software. If consciousness can be preserved without a body, death itself becomes optional, and the power that default holds over its citizens (the implicit threat of mortality) evaporates. The conflict between walkaway and default becomes existential.
Collecting Walkaway
First edition (Tor Books, New York, 2017): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $15–$40
- Very good/very good: $5–$15
- Signed: $30–$80