Washington DC. But not as you know it. When the world goes
wrong, not too far in the future, the city is kept alive by
Dutch hydrological engineering. The future is BORDERLESS
not only because refugees flee devastation but because the
Commonwealth, the world's biggest company, controls all the
information infrastructure.
Diana has quit the CIA and she is more aware than most that
cars are computers that drive, homes are computers where
people live and so on. Her relationship with Dag is
settling down -- they met in an earlier book, Bandwidth,
which I hadn't read. Diana is troubled by the way that
hedge funds act, and by the consolidation of control of
telecommunications. I found that the early part of the book
looks back at the previous adventure, and while readers can
pick up enough to hit the ground running, they may feel
that it's better to read the first book to get to know the
characters.
One interesting concept is that in this ultra-connected
world, a club called Analog caters to those people of
status who want a place with no connection but social
chatter in person. All the stream of online life is
severed and the patrons find they can think clearly, make
life decisions, get creativity flowing. The other side is
that the outside world can't spy in the club, so privacy
and secrecy can flourish. Here Diana meets a contact who
wants her to work for him. For a fee.
The location shifts to San Francisco where the wind carries
the smell of fires, the Arctic, and secluded forest spots
where people can talk without being overheard. What doesn't
change however is the constant sense that Diana is paranoid
and has the word tradecraft at the forefront of her mind,
so maybe once a spy always a spy. Another constant factor
is the ongoing, rather complex and massive takeover of
control of other aspects of the world by Commonwealth,
because they who own the feed can threaten to cut it off
and by now governments depend on the feed. Diana has a
counterpart, a control freak named Helen, who obligingly
invites Diana for a meal and reveals all her plans for
world domination.
I would recommend reading the first book (BANDWIDTH)
before tackling
BORDERLESS because the world has been through quite some
turmoil. Author Eliot Peper points out in a note how much
today's world has changed from that which his grandparents
inhabited. How many more changes may come? This is a big
concept adventure which will bring wry amusement to any
technothriller fans. Expect some violence and strong
language.
Information is power, and whoever controls the feed rules the world in this all-too-plausible follow-up to the science fiction thriller Bandwidth. Exiled from Washington after a covert operation gone wrong, Diana is building a new life as a freelance spy, though her obsessive secrecy is driving away the few friends and allies she can count on. When she’s hired to investigate the world’s leading techno capitalist, she unknowingly accepts an assignment with a dark ulterior purpose. Navigating a labyrinth of cutouts and false fronts, Diana discovers a plot to nationalize the global feed. As tech and politics speed toward a catastrophic reckoning, Diana must reconcile the sins of her past with her dreams of tomorrow. How she deploys the secrets in her arsenal will shape the future of a planet on the brink of disaster. Doing the right thing means risking everything to change the rules of the game. But how much is freedom really worth?
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