Mass Market Paperback, 527 pages
English language
Published March 2, 2015 by Angry Robot.
In the near future, the experimental nano-drug Nexus can link human together, mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it.
When a young scientist is caught improving Nexus, he's thrust over his head into a world of danger and international espionage—for there is far more at stake than anyone realizes.
An intriguing and thought provoking book that plays in the near future (around 2040). Nexus is a drug that enhances human brains in amazing ways. Is something like that safe to go out into the world? Who will use it for the good, and who will abuse it for the bad?
Writing is good, but not great. 5 stars for a great concept and an exciting read.
I'm really enjoying the bioethics discussed in this book. It's becoming a rare thing for me to find a series I'll read past the first volume. This may be one of them.
I picked this up after seeing it recommended multiple times in my twitter stream. My twitter stream was not wrong. I had a lot of fun with this one.
Ramez Naam was a programmer in his former life (multiple stints high up the food chain at Microsoft), and it shows. He uses the Ken Thompson compiler backdoor hack as a plot device. And he's got multiple scenes where the main character is developing code that actually rang true. I'm hoping they're not too boring or confusing for non-developers.
The other thing that jumped out was the ambiguity of the different players trying to get Kade and his tech. Each one had a slightly different agenda, and different means to achieve it. None of them were angels, and none were outright evil, either. Even the one character that did come close to being a cardboard cutout was redeemed by a good …
I picked this up after seeing it recommended multiple times in my twitter stream. My twitter stream was not wrong. I had a lot of fun with this one.
Ramez Naam was a programmer in his former life (multiple stints high up the food chain at Microsoft), and it shows. He uses the Ken Thompson compiler backdoor hack as a plot device. And he's got multiple scenes where the main character is developing code that actually rang true. I'm hoping they're not too boring or confusing for non-developers.
The other thing that jumped out was the ambiguity of the different players trying to get Kade and his tech. Each one had a slightly different agenda, and different means to achieve it. None of them were angels, and none were outright evil, either. Even the one character that did come close to being a cardboard cutout was redeemed by a good character scene towards the end.
If you're looking for a good sf thriller, with just a touch of the singularity to it, and some reasonable scientific backing (he gives you a laundry list of recent experiments he extrapolated from in the afterword), I can easily recommend picking this up.
Fascinating and intense posthuman science fiction, focusing on biotech and the human brain. While a solid thriller, the clear purpose of the novel is to run wild with ideas, which succeeds admirably.
Great book. Highly recommended.
