Sometimes you need to escape from the news by plunging into a fictionalized version of it. Malka Older's debut novel Infomocracy (UK) is a sci-fi thriller about the third election cycle in the world's first global government, a data-driven "microdemocracy." The first in a trilogy, Infomocracy manages to be incredibly action packed while also exploring plausible political futures you may never have imagined.

Election integrity in the world of Infomocracy is guaranteed by a techno-political organization called "The Information" (think Google merged with Facebook). Committed to non-partisan transparency, The Information is supposed to give citizens the data they need to vote wisely. Its real mission, of course, is more ambiguous. The action reaches a fever pitch and stays there, as our protagonists race to find out who is behind a series of bombings aimed at shutting down the election.

Life in a global democracy

From page one, Older plunges us into a bewildering global election season with only two semi-trustworthy guides to the madness. Ken is an idealistic campaigner for the progressive Policy1st party, which is devoted to openness and free exchange. Mishima is an operative for The Information with ninja powers and a mysterious "narrative disorder" that helps her find patterns in vast quantities of data. After hooking up randomly at a drunken party in Tokyo, the two discover they are the only people who seem to care that Liberty, a political party that's one of the top contenders for the next Supermajority, is quietly spreading propaganda about the need to start a war.

Part of the joy of reading Infomocracy is figuring out how politics work in a world where all but a few nations have disappeared to make way for global microdemocracy. Older, who has served as a humanitarian worker in nations all over the world, offers us a portrait of truly global culture that is neither a dystopia nor a utopia, but feels lived-in, complex, and believable.

Microdemocracy is an idea that's been thrown around a lot by political futurists, and Older comes up with a version of it that could only exist in a world of ubiquitous internet access. Citizens live in "centenals," gerrymandered regions consisting of 100,000 people. Voters decide who controls their centenal by choosing from dozens of global parties, ranging from the incumbent Heritage party (which is sort of like the US Democratic Party) to the militaristic SecureNation or the inexplicable YourStory. Parties can win centenals anywhere in the world, and the one with the most Centenals becomes the "Supermajority."

On a macro level, this means that global political parties use technology to unite citizens all over the world. On a micro level, this means that you cross borders and find yourself hemmed in by new laws every time you take a walk. At one point we follow Ken through a city as he observes the changes in infrastructure at centenal boundaries. He crosses a crumbling street into a different centenal where the streets are suddenly tidy and well-maintained. Then he rounds a corner and is in a centenal where smoking pot is legal. It’s as if the woolly boundaries between social networks online have emerged into the real world to form mixed-up geographies based on cultural preference instead of national identity.

When social media becomes world politics

In the wake of Brexit and the rise of nationalism around the world, it’s easy to dismiss Older’s vision as idealistic. How could humans ever forge a true global democracy? Older cleverly answers that skepticism by showing us a political landscape where many operatives—including nations that refuse to join the microdemocracy—try to undermine the election with propaganda and violence.

Gradually we realize that the enemies of democracy are active participants in it. Liberty’s whisper campaign contains illegal suggestions that they’ll annex unwilling centenals to rebuild the nations that older people still remember with nostalgia. Heritage, which has held the Supermajority for two terms, may be using dirty tactics to maintain control. Even the wonks at Policy1st aren’t keeping their noses clean. Meanwhile, anti-authoritarian radicals who think the global democracy is a sham try to undermine the public’s confidence in The Information’s ability to run a fair election.

Ken and Mishima move between disaster zones and policy meetings, trying to keep the election on track any way they can. Older is so skilled as a writer that she makes international Skype meetings between technocrats crackle with suspense. She’s good with badass helicopter fights, too.

What struck me as particularly prescient about Infomocracy is Older’s representation of The Information. A friend of mine at Facebook recently expressed surprise at how much the company works on politics rather than technology. Like Google, Facebook has become a worldwide political player, and the motivations behind the company's attempts to export American notions of democracy and data transparency are decidedly mixed. It’s easy to imagine these data giants creating an ambiguously open organization to serve as arbiter of election transparency in an “infomocracy.” It’s also easy to imagine the improvements and disasters that might result.

Probably the one flaw in Infomocracy is also its strength. For the first few chapters, readers may struggle to keep up with all the details of Older's complex political system. She's squarely in the tradition of writers like William Gibson, who strive to show readers a strange new world rather than tell them what's happening. I enjoy this style because I like being lost in a bizarre scenario. But some readers may find it needlessly complicated and get thrown out of the story.

As I said earlier, it's strange to recommend a book about elections as an escape from the one we're currently witnessing in the US. However, escapism isn't always about ignoring reality. Escapism is also about re-imagining our troubles and thinking beyond the confines of the reality we're stuck with for now. That's why Infomocracy is such an important book. After sweeping you into a fascinating new world, it will leave you with helpful ideas about what's happening in this one.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article described Infomocracy as Malka Older's second novel. It is her first novel; her previous work of fiction, "Tear Tracks," is a short story published under the name Malka Ann Older.