Review: A dysfunctional government?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 17, 2013
The book starts at a small US University where the young Professor Deidre Jennings has a problem. She has kicked off her career with a  piece of inspiration, but subsequent inspiration eludes her. This little scene is somewhat recognizable if you have been in this position, so well done, John. Somehow, she gets the idea to formulate a research program computing and predicting quantum events. I found this concept somewhat silly, but we can forgive this because it has nothing really to do with the story other than she needs extreme computing power. She inherits that from another professor, and besides the computer, she inherits the professor's assistant, Bobby, and something else embedded in the computer as well. When she has insufficient computing power, Bobby comes up with a means to get lots of additional processors from gamers, and in one glorious experiment, she gets considerably more processing, and eventually more than she expected. All sorts of things get of hand.The story is quite enthralling, and the author shows an interesting technique in the middle of the story by splitting it into several strands, and by jumping between them, it feels as though a lot is happening when in reality little is. This is good technique. While the structural technique is excellent, there are perhaps too many grammatical errors, particularly relating to apostrophes and possessive pronouns, and overall, I found too many parts of the plot did not really make sense. One simple example. If the Federal authorities thought that stolen government property was on a site, surely they would simply get a search warrant rather than send in burglars? Or even approach the known innocent professor and ask to see the computer? However, perhaps I am being a little harsh there; I thought that the dysfunctional aspects of communication between various US agencies was ridiculous, however having read about 9/11, maybe they are closer to the truth than I like. To summarize, I think if you like a book relating to computers and undesirable outcomes from computers, and if you do not think too hard about why people are doing what they are, this should be a good book for you.