"Power Corrupts. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely" - Superman, (Action Comics Annual #3 1991), quoting Lord Acton
Once in a while there comes a book that makes me drive round the block a few more times, drive a longer route home, be contented getting stuck at a traffic jam or at red lights or even running the extra mile, just to finish an exciting chapter.
I have always had a fascination with Tom Clancy and his Jack Ryan books, more so because the way he incorporates technology into the story line. In his era, it was the height of the cold war and parallel advancement military technology & spycraft.
I find Daniel Suarez to be a similar kind of writer. He incorporates the use of technology of our era - computing, hacking, drones, robotics, etc while telling an absolutely thrilling tale.
Influx highlights the dangers of concentration of powers - be it with a man, country or more predominantly in our times - corporations.
Book Description from Amazon.com
What if our civilization is more advanced than we know?
The New York Times bestselling author of Daemon--"the cyberthriller against which all others will be measured" -Publishers Weekly) --imagines a world in which decades of technological advances have been suppressed in an effort to prevent disruptive change.
Are smart phones really humanity's most significant innovation since the moon landings? Or can something else explain why the bold visions of the 20th century--fusion power, genetic enhancements, artificial intelligence, cures for common disease, extended human life, and a host of other world-changing advances--have remained beyond our grasp? Why has the high-tech future that seemed imminent in the 1960's failed to arrive?
Perhaps it did arrive...but only for a select few.
Particle physicist Jon Grady is ecstatic when his team achieves what they've been working toward for years: a device that can reflect gravity. Their research will revolutionize the field of physics--the crowning achievement of a career. Grady expects widespread acclaim for his entire team. The Nobel. Instead, his lab is locked down by a shadowy organization whose mission is to prevent at all costs the social upheaval sudden technological advances bring. This Bureau of Technology Control uses the advanced technologies they have harvested over the decades to fulfill their mission.
They are living in our future.
Presented with the opportunity to join the BTC and improve his own technology in secret, Grady balks, and is instead thrown into a nightmarish high-tech prison built to hold rebellious geniuses like himself. With so many great intellects confined together, can Grady and his fellow prisoners conceive of a way to usher humanity out of its artificial dark age?
And when they do, is it possible to defeat an enemy that wields a technological advantage half a century in the making?
The New York Times bestselling author of Daemon--"the cyberthriller against which all others will be measured" -Publishers Weekly) --imagines a world in which decades of technological advances have been suppressed in an effort to prevent disruptive change.
Are smart phones really humanity's most significant innovation since the moon landings? Or can something else explain why the bold visions of the 20th century--fusion power, genetic enhancements, artificial intelligence, cures for common disease, extended human life, and a host of other world-changing advances--have remained beyond our grasp? Why has the high-tech future that seemed imminent in the 1960's failed to arrive?
Perhaps it did arrive...but only for a select few.
Particle physicist Jon Grady is ecstatic when his team achieves what they've been working toward for years: a device that can reflect gravity. Their research will revolutionize the field of physics--the crowning achievement of a career. Grady expects widespread acclaim for his entire team. The Nobel. Instead, his lab is locked down by a shadowy organization whose mission is to prevent at all costs the social upheaval sudden technological advances bring. This Bureau of Technology Control uses the advanced technologies they have harvested over the decades to fulfill their mission.
They are living in our future.
Presented with the opportunity to join the BTC and improve his own technology in secret, Grady balks, and is instead thrown into a nightmarish high-tech prison built to hold rebellious geniuses like himself. With so many great intellects confined together, can Grady and his fellow prisoners conceive of a way to usher humanity out of its artificial dark age?
And when they do, is it possible to defeat an enemy that wields a technological advantage half a century in the making?
I highly recommend listening to the Audible Audiobooks version. Jeff Gurner's narration really brings out the persona's of the characters in all of Daniel Suarez's books. Its like our forefathers listening to War of the Worlds over the radio.
Here is a video of some behind the scenes commentary between Daniel Suarez & Leo Laporte. Jeff Gurner is also present and gives an on camera reading of an excerpt from the book.
Other Daniel Suarez books
Daemon (Kindle | Audible) & its sequel Freedom TM (Kindle | Audible) - control of the Internet leading up to a Utopian society.
