I've finished another book. It was Influx by Daniel Suarez. It was pretty good. The author is back in form after a disappointing Kill Decision. It's not quite as good as the Daemon, but a fast paced and satisfying read.
The author tackles the question of why there has been so little innovation since the moon landing in 1969. Suarez angle is that there has been plenty of innovation, it's just almost all been suppressed. There is a super secretive Bureau of Technology Control (BTC) that has been controlling the introduction of fantastic innovations such as cold fusion, cure for cancer, human cloning, strong AI, quantum computers. Their justification is that these innovations would be so disruptive that they would cause more harm than good.
The book is about an inventor Jon Grady who invents a device to deflect the force of gravity. a gravity mirror. so the familiar notion of "down" can be inverted within some area and objects will "fall up". Working in a startup, this invention is seized by the BTC and they blow up Grady's lab under the cover of an extremist anti-techology group the winnowers.
Grady is invited to join the BTC as a researcher to continue to work on his gravity mirror for BTC use only. Jon declines and the BTC sends him to a prison known as Hibernity along with other dissenting inventors.
From there lots of things happen and it's a fast paced read as Jon joins some dissenters in BTC to attempt to release the Hibernity prisoners and make their fantastic discoveries public and bring down the BTC. All the while in the crisis the BTC leadership becomes increasingly heavy handed and militant to protect the inventions they have seized.
I could see this being made into a movie. The book was written in a way that would be adaptable to a movie treatment. Such as the golem monster and some fantastic scenes at the climax that would translate very smoothly to a big special effects film.
All in all a good effort by Suarez. I'll continue to watch for this author's titles.
Showing posts with label Suarez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Suarez. Show all posts
Friday, January 02, 2015
Monday, April 01, 2013
Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez
I finished of another Daniel Suarez book. It was Kill Decision. It was pretty good. I was motivated to read another Suarez title after enjoying the Daemon series.
In the story an American ant researcher McKinney in Africa narrowly escapes a drone attack in the middle of the night. She's saved by a shadowy operative named Odin and his very well trained special forces style group. There have been sporadic drone attacks across the United States and Odin says he is on a mission to track their source after saving Professor McKinney. The liberal, peace activist academic McKinney turns out to be important to the emerging "drone war" because of her research and software model on weaver ants turns out to be applicable on a larger scale with drones.
As usual with Suarez it's a bit hard to figure out who are the good and bad guys. The US government and its heavy reliance on private contractors whose loyalty is to profit, I couldn't really tell if Odin and his team were trustworthy.
Suarez in his style takes some emerging trends such as drones and autonomous software agents and moves it forward in a compelling near future science fiction. He sees drones becoming smaller, around the size of lawnmowers or dolphins. Manufactured in large numbers from off the shelf components, suddenly nations like China can undermine US technology and military economic supremacy and upset the geopolitical balance.
It was a good story. It takes a while to get untracked. The author finishes strong in the last 100 pages or so. I think the biggest knock is that it was so hard to follow up to the Daemon which was so good. Although Suarez doesn't do as good a job of developing the characters. I found them cardboard, lacking dimension, and I just didn't connect with or care about them all that much. I kept hoping Mosely, the Major, Loki or the Daemon itself would make an appearance and liven things up and bring the characters to life. My favourite characters were the ravens Huginn and Muninn.
Still it was a good book and worth reading. The stuff about drones makes you think. His observations on possible implications of drones in naval warfare was quite interesting
In the story an American ant researcher McKinney in Africa narrowly escapes a drone attack in the middle of the night. She's saved by a shadowy operative named Odin and his very well trained special forces style group. There have been sporadic drone attacks across the United States and Odin says he is on a mission to track their source after saving Professor McKinney. The liberal, peace activist academic McKinney turns out to be important to the emerging "drone war" because of her research and software model on weaver ants turns out to be applicable on a larger scale with drones.
As usual with Suarez it's a bit hard to figure out who are the good and bad guys. The US government and its heavy reliance on private contractors whose loyalty is to profit, I couldn't really tell if Odin and his team were trustworthy.
Suarez in his style takes some emerging trends such as drones and autonomous software agents and moves it forward in a compelling near future science fiction. He sees drones becoming smaller, around the size of lawnmowers or dolphins. Manufactured in large numbers from off the shelf components, suddenly nations like China can undermine US technology and military economic supremacy and upset the geopolitical balance.
It was a good story. It takes a while to get untracked. The author finishes strong in the last 100 pages or so. I think the biggest knock is that it was so hard to follow up to the Daemon which was so good. Although Suarez doesn't do as good a job of developing the characters. I found them cardboard, lacking dimension, and I just didn't connect with or care about them all that much. I kept hoping Mosely, the Major, Loki or the Daemon itself would make an appearance and liven things up and bring the characters to life. My favourite characters were the ravens Huginn and Muninn.
Still it was a good book and worth reading. The stuff about drones makes you think. His observations on possible implications of drones in naval warfare was quite interesting
Thursday, December 06, 2012
Freedom by Daniel Suarez
I managed to finish off another book. It was Freedom by Daniel Suarez. The book was the second and concluding part of the Daemon series.
This was a great book. Really well written. Compelling and fast paced. The author brings back pretty much all of the major characters in the second book including Jon Ross, the Major, Loki, Dr. Phillips.
In the second book a few months have passed. The Daemon has signed up many more operatives into the Daemon's darknet. They have also expanded into creating self sufficient communities called holon in the midwest USA. The communities generate their own food, fuel and manufacturing.
The government continues to struggle against the growing power and numbers of the Daemon and the increasingly powerful corporate "contractors" as embodied by the shadowy Major who have their own agenda for what to do with the Daemon. It's a three way struggle for supremacy in the emerging new world order.
The book is well written. There are some great plot twists and the author continues to explore some modern themes such as increasing corporate power, the ability of automated bots to effect real world events - not just automated stock trading, think of say an auto attendant automatically calling in unmanned drone strikes in some location based on recognized electronic intelligence auto intercepts and program analysis. The ending is very well done.
I'll be on the lookout for some more Suarez titles The Daemon was really good.
So that wraps up another multi-book series. The last outstanding is the Joe McKinney series. I put an order in at the library for the final book. I've got some more reading pretty much planned out for 2013, a really big series and it should be a good project.
This was a great book. Really well written. Compelling and fast paced. The author brings back pretty much all of the major characters in the second book including Jon Ross, the Major, Loki, Dr. Phillips.
In the second book a few months have passed. The Daemon has signed up many more operatives into the Daemon's darknet. They have also expanded into creating self sufficient communities called holon in the midwest USA. The communities generate their own food, fuel and manufacturing.
The government continues to struggle against the growing power and numbers of the Daemon and the increasingly powerful corporate "contractors" as embodied by the shadowy Major who have their own agenda for what to do with the Daemon. It's a three way struggle for supremacy in the emerging new world order.
The book is well written. There are some great plot twists and the author continues to explore some modern themes such as increasing corporate power, the ability of automated bots to effect real world events - not just automated stock trading, think of say an auto attendant automatically calling in unmanned drone strikes in some location based on recognized electronic intelligence auto intercepts and program analysis. The ending is very well done.
I'll be on the lookout for some more Suarez titles The Daemon was really good.
So that wraps up another multi-book series. The last outstanding is the Joe McKinney series. I put an order in at the library for the final book. I've got some more reading pretty much planned out for 2013, a really big series and it should be a good project.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Daemon by Daniel Suarez
I finished another book recently. It was Daemon by Daniel Suarez. It was a good book.
It's near future science fiction. The author takes some current trends such as 3d printers, botnets, sophisticated viruses such as Stuxnet, identity theft, powerful distributed network computers, parasitism in biology, and big multiplayer online games, computer sunglasses, wearable computers, advances them all a bit, and pulls them together into a fast paced story.
In the book a prominent and wealthy game developer Matthew Sobol dies. Sobol leaves behind a sophisticated computer program in his games called Daemon. The Daemon recruits human operators by offering them a fast track to wealth and prestige to work for the Daemon. It's hard to get into the Daemon's darknet and you have to be ruthless and technically adept to be recruited.
Along the way the Daemon is battled by government forces including the NSA and a mysterious Russian named "Jon". The government good guys face an uphill battle as the Daemon stays a step ahead of their efforts to shut it down before it brings in a new Daemon world order.
It was an enjoyable and fast paced read with a strong ending. It's a two part series so now I'll have to read the next title Freedom.
It's near future science fiction. The author takes some current trends such as 3d printers, botnets, sophisticated viruses such as Stuxnet, identity theft, powerful distributed network computers, parasitism in biology, and big multiplayer online games, computer sunglasses, wearable computers, advances them all a bit, and pulls them together into a fast paced story.
In the book a prominent and wealthy game developer Matthew Sobol dies. Sobol leaves behind a sophisticated computer program in his games called Daemon. The Daemon recruits human operators by offering them a fast track to wealth and prestige to work for the Daemon. It's hard to get into the Daemon's darknet and you have to be ruthless and technically adept to be recruited.
Along the way the Daemon is battled by government forces including the NSA and a mysterious Russian named "Jon". The government good guys face an uphill battle as the Daemon stays a step ahead of their efforts to shut it down before it brings in a new Daemon world order.
It was an enjoyable and fast paced read with a strong ending. It's a two part series so now I'll have to read the next title Freedom.
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