Breakpoint

Richard Clarke, famous for his 9/11 Commission testimony, turns out to be a competent novelist. His story is set in 2012, in a somewhat unsettling world in which humans, technology, and various networks are merging. So who's destroying key pieces of this "progress"? Clarke provides an excellent blend of real-world and fictional scenarios, and an end chapter spells out which technologies and trends are currently real, or on the verge of real, and which are pure fiction. Robertson Dean matches his voicing and pacing to the novel's characters and plot. Dean delivers Clarke's version of the future with flair. T.F. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

October 9, 2006
Veteran counterterrorism official Clarke, author of Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror
and the novel The Scorpion's Gate
, proves once again that authenticity, insider information and top-secret access artfully applied trumps fancy writing with this cutting-edge, nail-biter techno-thriller set in 2012. Clarke's intriguing plot centers on the development of Living Software, a massive computer program designed to travel throughout the Internet correcting computer errors and creating software without any help or oversight from human beings. Volunteers would be connected to this program in a project aimed at reverse engineering the human brain. Added to this fascinating mix is the Transhumanist movement, whose labs grow designer children with extra chromosomes. Mysterious entities who would deny this progress are blowing up government Internet connections, killing scientists and destroying the labs participating in this research. Savvy readers will ignore the evidence that points to the obvious suspect, but still be surprised at the identity of the perpetrator when all is revealed.