From his triumphant debut with Snow Crash to the stunning success of his latest novel, Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson has quickly become the voice of a generation. In this now-classic thriller, he and fellow author J. Frederick George tell a shocking tale with an all-too plausible premise.
There's no way William A. Cozzano can lose the upcoming presidential election. He's a likable midwestern governor with one insidious advantage - an advantage provided by a shadowy group of backers. A biochip implanted in his head hardwires him to a computerized polling system. The mood of the electorate is channeled directly into his brain. Forget issues. Forget policy. Cozzano is more than the perfect candidate. He's a special effect.
Complex, entertaining, frequently funny. - Publishers Weekly
Qualifies as the sleeper of the year, the rare kind of science-fiction thriller that evokes genuine laughter while simultaneously keeping the level of suspense cranked to the max. - San Diego Union-Tribune
Manchurian Candidate for the computer age. - Seattle Weekly
Interface
I think this was much more of a political intrigue than I ever really want to read - too close to reality, too relevant to political currents from which I would like to run away and hide, even though I know that it is impossible... I am very sadly reminded of how things that were considered relevant to a political campaign in 94, even if in fictional form, are still the same today, 21 years later, and SP even mentions were points of discussion during elections 100 years before that... What does it say about us as foreword thinking or actually achieving any of our idealistic goals? No mater, long ago I decided that my books should have nothing in common with the politics of today and this was just a bit too-close for comfort.
Apart from my personal reservations, it was another great book by SP. He is smart and witty as always, although the book was a bit slow in development and a tad choppy. Not his best, but even in his worst SP is better that the rest of the field :) 9780553383430 Written 25 years ago, this political thriller also predicted some of the future pretty well. Locations are beautifully described, and ideas are usually introduced with characters (though perhaps one too many). For me, it is a book which was tough to put down, and as fun to read as it was in the 90s.
The book is a collaboration between Neal Stephenson and his uncle, which wasn't well known when first published. Having read a lot of the former, I think I can identify some passages, but overall it flows in a smooth narrative. On this reread, it is also fun to look at some of those future predictions. GODS is quite similar to Amazon, for instance. It is also interesting to read between the lines, interpreting what the candidate says and connecting to the source - and from there back to the author (pro or con). The Strong character quite resembles our current president.
I could have done without the last character introduced (on page 526). His purpose is to show the aspect of negative campaigns, and a score of pages later he is mostly out of the story - which would have been fine without him. The appearance of all the other characters is perfect, making this anomaly that much more glaring. For me, this costs the novel half a star, but it is still highly recommended. 4½ out of 5 stars.
All that Democrat/Republican stuff is bullshit, he said. And as far as liberal versus conservative, well, people are very promiscuous in the way the use those words. They don't really mean anything. Within those two camps there are very wide divisions. And between those two camps, there is a lot more overlap than you think. None of that bullshit really matters. The only thing that matters is values. 9780553383430 I thought this was very entertaining all the way, although not suspenseful - but that's not surprising for this author. However, it was less technical than many of his books, so that normally puts you off, don't let it in this case, although it is slightly technical. But I thought there were some truly interesting characters, with a lot of humor throughout. Unfortunately, the most interesting character was one of the bad guys. I liked him and wasn't sure whether he was a good guy or a bad guy until the end; actually, I'm still not really sure he was such a bad guy.
Some might think the premise isn't likely or believable, but I would answer with Are you sure? I think perhaps the Trump fake news and misinformation coming from Washington might make this a lot more likely. Fake news rules in this story, although it was written long before the recent elections. But likely or not, it's a fun read. For those complaining that it's not on par with other Neal Stephenson books, I say so what and who says? 9780553383430 The other collaboration between these two authors, Cobweb, was a thriller with a message: the US government doesn't work anymore. Ordinary folks are the only people who get things done, usually despite the government.
Interface is also a thriller with a message: Elections don't work anymore, either. This is because of television. It takes a similar technical and stylistic approach; ordinary folks turn out to be really important, humour that people will recognise from Stephenson's solo novels, though less extreme or outlandish, perhaps. Unfortunately it also shares some of the weaknesses of those giant later works, e.g. too many characters, lack of urgency or narrative drive and, crucially, not much tension until exceedingly near the end. This is disappointing, since Cobweb evades most of these problems and delivers a tense final act. Even more disappointing, in that Zodiac demonstrates that at one time Stephenson could write taught, exciting fiction as well as make a point, without help from anybody else - but we're not likely to see another book from him that is less than 400p long, are we? And I just can't be bothered with another of his 1000p tomes.
Reading this book is a healthy reminder of how such manipulation is conducted, on a practical level but readers are not offered much by way of a solution to the problems of media manipulation of/by politicians in this book. I offer one idea as a way of mitigating the problem to some limited extent: don't watch TV news, ever. Listen to talk radio news, instead - by which I mean the BBC or (second best) NPR.
9780553383430 An intriguing read - both for the science and the politics. The science came off as believable, but where this books shines is the dead right tone it gives the politics in the book. I've been working in politics and campaigns for three decades and the window this gives into that world, while not factually correct at all times, is definitely correct in capturing the essence.
And like with all Stephenson books, this delivers memorable characters and settings. There seems to be a bit more humor in this book than Stephenson usually delivers (and thus reminded me much more of Bruce Sterling).
As a DC-area native, I especially found the inclusion and description of this area to be well done and accurate for the most part.
In summary, this book provides a chilling what-if on what the confluence of technology and politics might bring about, and it does it with some humor, great characters, and a story that winds its way through many subplots while never losing sight of the goal. The descriptions of locations in the book I am familiar with were dead on, as were the descriptions of electoral politics and life within the bubble of Washington DC.
Note on the author:
I got an older copy of this from a friend and for the author it listed Stephen Bury and then had a little sticker on it that said With Neal Stephenson!. So going in, I'd known Stephenson had some influence on it and it wasn't until after I finished the book that I looked up the author and saw it was a collective pseudonym for Stephenson and his uncle.
Wasn't really much of a surprise as while I was reading I ran across numerous passages where I said to myself Man, Stephenson must have written this entire passage! Especially for this era of Stephenson's career, this is very much true to his writing style then (first part of the '90s_.
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SUMMARY Interface
Otra de esas compras vacacionales que me quedaron sin leer.
Me gustó muchísimo, mucho más que el otro technothriller de Stephenson/George que leí hace poquito, The Cobweb. La razón es que aunque sigue siendo un thriller más que una novela de ciencia ficción, tiene un porcentaje importante de (futura) tecnología y sus posibles usos y abusos, lo que lo hace muy intrigante.
Además tiene buenos personajes, escenas con mucha acción y un final a todo ritmo. La verdad, muy entretenido. 9780553383430 For me this was very hard work. Made worse by authors seeming very smug. 9780553383430 I always think authors who set their sci fi in current times and base it in real technology are, um, courageous? What's wildly bleeding-edge in 1994 sounds lame and antiquated in 2011. I guess that's the real problem with describing actual instead of near future technology. Luckily for my commuting sanity, the story here is ok (think mid-grade Crichton?) and knowing the awesomeness that is to come from one half of this writing duo, I can forgive nearly anything for the price of a single Audible credit.
19/2/11
Finished listening to this yesterday. Demoting it to 2 stars,because really, other than my affection for Stephenson, it doesn't have much going for it. In fact if it was by any other author I would probably give it one star. It is interesting to see how an author develops over time- this book, while crappy, touches on a lot of interesting and familiar Stephenson themes: secret power structures; currency and the relationship between events and value; technology; a female protagonist (in this case two). The story is complicated (and made overcomplicated by deus ex-ish appearances out of the blue of new characters at convenient moments) and interesting- I don't think Stephenson could be boring if he tried. It's just contrived and not very well written imo- there's a lot of using the same adjective twice in one paragraph, and he said, she said dialogue. It's hard to imagine the amazingly beautiful and erudite prose style of 21st century Stephenson as belonging to the same guy who penned this. OMG maybe he has had one of those implants!1!111!! (you have to read it if you want to get my lame joke). 9780553383430 Published in 1994. Reads much more modern. Ending a touch too tidy (and optimstic) for my taste. 9780553383430 Приятно все же сознавать, насколько мы продвинулись за последние четверть века — вполне на собственной памяти, — читая такие книжки. В нем все «прото-» — прото-нёрды, прото-нанотехнологии, прото-политтехнологии. Читается прям как антропологический экскурс в прошлое. Но потом догоняет и накрывает Пинчон-паранойей, и на текст подсаживаешься, хотя (а может, и потому, что) роман скроен по лекалам и рецептам коммерческого чтива: главы умоподъемной длины, сцены чередуются в своем алгоритме, фигуры умолчания создают саспенс и подгоняют вперед, фонового знания дается в меру, экшн не раздражает.
Фантастики как таковой тут тоже не очень есть, вернее она — «ближнего действия по-американски», а не по-советски: т.е. все этот вполне вероятно и допустимо. Обложка да, не врет — это честный политический триллер с циничными персонажами, которые отлично знают, что делают, и умеют работать, а лучше таких персонажей я не знаю, что может быть. И еще «Интерфейс» — превосходный взгляд на то, из чего состоит «тело американской политики», о котором узнаешь больше, чем из газетных новостей (вот, я опять откатился к метафоре четвертьвековой давности — ну кто сейчас читает газеты? из фидов каких-нибудь, конечно).
Квасным патриотам читать его, конечно, совершенно бесполезно, они и слов таких не знают, как «выборы»: заз��р между американским политическим сознанием и его русским отсутствием по-прежнему непреодолим. Хотя практически все фигуры на русских политических горизонтах — уже давно не люди, а спецэффекты, поэтому поди знай.
...оп-па. вот они его и не читают. на русском этого романа, оказывается, не существует. 9780553383430