Auf ein Miniaturbild klicken, um zu Google Books zu gelangen.
Lädt ... Radio Freefallvon Matthew Jarpe
Keine Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. In Matthew Jarpe's debut, a megalomaniac software billionaire wants to take over the world. Arrayed against this dastardly plan are a disparate bunch of rock stars and genius hackers who just might be able to mount a resistance, if they could keep off the drugs long enough to plan coherently. But with the assistance of our hero Quin Taber's very illegal AI sidekick, and a sentient computer virus, they might just pull the irons out of the fire. A pretty decent first novel. keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
In the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress but with a healthy dose of cyberpunk: Radio Freefall is about a plot to take over the Earth by power-mad, sociopathic computer-geek billionaire, Walter Cheeseman. It's up to a strange cast of rock stars and oddballs to stop him. Aqualung, a mysterious blues musician who also has superhuman tech skills, might be the catalyst for the resistance--or he might just be the pawn of artificial intelligences. To thwart the takeover, the orbitals and the moon colonies secede from Earth. And then something like the Singularity happens, but no one is quite sure. This is a novel of cyberpunk and rock and roll, of technology, artificial intelligence, and wild riffs off of Heinlein all mixed into an explosive debut. Matthew Jarpe launches his SF career with a bang! Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
Aktuelle DiskussionenKeineBeliebte Umschlagbilder
Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
Bist das du?Werde ein LibraryThing-Autor. |
I stumbled upon Radio Freefall by Matthew Jarpe at the library recently. It isn’t a new release, I hadn’t been familiar with the author, and I can’t recall ever hearing about the novel. So, naturally, I checked it out immediately, knowing nothing but what the flap copy said – this this was a cyberpunk story with rock and roll, AIs, and technology. And you know what? It was a lot of fun.
There is a lot going on in Radio Freefall. It is the story of an Earth coming together under one government, of political unrest, of billionaires controlling everyone and everything they can, sentient computer viruses, and autonomous AIs. It is also the story of a musician finally getting the fame he deserves, of a new band shooting towards stardom, and of learning to trust. I loved reading about Aqualung and the success of the band. I also loved reading about the AIs, Digital Carnivore, and WebCense’s takeover. And I loved when these two seemingly separate plots wove together.
These many threads start out as several separate plot lines, with the narrative switching between Aqualung and Quin, especially in the beginning of the novel. However, all of these threads come together to weave a complex tale of music, technology, and politics. Our main characters are not saints, though. Despite being extraordinarily gifted at their respective careers, both have their flaws. Quin is paranoid. Aqualung is slow to trust and uncomfortable giving out advice to his younger band mates, even when the advice is looked for.
The novel was a fun read. The Freefall technology was interesting. The concept of a world government coming together was fun to read about and would probably appeal to fans of Malka Older’s Centennal Cycle series. The AIs, their autonomy, and subculture was also fascinating. Some of the world building could have been fleshed out a bit. For all of the AIs in the story, we don’t know much about them or their culture. Walter Cheeseman, head of WebCense, seems to have no motives for his actions other than greed, and feels a bit two dimensional.
While the conclusion left little to the imagination, wrapping all the threads of the story together quite nicely, it did feel just a little rushed. We learn what happens to Aqualung and the rest of his band members through a news article, not through the dialogue or prose that comprised the majority of the rest of the novel. This certainly provided proper closure to multiple character’s story lines, but it created a certain distance that wasn’t present in the rest of the novel.
Despite this, Radio Freefall was a fun read overall. I enjoyed my time with this book, and would definitely read more books by Matthew Jarpe. If you like cyberpunk or rock and roll I would suggest giving this book a read.
This review can be originally found on Looking Glass Reads. ( )