"A cyber thriller with godlike teens creating a dystopia"
Reviewed by Clare O'Beara
Posted June 29, 2015
Young Adult Science Fiction
This powerful YA story is the first part of the Aeon
Trilogy. The story takes place in an America of the
future, after a food crisis has forced the use of Central
Park as farmland, while communications infrastructure has
been decaying and new energy reactors have been developed.
FALSE IDOLS begins inside one of these reactors as the
staff get the shock they never expected - a hacking
intrusion which starts a meltdown.
While I found the early part of the story less geared
towards young people, once the true nature of the hackers
has been realised, an effort is made to recruit a team of
elite young minds to fight the Aeons as they are known.
The first Aeon we meet is Laura who uses a fighting game
to
represent the hacking manoeuvres she actually does; this
provides an exciting battle scene for the reader.
A less dramatic battle is undergone by teenagers; lonely,
bullied Nick is hoping to get one of the new neural net
implants so he can live a better, if virtual, life. We
can't but identify with Nick, and with Sarah, who arrives
for training in a government-run desert cadet school
without any knowledge of the challenge she faces. They're
has
on opposite sides: Sarah's from an orphanage while Nick
been genetically engineered by his prosperous, luxury-
loving parents who have developed more efficient food
production. Nick doesn't know boundaries and the selfish
Aeons pick him right up.
I enjoyed the Neuromancer-like exploration metaphors for
the Aeons' hacking and the VR games played by the
students.
There's a pleasant multicultural atmosphere and vivid
imagery which will make us all want a go, plus some Second
Life-like socialising. Contrasting with this is the
warning
that the VR-working brain can overheat as the computer
chip
can't shed heat fast enough... are you worried yet?
With oil a dying commodity and empty highways, the world
seems bleak, yet we still have the very rich as well as
the
working poor and ambitious traders. As the scenario
gradually unfolds the dystopia becomes more apparent and
clashes occur. We encounter some profound questions, such
as where does a resident of the neural mindscape really
live, and whether they owe loyalty to a country. With
global business complexity added to the power play, dark
outcomes and paranoid ranting, this isn't for the younger
readers but it's a great set of lessons about today's
world
for maturing young adults. I've got to congratulate Alexis
Grove on creating FALSE IDOLS which had me on the edge of
my seat on more than one occasion. The next books are to
be
called Do No Evil and The God Reborn; I can't wait.
SUMMARY
In the year 2047 neural implants have given a small slice
of the population superhuman abilities. Are these Aeons
brilliant humanitarians dedicated to saving civilization,
or venal psychopaths bent on its destruction? When Sarah Fenton is recruited out of her orphanage into a
mysterious government program, this question becomes her
mission. Answering it incorrectly could spell the end of
the human race. Her only path to the truth lies in beguiling an Aeon named
Nick Lal, the reclusive scion of one of the planet’s
wealthiest families. Even as Sarah realizes she’s falling
in love with him, she begins to fear that he is not as
innocent as he appears. As famine and religious strife threaten to push the nation
into a three-way civil war, Sarah’s time runs short. Will
she be wily enough to choose correctly and save the world?
ExcerptSarah was strapped into one of the cooling chairs at the
ranch, next to Michael. They were about to begin an evening
session of mapping out the Aeons’ network infrastructure.Unexpectedly, the holophone integrated into her TacWave
began ringing. She saw that the caller was Nick Lal and
felt a surge of excitement. “Sorry, Michael, duty calls.” “Another call from your Aeon boyfriend?” Sarah ignored the
edge in Michael’s voice. He needed to get over the fact
that her job was to date Nick Lal. “Just go in first, Michael, I’ll be along in a second.” She switched on the holophone emulator in her TacWave.
Though she was standing in a room full of secret government
computer equipment, to Nick it would appear that she was
sitting on a luxurious leather couch and sipping a glass of
wine. “Hey there, how’s it going?” “OK, I guess.” “You look kind of glum, Nick. You sure everything’s ok?” “Just some dumb arguments with my parents.” “Sounds normal.” “I’m really angry this time though. I don’t think I’m going
to speak to them again.” Sarah felt a stab of sadness that someone who was lucky
enough to still have parents would turn away from them,
even after the worst of fights. But this wasn’t a pain she
could share with Nick, not when her undercover persona had
parents. “What was the fight about?” “My company. You’ve probably seen it on the National News
Network by now. It’s Sparkwise.” “You’re involved in Sparkwise? The news said the
names of the owners were being held confidential while the
investigation proceeded. I had no idea that was you…” Sarah’s mind was racing while she thought through how this
conversation might play out. She would have to play dumb
until she was sure of why Nick was discussing Sparkwise
with her. If he indicated any willingness to cooperate with
the government, she could hint that she could help him. But
she still couldn’t reveal her true identity to him. Her train of thought was interrupted by an urgent message
from Michael that cut across her holophone feed. “Sarah,
I’ve found a hole in Sparkwise’s firewall. Get in here and
help me.”
### Nick was working up the courage to admit to Sarah that he
thought some of the allegations against Sparkwise might be
true and wanted to find a confidential way to cooperate
with the government. But his holophone feed was drowned out
by an emergency MindWave message from Laura. “Nick, our
firewall is being infiltrated. Get in here and help me
defend it.” “By the government?” “Can’t be. They would have to show a warrant. It must be
some damn nat hacker.” Nick reluctantly decided he would have to help defend the
firewall. If he was going to turn state’s witness against
Sparkwise, he would need to keep Laura’s trust for as long
as possible. In fact, he’d have to increase her
trust in him, so that she’d give him access to the most
secret files. He switched back to his holophone call with Sarah. “Hey
don’t go anywhere. I’ve got another call I have to take.” “It’s all right, I have the same problem,” Sarah responded.
Her voice sounded distracted and strained. “Keep the line
open and give me a shout when you’re done.”
###
Michael’s request had come at a terrible time. Sarah
thought Nick’s tone over the holophone suggested that he
was getting ready to confess something to her. Maybe even
to ask her advice in how to cooperate with the government.
It would be a major intelligence coup for her, and it would
have earned Nick immunity.But duty called. She appeared in the multinet at Michael’s location, a large
stone-walled rectangular room, about one hundred feet long,
fifty wide, and thirty high. In the center of the space, a
four by four array of steel safes floated in the air. Each
safe was a three foot cube. The lowest row of safes hovered
about an inch off the ground. Each of the three rows above
it was suspended two feet above the one below. Likewise,
each column was spaced two feet distant from the ones to
its left and right. There was a ledge that ran around the
room at about the same height as the third row of safes.
The only other features in the room were doorways at either
end. Michael was crouched over a prone polar bear near one of
the doorways. Sarah saw that he was busy binding the bear
with thick ropes. In addition to the martial gear he had
worn to the Five Mile Creek server, Michael now wore a
ninja-style face mask that hid his identity. Sarah conjured
a stretchy leather ski mask and pulled it over her head,
leaving only her eyes exposed. Michael gave a final tug on the ropes and stood up. “You think you can bind me, jou bliksem?” roared the
polar bear. Michael kicked the bear and said “Meet Jakobus Van der
Merwe, also known as Kobus.” “Next time you say my name you’ll be on your knees begging
for mercy!” The animal turned its head and leered at Sarah.
“En jy sal wees op jou rug en bedel vir meer.” Michael ignored Kobus and turned to the floating array of
steel safes. “This is the secure Sparkwise server room.” “How did you get in here?” “The Aeons have expanded their systems so fast I guess they
just made a mistake. There was one firewall in the Aeon
Avionics email server that wasn’t correctly installed, and
the email server had connections to a data-pooling system
with Sparkwise, and from there I could get to here.” “What should we do now? Report back to base?” “No, this is a one-time chance.” He gestured at Kobus.
“They clearly know the vulnerability exists now and will
close it.” “OK. But do you really think we can break into the safes?”
Sarah didn’t want to move aggressively now. If they
uncovered proof of Sparkwise’s crimes before Nick could
confess to them, he would never get a chance to avoid
arrest. She just needed a few more minutes of talking to
him. She switched back to her holophone conversation. “Nick, are
you there? It really sounded like there was something you
wanted to discuss and I don’t want to leave you hanging.” “Yeah,” Nick answered. “I do have something to talk about.
Just as soon as I’m free.” “I might have to go soon, Nick.” “Sorry. I’ll hurry.” Sarah resisted the urge to curse at him and switched her
consciousness back to the Sparkwise server. “We don’t have the encryption key to unlock the safes,”
Michael was explaining. “But we can always try a brute
force attack.” “I thought the best encryption was unbreakable.” “Well they don’t have the quantum encryption systems we
have. And even if they did, it would still be vulnerable to
brute force. It’s just a matter of having enough force.”
Michael pulled a huge sledgehammer from out of his sash and
passed it to Sarah. “How the hell do you carry all this stuff around in your
sash?” Sarah muttered. “You better hope he has a fokkin tenk in there,”
growled Kobus. “And why don’t you carry a muzzle, too?” She took a few
reluctant steps towards the nearest safe and began lining
up a swing. Before she could strike, a figure ran into the room. He was
dressed in baggy white pants held up by an orange belt, and
a billowing navy blue top. A high black turban covered his
head. In his hand, he carried a curved scimitar-like blade. It was Nick! “It’s about time you got here, bra! Don’t worry, I
got your back!” called Kobus. As Nick brandished his sword and turned towards Michael,
Sarah switched back to her holophone. “Nick I need to talk
to you now!” “Almost done,” he said breathlessly. Inside Sparkwise’s server, Michael was parrying Nick’s
sword blows with a long spear with red feathers near its
tip. The two whirled around each other in furious circles. Michael jabbed with his spear at Nick’s head six times in
rapid succession. Nick diverted the first five strikes with
his sword and on the sixth dodged down and forward, aiming
a vicious swing at Michael’s knees. Michael leaped over
Nick’s sword while spinning backwards. As he landed, he
brought his spear point down in a wide arc as if it were a
hammer. But Nick saw the attack coming and spun away to the
left, aiming a backhand blow back at Michael as he
completed his turn. Luckily Michael moved behind the shaft
of his spear, which he used to block the blade. The two warriors parted for a moment and circled each
other, looking for weaknesses. As Sarah watched the combat, she felt herself filling with
fury. Just when she’d thought Nick was ready to confess to
her about Sparkwise, he was actually acting to defend the
company. When she had defended Nick to Willy and Colonel
Jaeger, when she had believed in him, she had been proving
herself a fool. She realized now that she’d fallen in love with Nick. All
the times she’d rushed to his defense, she’d been deceiving
herself about her reasons. She wasn’t just protecting him
because he was a potential intelligence source. She was
trying to protect him because of how she felt about him.
And the excitement she’d felt in his presence wasn’t simply
the innocent thrill of the hunt. It was the tension of
being in his presence at all. But the depth of her feelings just made her realization
that she’d been wrong about him all the more painful.
Indignation, shame, and rage all boiled up within her. She
was going to get revenge. When Nick’s back was to her, she flung her hammer at him.
It twisted slowly as it flew through the air, and then
impacted him right between the shoulder blades. He let out
a gasp and felt to the ground. “Jammer! I guess I didn’t really have your back,
bra,” exclaimed Kobus from the ground. She switched back to her holophone. She spoke as sweetly as
she could. “How are things going over there, Nick? Are you
done yet?” “Um, I hit a bit of a snag, Sarah.” She let the sweetness drain out of her voice. “I bet you
did.” She switched back to Sparkwise, and drove her knee into
Nick’s back to hold him down on the floor. She grinned as
she heard him cursing over the holophone audio link, and
then cut the holophone connection. While she held down Nick, Michael retrieved the
sledgehammer and strode up to the nearest of the floating
safes. “Like I said, it’s just a matter of having enough
force.” He wound up and let loose a swing so powerful he
nearly lost his balance. The hammer head impacted the
safe’s lock with a resounding clang, leaving a deep dent.
Michael recovered his footing and took another wild swing,
and then another. “Just a matter of force” he repeated
between his grunts. Finally, the safe burst open and an avalanche of paper
documents burst out of it and fell scattered on the floor.
“Score!” said Michael happily. “Jy bliksem, dit is my goed!” cried a visibly upset
Kobus. “Ek gaan rip jou skrotum af en gebruik dit vir 'n
sleutelhanger.” “Get out of my server!” the woman’s voice was deep and
powerful. Sarah turned her head just in time to see the
same red-haired warrior that had overpowered her at the
Five Mile Creek server striding towards them, sword and
shield at the ready. This time, Sarah knew the woman was
Laura Mayer. Laura was flanked by two enormous lionesses. “Sarah, hold them off while I collect some of this data!” Sarah got off of Nick’s back. She had a sword and dagger in
her belt, but she knew Michael’s spear would be a better
weapon to hold off the cats. She quickly retrieved it from
where Michael had set it on the ground. The two lionesses roared and pounced towards her
simultaneously. One came right at her throat. Sarah held
the spear firmly and gored it through its mouth. The cat’s
momentum was so great that it travelled all the way up the
shaft of the spear, killing itself but still slamming into
Sarah with enough speed to knock her on her back. Sarah hit
the ground hard and struggled to push the dead weight of
the feline off of her. Before she could budge it, the other cat bounded up and
leaned over her face, its maws gaping open to reveal a row
of jagged teeth. She struggled and got a hand free, pulled
the knife from the sheath on her belt, and stabbed the
beast in the side. The cat roared in fury and backed off of
her. She turned to Michael to ask for help. But Michael was engaged in one-on-one combat with Laura.
Unable to swing fast enough with his unwieldy sledgehammer
to parry her furious sword blows, he was backing up
steadily, looking for an opening to strike. He was circling
as he backed up, so that he wouldn’t be forced into a
corner. But his circling was taking him right towards— “Michael watch out!” she screamed. But it was too late. Nick had crawled to his knees and
Michael had backed right into him. Nick seized Michael’s
legs, holding him immobile. Michael pulled away and used
the flat of his hammer to knock Nick in the ribs, sending
him sprawling onto the pile of papers that had spilled out
of the broken safe. But now Michael’s back was turned on Laura, who unleashed a
brutal diagonal sword stroke that sent Michael’s head
rolling away down the length of the room. Kobus roared “She got your head, maar jou skrotum is
myne!” Laura turned towards Sarah to finish her off. Sarah was
still trapped under the dead lioness. She weakly flung her
knife at the approaching Aeon. The weapon fell short and
skittered across the stone floor, until Laura used her
sandal-clad foot to stop it. “I’ve seen you before,” said
Laura as she approached. “You escaped me at Five Mile
Creek. But this time I’m going to find out who you really
are.” But before Laura could reach her, Sarah’s connection to the
multinet was cut off. Provided exclusively to FreshFiction.com for display on
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