“Last spring, someone sent me a frankly despicable novel by Chris Batchelder called *Bear v. Shark*. Like a lot of novels lately, it was set in a not-too-distant future where people's lives are so entangled with pointless consumerism and cable infotainment (and the all-consuming spectacle of a robotic bear fighting a robotic shark) that they're largely unable to have profitable relationships with o”
