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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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