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Silicon Sunset
“It's a great idea, reminiscent of the best work of Philip K. Dick…”
—Salon Take a journey to the furthest limits of cyberspace. It is the year 2077 and data pervades. There are no plants or animals in the cities, food grows only on orbiting satellites, and sex has been forgotten. All day long, day after day, humans process their burgeoning data via "PIFFEN meters" implanted in their brains. A worldwide bioelectronic net called the Neural Web links the tiny meters. But Kale Keeler—a 26 year-old, female Web reporter—has glimpsed the ways of the old-time. While attending a rare physical briefing with Mr. Clyde Trivers, the CEO of the "Public Netgorks," she notices that Trivers is different from everyone else. He does no data processing of his own. Most humans would be too busy with their Web-signals to give this a second thought, but Kale suffers from a "slowed metabolic rate." She agrees to accept Trivers' odd assignment to investigate a Professor Walter Morgaux at Harvard University, which has been relegated to a rehab center for the most feeble processors of society. Unknown to her, she is monitored by Ralph Peterson, a small-time channel boss desperate for a Netgorks promotion. Trivers has even given Ralph a special headware device to illegally enter private segments of Kale's system. The more Ralph sifts her system, the more Kale deviates from her data. She even touches the skin of a male rehab student at Harvard named Greggy Panagopoulos—a violation of the sacred "Third Law of the Internal." But the terrible truth about the world doesn't get revealed until Kale does the most brazen thing of She arches her back like a bird and sends a Webless signal to her reclusive grandfather, Joseph Baptista. The result is pure silicon madness. If you're worried about where the Internet is leading, you may want to read this book. If you aren't worried, you BETTER read this book!
—Salon Take a journey to the furthest limits of cyberspace. It is the year 2077 and data pervades. There are no plants or animals in the cities, food grows only on orbiting satellites, and sex has been forgotten. All day long, day after day, humans process their burgeoning data via "PIFFEN meters" implanted in their brains. A worldwide bioelectronic net called the Neural Web links the tiny meters. But Kale Keeler—a 26 year-old, female Web reporter—has glimpsed the ways of the old-time. While attending a rare physical briefing with Mr. Clyde Trivers, the CEO of the "Public Netgorks," she notices that Trivers is different from everyone else. He does no data processing of his own. Most humans would be too busy with their Web-signals to give this a second thought, but Kale suffers from a "slowed metabolic rate." She agrees to accept Trivers' odd assignment to investigate a Professor Walter Morgaux at Harvard University, which has been relegated to a rehab center for the most feeble processors of society. Unknown to her, she is monitored by Ralph Peterson, a small-time channel boss desperate for a Netgorks promotion. Trivers has even given Ralph a special headware device to illegally enter private segments of Kale's system. The more Ralph sifts her system, the more Kale deviates from her data. She even touches the skin of a male rehab student at Harvard named Greggy Panagopoulos—a violation of the sacred "Third Law of the Internal." But the terrible truth about the world doesn't get revealed until Kale does the most brazen thing of She arches her back like a bird and sends a Webless signal to her reclusive grandfather, Joseph Baptista. The result is pure silicon madness. If you're worried about where the Internet is leading, you may want to read this book. If you aren't worried, you BETTER read this book!
362 pages, Paperback
First published February 22, 2010
About the author
Scott T. Grusky
2 books30 followersDRONES, DYSTOPIA AND DHARMA: Scott T. Grusky lives in Los Angeles, California. He holds an M.A. in economics from Harvard University and has spent most of his adult life either writing about technology or slogging through its trenches.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 29, 2019
Silicon Sunset is a sci-fi novel set in the not too distant future, in 2077. The concepts in the book are built around a world where humans interact with, and through, a neural web, with computer chips placed inside each persons brain. The worries that we have today around online privacy are blown to smithereens in this future world where a persons every move and thought can be tracked. Initially the whole idea of voyeurism with someone watching you to that level without any awareness on your part was so disturbing.
The writing at times did seem heavy handed and a great deal of detail and information was poured in, at times spoiling the flow of the narrative. Also, while it was necessary to place the story in reach of a generation from our own present day, the vast changes to our world in the intervening years seemed unrealistic - and realism in science fiction is vital to my enjoyment and engagement with the story.
I did enjoy the later part of the book where there were twists I had not anticipated as history unravelled itself. It is always interesting reading differing scenarios of the future ... but in this instance it's not a world I ever hope to see!
The writing at times did seem heavy handed and a great deal of detail and information was poured in, at times spoiling the flow of the narrative. Also, while it was necessary to place the story in reach of a generation from our own present day, the vast changes to our world in the intervening years seemed unrealistic - and realism in science fiction is vital to my enjoyment and engagement with the story.
I did enjoy the later part of the book where there were twists I had not anticipated as history unravelled itself. It is always interesting reading differing scenarios of the future ... but in this instance it's not a world I ever hope to see!
September 27, 2019
From the title and cover right away you know you are going to read about the internet and computers. And I wasn't disappointed, especially when getting into issues of information privacy. The worldbuilding and setting, however, needed a bit more work. While the author did take some time to get us established into the local area created, it didn't blend naturally and actually pulled me out of the story. And for the world as a whole, I never got a sense of the larger picture. The voice was okay as was the prose. The plot and the way the author handled each plot point to keep the reader engaged was done very well. But the overall writing itself felt forced and could have been worked on more so for pacing and flow. There were some great opportunities for exploration that were missed but overall the concept and some of the plot were enough to make me want to get through the book. More so because this was something that I could see happen in the near future.
October 3, 2019
It's not just the signals you have. It's how you use them!
The dialogue can be disjointed at times, especially early in the story and especially since the characters are so different than us. The computer terms sound almost like a different language at times, but it does start to fit better later in the book.
There were some cool devices in the story, like the resonator and the device that decides the price of an item based on what you would pay that I enjoyed reading about. Knotty was a perfect evil character, and it was a believable plot to take over the world.
I would recommend this story to anyone who likes excellent take over the world stories and futuristic stories about computers going too far.
The dialogue can be disjointed at times, especially early in the story and especially since the characters are so different than us. The computer terms sound almost like a different language at times, but it does start to fit better later in the book.
There were some cool devices in the story, like the resonator and the device that decides the price of an item based on what you would pay that I enjoyed reading about. Knotty was a perfect evil character, and it was a believable plot to take over the world.
I would recommend this story to anyone who likes excellent take over the world stories and futuristic stories about computers going too far.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews