The year is 2454, and in the somewhat-utopian world that has replaced our version of society, most criminals are sentenced to dedicate their lives to serving others, something that is tracked by the aptly named tracker that all humans must wear 24/7. That's exactly what our narrator, Mycroft Canner, must do. But in the course of his work, he has discovered a young boy without a tracker, but with an amazing ability to bring life to the inanimate, and Mycroft is determined to protect this child at all costs. Meanwhile, a tracker-tricking device that society has linked to Mycroft has been used to steal an influential list of global leaders — kind of like the Time Person of the Year or People's Sexiest Man Alive, but with the ability to set off a political chain reaction that could upset the world order. Because of his old association with the device, Mycroft is pulled into that investigation by a cabal of world leaders, which makes protecting the child (and Mycroft's own secrets) even more difficult.
The plot and premise of this book is intriguing, and Palmer's worldbuilding is incredible. However, Mycroft's obsession with 18th Century philosophers (and the ensuing philosophical deep dives) is at odds with the setting, making the first half of the book in particular a tough read. There are plenty of confusing bits (Mycroft's gendering of characters in a theoretically genderless society, the handful of names each world leader goes by), enough that I'm really debating reading the second book in this quartet, even though this one ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. Should make for an interesting Orcs & Aliens discussion in any case!
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