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Paranoia
It may be hard for anyone who's endured the economic downturn in the computer industry and the ascendance of the DRM lawyers to see the romance of tech, but the computer business continues to be one of the most exciting and explosive corners of the zeitgeist. Fortunes are made and lost in days; products depend upon the synergy of the hackers and the marketeers; and everything turns on the information passed along in IMs, emails and whispers. This world is a rich backdrop for the new thriller by Joe Finder, the spy novelist who set his previous books in the world of the three-letter agencies and the military justice system. This time he's plumbing the depths of corporate politics and industrial espionage with his story of a company racing to deliver the next big Palm Pilot replacement.
The thriller is a reminder that electronic gizmos continue to be a tumultuous and exciting domain where creative people with whip-smart
minds can change the company's destiny. I suppose it would be possible to set a similar novel in, say, the auto industry, but it just wouldn't
have the same resonance. No engineer, designer, or bright employee is going to make much of a difference at Ford or General Motors. Much of
their future is dictated by the cost
of
medical
care
for the retired workers and the problems are not about cars qua cars. Producing great cars would be nice, but it's not the main challenge for
the companies. At least in Silicon Valley, there can be some direct link between action and reaction. Newton's law still holds.
The beginning of the book is an irresistable hook. Who wouldn't want to throw a party on the corporation's dime?
Many of the elements of Silicon Valley's mythology appear here. There's a boss who keeps stable of young, blonde administrative assistants around. There's another boss who works out of the same size cubicle as everyone else. Secret research labs to develop the next generation of gadgets are locked away in a perimeter guarded by other gadgets that scan eyeballs or examine fingerprints. All of the characters drive slick cars and worry about the quality of their real estate.
As the novel unfolds, Cassidy's allegiance and soul is pulled in a tug-of-war. Who deserves the information he's gathering? Is there right and wrong in corporate espionage? Which company deserves to win?
The novel is similar in tone and structure to John Grisham's The Firm or Michael Crichton's Disclosure, two other novels that mused about the nature of the modern workplace. Finder's characters are
richer and better drawn, at least than Grisham's earlier works. The search for the next gadget isn't really the point of Cassidy journey in
the labyrinth, it's just an excuse to work through the modern world of corporations and the way they organize people and their creations. The
book is not filled with the neo-Marxist questioning of the capitalist
system that comes from places like the Baffler , but there are
similar themes that echo in the cubicle bins.
This is, of course, because it's a thriller, not some postmodern master's
degree thesis. The twists are well-handled, the pacing is good, and the
ending may open the doors to debates. I spent some time wondering
whether it was the best ending on many different levels. That kind of
resolution is something that doesn't come from standard thrillers by
people like Tom Clancy or James Paterson. In those books, the author's
point of view is as solid and fixed as, say, those opinion shows on Fox
TV. Someone's always dying or trying to destroy America in those books
and stopping the murder or saving the country is the only possible resolution.
Finder's earlier books delved into the mirror world of espionage and
the realm of three-letter agencies. Moscow
Club focused on a coup and an assassination in Soviet Russia. Extraordinary Powers explored the
possibility that various spy agencies could tap clairvoyance and other
extra-sensory powers-- a premise that David
Moorhouse later confirmed was very real in his book, Psychic Warrior . The world of
covert assassination in Latin America took center stage in High Crimes.
The tone is also much lighter than Finder's early books, with their heavy body count. After watching the movie version of High Crimes, I kept wishing someone would write a nice comedy for Ashley Judd. She deserved it, after the blood and betrayal. This time, death isn't part
of the stakes, and this leaves Finder a bit more room to maneuver and
play people and allegiances off each other. Cutting down on the raw
danger gives him the freedom to build suspense with action and
character. The book is really a light-hearted romp through a
semi-mythical world where fortunes are huge, dreams are made real
through engineering, and everyone drives a slick car. I say "semi-mythical," because despite the downturn, there's still plenty of
money in some corners of technology. Will it always be there? Well,
that's not the point of this book.
It's worth commending Finder for his insight into the technology world.
His background is more in Russian literature and spy things, not in programming. Yet, the tech world he creates is as true to life in
Silicon Valley as books like Po Bronson's The First 10 Million is the Hardest
and Douglas Coupland's Microserfs. Technology is a wonderful domain for a novelist to work within, and we should be glad he came in from the cold to check it out.
Peter Wayner is the author of 13 thrilling technical books on topics like building secure databases ( Translucent Databases ), steganography ( Disappearing Cryptography ), and stopping cheating ( Policing Online Games ). You can purchase Paranoia from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
fp
n/t
It may be hard for anyone who's endured the economic downturn in the computer industry and the ascendance of the DRM lawyers to see the romance of tech, but the computer business continues to be one of the most exciting and explosive corners of the zeitgeist. Fortunes are made and lost in days; products depend upon the synergy of the hackers and the marketeers; and everything turns on the information passed along in IMs, emails and whispers. This world is a rich backdrop for the new thriller by Joe Finder, the spy novelist who set his previous books in the world of the three-letter agencies and the military justice system. This time he's plumbing the depths of corporate politics and industrial espionage with his story of a company racing to deliver the next big Palm Pilot replacement.
The thriller is a reminder that electronic gizmos continue to be a tumultuous and exciting domain where creative people with whip-smart minds can change the company's destiny. I suppose it would be possible to set a similar novel in, say, the auto industry, but it just wouldn't have the same resonance. No engineer, designer, or bright employee is going to make much of a difference at Ford or General Motors. Much of their future is dictated by the cost of medical care for the retired workers and the problems are not about cars qua cars. Producing great cars would be nice, but it's not the main challenge for the companies. At least in Silicon Valley, there can be some direct link between action and reaction. Newton's law still holds.
The beginning of the book is an irresistable hook. Who wouldn't want to throw a party on the corporation's dime?
Many of the elements of Silicon Valley's mythology appear here. There's a boss who keeps stable of young, blonde administrative assistants around. There's another boss who works out of the same size cubicle as everyone else. Secret research labs to develop the next generation of gadgets are locked away in a perimeter guarded by other gadgets that scan eyeballs or examine fingerprints. All of the characters drive slick cars and worry about the quality of their real estate.
As the novel unfolds, Cassidy's allegiance and soul is pulled in a tug-of-war. Who deserves the information he's gathering? Is there right and wrong in corporate espionage? Which company deserves to win?
The novel is similar in tone and structure to John Grisham's The Firm or Michael Crichton's Disclosure, two other novels that mused about the nature of the modern workplace. Finder's characters are richer and better drawn, at least than Grisham's earlier works. The search for the next gadget isn't really the point of Cassidy journey in the labyrinth, it's just an excuse to work through the modern world of corporations and the way they organize people and their creations. The book is not filled with the neo-Marxist questioning of the capitalist system that comes from places like the Baffler, but there are similar themes that echo in the cubicle bins.
This is, of course, because it's a thriller, not some postmodern master's degree thesis. The twists are well-handled, the pacing is good, and the ending may open the doors to debates. I spent some time wondering whether it was the best ending on many different levels. That kind of resolution is something that doesn't come from standard thrillers by people like Tom Clancy or James Paterson. In those books, the author's point of view is as solid and fixed as, say, those opinion shows on Fox TV. Someone's always dying or trying to destroy America in those books and stopping the murder or saving the country is the only possible resolution.
Finder's earlier books delved into the mirror world of espionage and the realm of three-letter agencies. Moscow Club focused on a coup and an assassination in Soviet Russia. Extraordinary Powers explored the possibility that various spy agencies could tap clairvoyance and other extra-sensory powers-- a premise that David Moorhouse later confirmed was very real in his book, Psychic Warrior . The world of
What's this all about?
Is it good or is it not so good?
Sorry, it sounds like a big "so what?" Corporate espionage between PDA makers? I for one can't wait for the summer blockbuster movie adaptation!
Maybe I'd be more interested if the reviewer hadn't started off over-hyping it:
The novel Paranoia begins with one of the most tantalizing premises I've read in some time.
He must not read much if a catered lunch for loading dock workers is amongst "the most tantalizing premises" he's read in some time. After that intro, I was expecting the CEO to plot to puree the dockworkers and turn them into Soylent PDAs or something. How about a discussion of the book's premise and insights without the hype?
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
fp indeed
After what some of us have been through, This might be all to painful to read. I'm sure its good. I'm still stuck on political non-fiction.
Sounds a little ridicorous to me.
Make that ludicorous.
But I feel the need to tell all the geeks out there how great Finder's writing is...I know I hate it when people write stuff that has obvious factual holes, and he's able to always get it right without sacrificing creativity. Excelent reading for people who can't stand bugs :)
I don't get it. How is this news for nerds? Because the main character happens to be an "engineer"? I hope VALinux is at least getting a kickback for this...
There's also Paranoia, the much-loved and sadly out-of-print Logan's Run meets McCarthyism meets Douglas Adams meets Kafka role-playing game.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
It all started one day when young Joe Bloe Linux user signed onto the web and started reading Slashdot... There was a news story on Microsoft and he just couldn't resist.................
-]Phreak Out[-
Is it out to get me, or is it not out to get me?
i feel like my life is about to implode.
i make synthesizers.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
One major automaker passed a corporate rule that outlaws the use or possession of a camera-phone within buildings.
Apparently, a "tourist" glimpsed a model of something, snapped a couple quick shots, and was later sold to the competition. The estimated losses were in the millions.
Can someone write a review of it so I know if it's worth reading?
The CB App. What's your 20?
As mainstream novels go, Joseph Finder's Paranoia is the cream of the crop. There hasn't been one of this caliber since the heyday of Michael Crichton. Finder, a former intelligence officer who has written and published extensively in the field, writes with a flair that sets him above his contemporaries. Like Crichton, he is smart, believable, and persuasive - and also writes a hell of a good suspense story. His crisp, fluid prose keeps the story moving along at breakneck speed: he oodles out loads of suspense that will keep those pages a-turnin'. This is, as some of the better current writers have shown, a winning formula: it keeps the mainstream reading public interested, while also dangling enough substantial meat to insure that more sophisticated readers perk up and pay attention also.
I hate to keep the Crichton comparison running, as it is never fair to an up-and-coming writer to be compared to an already-successful one, but Finder's novel also shares another characteristic that Crichton's work has always had in spades: it is timely. Corporate crime is at an all-time high in America, and this book tackles the issue. Finder explores the underhanded actions and questionable motives that drive much of the modern business world. How closely it parallels reality is debatable, but the reader's credulity is not stretched past the breaking point - and it is entertaining. Early critical raves that Finder has somehow "rewritten the rules for the contemporary thriller" are premature, but the book does feature several fresh aspects that are a breath of much-needed air for readers disgusted with the sorry state of the contemporary novel. Chief among these is Paranoia's unique protagonist. Far from a hero, perhaps even an anti-hero, Paranoia's Adam Cassidy is something the likes of which we patient readers have not seen in quite some time. Though the book is narrated in the first-person, here we have a story in which the protagonist's main concern is not, essentially, the book's main concern - a fact that the novel's denouement makes abundantly clear.
And there we get to the book's one real weakness: its ending, which is far too inconclusive. A sequel to the book is not really possible, given the aforementioned denouement; taking this into context, the actual ending of the book is far too sudden and abrupt. It casts something of a negative light onto what is otherwise a quite enjoyable, very readable, and mostly successful contemporary thriller.
In summary, all fans of contemporary thrillers should line up to buy this; fans of Crichton and the like in particular should apply. Finder is a rising star in contemporary writing, sure to become very successful and popular in ensuing years. Paranoia should help him.
I ownder if this book is related to the film Cypher - plot sounds very similar, a guy is un-willingly placed in the world of corporate espionage? This got a limited release here in Ireland last year so I haven't seen it yet, but it sounds interesting.
It's hard enough to remember my opinions, never mind the reasons for them..
Spymac 3 is opening within the hour!
passed a corporate rule that outlaws
Sorry to nitpick, but a company's policy doesn't make something outlawed. It just means that they can make whatever rules they want and kick your ass out if you don't obey them.
With our corporate-influenced government, I think it's an important distinction.
That's *not* an interesting plot or premise if you ask me.
Someone steals lunch so the CEO tells him to become a corporate spy? Right. I bet.
It's about as believable as Clifford the Big Red Dog. How could a dog get that big?! He's as big as a house!
Really. I'm sitting at work, bored out of my fucking skull, and there's nothing but CRAP on the front page. The usual M$ crap, hyperbole about potentially (not actually) colonizing mars. A few subjects I've never heard of AND THAT NEITHER MYSELF NOR ANYONE ELSE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT.
/. editors manage to find some stories to post THAT ARE WORTH READING!!!!!!!!!
Fuck this crap; I'm letting my subscription lapse unless the
A fast-paced thriller about a young router engineer. 9/10
After reading that review I'm glued to my seat. No, really. Someone put glue on my seat and now I'm stuck. Help!
President Bush (news - web sites)'s economic agenda has one goal: to make sure every American who wants to work can find a job.
To create the conditions for job creation, the president delivered relief for American consumers and provided incentives for businesses to grow jobs.
To help American consumers, the president delivered relief to employees, families and seniors. We cut payroll taxes, doubled the child tax credit and added a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. As a result, we've seen gains in retail sales, consumer confidence and disposable income.
To create new jobs, the president delivered tax relief to the 25 million small-business owners, quadrupled the amount small businesses can expense for capital investments and cut needless regulations.
The president's support for mom-and-pop entrepreneurship resulted in a recent surge of small-business activity. Homeownership, which is a key prerequisite to entrepreneurship, is at its highest point ever, and more Americans are chasing the American Dream by starting businesses in their garages. Last year, we saw 350,000 more sole proprietorships.
Thanks to President Bush's jobs agenda, America's economy is strong - and growing stronger. In the third quarter of 2003, our economy grew at its fastest rate in 20 years. We have created more than a quarter-million new jobs since last summer. But there is still more work to do.
First, we must reject any plans to increase taxes on families and small businesses. Under current law, many vital aspects of the president's tax relief will expire in coming years, including marriage-penalty relief and small-business expensing. Congress must make President Bush's tax relief permanent so that businesses and families can plan better for the future.
Congress also should pass the other components of the president's six-point jobs plan, including health care reform, expanded free trade, litigation reform, regulatory reform and a comprehensive energy plan. Congress also can strengthen our economy by following the responsible spending limits proposed in the president's budget and by passing compassionate immigration reform.
Thanks to the president's leadership, our economy is creating jobs after the shocks of recession, terrorism and corporate scandal. We can be pleased, but not complacent.
President Bush will not rest until every American seeking work can find a job.
Donald L. Evans, who chaired President Bush's election campaign in 2000, is secretary of Commerce.
...corporations spy on YOU!!!!
going to help with my php coding or secure my linux box? I am sure there are lots of good points of this book, but is it really slashdot worthy?
Given the choice between this and CNN's over-rated jako coverage, I will choose the lesser of two evils, but still.
"I'm sitting at work, bored out of my fucking skull, and there's nothing but CRAP on the front page."
Is your boss around? If not, you could always...
--
Rate Naked People at FuckMeter! (Not work-safe [unless your boss likes pr0n as much as you do])
About how they're all out to get me... every book lately has been about that...
Is Your Friend. Trust the PDA...
I thought I had heard (on /. or somewhere similar) that Japanese police had had problems with people (men mainly, I assume) using camera-enabled celllphones to peer up women's dresses and take unauthorized pornographic pictures. Depending on how good locker room security is, I figure someone could sneak in and take pictures of women in locker rooms and showers (most locker rooms that I've been in forswear responsibility for stolen goods, implying that they cannot control access to them). These are people looking for naked women, after all - you could probably shoot pictures through a diffraction grating and people would still be interested in seeing them.
Choose your own Adventure book?
Does he normally read cereal boxes and other various labels for entertainment? I was annoyed by the premise to be honest, the guy is only bright enough to supervise a production line, steals company funds and impersonates a company officer, he somehow helps his friends retirement account by buying him steak and lobster and then the boss sais either be a spy for us though you have allready stolen from us and shown your lack of loyalty to the company, or go to jail? Uh, are you #^$^# kidding me? And as for Sillicon Valley corporations producing superior stuff and not having to worry about the bottom line, uhm, No?? Most of the software from the "valley" is utter crap that's released too soon to be a truly working release version due to market and financial pressure. And as for guys with whip smart minds making a difference in the company, from reviewing history, those types usually get fed up with the corporate crap and leave to create their own start-up and do it their own way with their own corporate crap. Please, this book and this review is so not slashdot worthy, what next, the bio of Billy Boy??
GGG
What you want your spam spam spam spam beans and spam with no spam? EWWWWW
Adam Cassidy? Nicholas Wyatt? Sounds like a bad porn story already...
There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
most of us won't be able to afford it.
-- Lemmy
I have to protect the identity of my sources, but apparently, some studio wants to adapt this book for film, and I've received a leaked copy of the film's theme song.
Download MP3: "Paranoia Theme" by Naoki Maeda
Except that's called extortion/blackmail, and it's illegal. Being willing to report it would probably get you a plea deal, if not a get-out-of-jail-free card from the DA, because going after the exec = good PR, going after the little guy = bad PR...and besides, what'd this retirement gig cost? $10k maybe? That's not the kind of thing that lands you in jail for 20 years. Hell, Enron execs hid BILLIONS and their accountant's going away for 10-20; his wife got 5-6 months(mostly because they both did plea-deals, but anyway...)
I know it's fiction, but lets try and have a semi-believable premise, yes?
Please help metamoderate.
I work for a major defense contractor, and camera phones are also banned. Of course, the policy is basically unenforceable unless you are an idiot and try to photograph the security guard.
his BOSS gives him the choice of 20 years in prison, or a lifetime of corporate espionage.... for ordering CATERING?
This sig intentionally left blank.
<YAWN>...
Sure its been researched, has plenty of the latest buzz technologies and namechecks in it, and provides something for the bored office worker in all of us. Afterall, who wouldn't appreciate a change of life like Adam Cassidy?
Aside from that, I thought it was a very ordinary story , that redeemed itself only somewhat by the ending.
Too me, a book needs to be good all the way through and not just rely on the last few pages, in order to stand out as something worth reading.
And the ending itself? Inconclusive and rushed. Which is a real shame, as the whole novel was set up in order to spring it.
I hear that its to be made into a film, which it would be well suited too.
Don't think I'll be reading it again though.
I never could get into political non-fiction, but I'm really enjoying a political fiction series right now. It's about this bumbling guy, who's dad was president, and manages to get himself elected president as well, despite having no appreciable talent. The election article is really fantastic, but totally unbelievable. I mean, who would allow shady election results from a state run by the guy's brother? But it just gets better, he gets them involved in an oil war to distract the public from a failing economy and his overall failed attempt to catch a notorious criminal (there's also a subplot about how he's trying to avenge his dad). It's really funny, because he declares the war over too early... oh well, I'd better stop before I ruin the ending :)
What, me worry?
At least he knows how Slashdot works ;)
I've got a better idea Mr. CEO. How about I give you the finger, and you try to put me in jail for 20 years. You're CEO because you see the big picture. I bet you wouldn't even know how to find, much less open, an excel spreadsheet that contains enough evidence to put me away.
It's easy -- wait until you get mod points, go to the stinky troll's /. home page to see all his latest posts, and mod them down.
Sometimes you get meta-modded unfair, but I haven't noticed any effect of this yet (overall, very few of my mods are meta'd unfair).
The opposite of "Joseph Finder" is "Another Loser"
I'm not joking....Joseph means "Another Son" in Hebrew and the opposite of Finder is Loser.
That's like saying 'the dinner you prepared was better than the saran-wrapped egg salad sandwhich I got at 7-11 for lunch'.
Yay. Give away the ending, why don't you? Same thing with this review:
- Which company deserves to win?
...and the ending may open the doors to debates. ...in those books and stopping the murder or saving the country is the only possible resolution.
Which one of the possible endings could it be?That's ok, I'm sure they'll botch up the ending when they do the film version, just like they did in The Witches.
Next time you write a review with a spoiler on it, could you please mark is as Ultraviolet?
Oooops. I mean Infrared. There is no Ultraviolet level.
Frotz. Now I have to turn myself in... Hopefully my clone will... ZAP!
...but you'd have to use a digital or develop them yourself, and the ability to email said picture to many people/websites rapidly is not possible with (most) digital cameras while it is the main feature of camera phones. Camera phones enable said pictures to be propagated much faster, and are much easier to explain away than an actual camera if you are caught. Thus while you could use a camera for taking these sorts of pictures, a camera phone is more likely to be used for them and taking pictures with one is likely to be harder to stop.
No, I'm New Here
If you are going to write about a world and environment your audience is familiar with, you can't go against the common sense of your readership.
In the example you have provided, we know from the start we should suspend all common sense since the author is going to make all up.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
. . .now THAT was a module. D&D meets PARANOIA!, and three wizards who look suspiciously like ZZ Top in wizard outfits. . . .
I believe you have the wrong genre, that's no political non-fiction, that's horror. IMO
Alien
I believe that "Skunk Works" is a trademark of the Lockheed Martin Corporation.
The Skunk Works is the plant that built the U-2, the first jet fighter (don't know the name), the Blackbird (AKA SR-70, SR-71, etc), F-22, F-35 (the new joint strike fighter), the stealth fighter, and others that are probably still classified.
The Boeing version is called the Phantom Works, which is their high end idea plant which created Boeing's JSF entry (which lost to the Lockheed version, but that isn't important).
Just my little input of random facts.
-CPM
---You're all I need, When the water runs deep, You're all I need, Now I cry my soul to sleep -- Collective Soul, Needs
Just exactly does a 'junior line manager' who agrees to be a spy in lieu of going to prison get hired into the top-secret research and development 'skunk works' section of the company's chief competitor?
Learning how to do this would actually be worth the price of the book.
Or is it just done with a glossed over plot device like Latin-American 'magic realism' or deus ex machina?
CEOs are getting shot left and right by a mysterious sniper. Whodunnit? Some witnesses report a white Astro van. Other report a balaclava-clad bicyclist.
Let me offer the "John Hackworth" character of Neal
Stephenson's underappreciated masterpiece,
"The Diamond Age:
or
A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer"
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