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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.
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 :)
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
Can someone write a review of it so I know if it's worth reading?
The CB App. What's your 20?
>>How is this news for nerds?
Because some of us enjoy the occasional break from reading "The Bible of Google Linux Hacks" and "Teach Yourself How To Be An Ungrateful Slashdot Poster in 21 Days". There have been non-technical related books reviewed here and they have always been appreciated.
As for the technical relationship, the book takes place in the same world that many of us work in. It presents a romanticized notion of corporate espionage based in the technical industry. Thus, it is a subject that appeals to a significant amount of Slashdot's readership.
Slashdot exists to provide a community that fosters discussions on a wide range of topics. Let's try to keep that in mind before we start shooting down a book review that clearly took a significant amount of thought, time and effort.
Excellent work, Peter, and thank you for the recommendation.
Ryosen
One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".
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.
amazon cut and paste review
They now don't allow us to bring our phone-enables cell phones into the plant at all!
;)
They make phone-enabled phones now?! Where can I get one of these high tech gadgets?
-Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
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.
That's like saying 'the dinner you prepared was better than the saran-wrapped egg salad sandwhich I got at 7-11 for lunch'.