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I just finished Neal Stephensen's Interface last night (ok, the not-so wee hours of this morning ;-) ). I've been reading it off and on on my Treo, and it got to the point where I just had to sit down and finish it. It's a little predictable, and a bit of a political fantasy into wishful thinking, but hooks you anyway.
The story is basically that the President decides the way to get the country out of its massive debt is to just cancel it (probably the most unbelievable aspect of the story, but it's the prime motivator, and once you say, "ok, what if..." and then go on with the story, it's much more believable). Some shadowy, mysterious power brokers who call themselves "The Network" who mostly manage vast investments stand to lose a lot, so throw their resources behind an Illinois governor who had a stroke. They push the final development of a neuro-implant which can be trained to replace the functions of the brain tissue killed off by the stroke, get the governor back to working order and use a radio link to it to feed him information in real time while campaigning for the presidency.
Among other things.
The first half of the book sets up a number of different threads, which get woven together into the campaign that makes up the second half. It's got a little bit of everything: interesting characters, a little neuroscience, social commentary, political cynicism... What more could you want? ;-)
Posted by abatie at July 9, 2005 01:23 PM