In a comment to Jed Hartman’s post on infodumps in Science Fiction the pseudonymous Vardibidian explains why David Marusek’s Counting Heads was such a glorious book, even if it fizzled out at the end:
As you know, Jed, David Marusek’s novel Counting Heads is an astonishing collection of magnificent infodumps. I don’t know if he deliberately did it as a textbook, but I lost track of the number of ways in which a Bob was created who needed to be told, for one reason or another, the background information. There’s the elderly guy whose memory is going. There’s the increasing reliance on subvocal conversations with mentars or whatever they’re called, sentient computers that provide elaborate logistical assistance and exposition. There’s the use of proxies and sims, that allow characters to interact and still have to have stuff explained to them later. There’s the training video. There’s the sales pitch. There’s the nostalgia effect. There’s the going-over-the-orders-to-make-sure-everybody-knows-them. There’s the prove-you-are-who-you-pretend-to-be. There’s the this-is-all-on-TV. If I’m remembering correctly, there’s even the interpolated news story. It’s marvelous, and terribly instructive.
