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martyfried's review
4.0
I was given this as an ebook by a Goodreads contact; I have a big backlog of books I want to read, but this looked interesting and I thought it would be good to help support an indie author, so I decided to read it, not really expecting anything great.
Well, I was surprised and delighted by the book. Near the end, I had trouble putting it down. I think that it would appeal most to people who frequent various social networking sites like Facebook, or at least have a good understanding of the culture.
The book takes place in the near future, and seems pretty believable to me. Much of what happens is already pretty close to possible.
In this story, most people have implants with a direct connection between the internet and their brain, so they can communicate continuously with their friends, receive filtered news on any subject they want, and several other "benefits". Most cars are self-driving, so there's no need to interrupt this connection for commuting. There's very little direct interaction with others, as everything is done via networking, including communicating with those around you. For many people, this is an ideal existence, I suppose, unless someone manages to do the "impossible", and hack your interface.
The protagonists are two women; one is a nurse who works with mental patients, and the other is a programmer along the lines of Lisbeth Salander, the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" from Swedish author Stieg Larsson. When a large influx of people start having psychotic episodes, the two women are brought together and begin working on the cause. Then the excitement begins.
All in all, it was a fun book to read, and had some things to think about. It was humorous, but conceivable, when one woman was surprised to learn that there was a war happening where thousands were killed, and she knew nothing about it because her news was filtered to only show what she wanted to read, like humorous cat stories, etc. It's a quick read, so check it out.
Well, I was surprised and delighted by the book. Near the end, I had trouble putting it down. I think that it would appeal most to people who frequent various social networking sites like Facebook, or at least have a good understanding of the culture.
The book takes place in the near future, and seems pretty believable to me. Much of what happens is already pretty close to possible.
In this story, most people have implants with a direct connection between the internet and their brain, so they can communicate continuously with their friends, receive filtered news on any subject they want, and several other "benefits". Most cars are self-driving, so there's no need to interrupt this connection for commuting. There's very little direct interaction with others, as everything is done via networking, including communicating with those around you. For many people, this is an ideal existence, I suppose, unless someone manages to do the "impossible", and hack your interface.
The protagonists are two women; one is a nurse who works with mental patients, and the other is a programmer along the lines of Lisbeth Salander, the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" from Swedish author Stieg Larsson. When a large influx of people start having psychotic episodes, the two women are brought together and begin working on the cause. Then the excitement begins.
All in all, it was a fun book to read, and had some things to think about. It was humorous, but conceivable, when one woman was surprised to learn that there was a war happening where thousands were killed, and she knew nothing about it because her news was filtered to only show what she wanted to read, like humorous cat stories, etc. It's a quick read, so check it out.
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