A gleefully intricate computer tale with a satirical bent, swift pace, and modest hero.
A gray-hat hacker may be the world’s only hope in stopping a virus that seems to be driving people mad in this sci-fi thriller.
Eddy Pending spends much of his time in his Los Angeles apartment interacting online with his hacker group, Ignominious. But the 28-year-old is happy to go outside when his attractive prosecutor neighbor, Gwen, needs help with a computer virus. Eddy, in spite of his skills, is surprised by the virus, which deletes itself after perceiving his software as a threat. Eddy captures a “tiny fragment” on a thumb drive and names it Geppetto, which appears in the virus’ code. Seeking information on Geppetto via Eddy’s online community ultimately leads to an anonymous, cryptic warning (“Beware the Men in Rose Colored Glasses”) and those dangerous fellows later kicking in his door. Eddy hides at Gwen’s apartment, which only makes both of them targets. Whoever is after them has frightening capabilities: A TV broadcast turns people into crazed mobs that are all apparently intent on killing Eddy and Gwen. Accordingly, trusting anyone is a near impossibility, but Eddy may have a solution: an antivirus of his own design that, with any luck, will counter mind-controlling Geppetto. Despite a tongue-in-cheek approach, Robertson’s (Chaos Theory, 2015, etc.) novel is a rich, engaging story. Eddy, for one, is an appealing protagonist; he’s socially awkward but with hero qualities, like devoting himself to a plan he believes could likely fail. Moreover, his gradually revealed past, including his severely depressed mother, adds sympathy. Jokes are funny without sidetracking the narrative; though Eddy and Gwen appear to be delusional paranoids, one character reassures them with the line “People in rubber rooms shouldn’t throw imaginary stones.” As the tension-ridden tale progresses, the virus becomes more widespread (with riots in major cities) while the villain and his plan come to light. Details of the diabolical plot, from motive to execution, are increasingly convoluted, but the story retains logic until its stellar ending.
A gleefully intricate computer tale with a satirical bent, swift pace, and modest hero.Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73220-100-2
Page Count: 458
Publisher: Gin & Tonic Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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