A great Y2K corporate-espionage thriller, pre-'Dune 2' reading, and good backpack rap

Roundup 05/08/2023

Greetings from Read Max HQ, and welcome to our weekly roundup column, in which I pick out some worthwhile and often overlooked books, articles, movies, and music to recommend to paying subscribers. This week I’ve got:

• A book to read before the new Dune comes out;

• a Read Max classic halogencore-nokiawave-cyberpunk now available on streaming; and

• a fantastic new backpack-rap album with an Aphex sample.

If any of that sounds interesting -- and if you want to support Read Max in its continuing mission of explaining the future to relatively normal people -- please subscribe below. Subscribers get access to these weekly emails and to the comprehensive Read Max Master Lists of Good Movies to Watch and Good Books to Read. If you’re already a subscriber, thank you.

I love to hear from readers who want to recommend a cool book or movie (or whatever!) to me, or from readers who are looking for specific kinds of recommendations. Just leave a comment or drop me a line at maxread@gmail.com.

Now, the roundup. First, as always, a dispatch from the future: