Fistful of digits

by Christopher Hodder-Williams

1st edition Coronet 1975paperback, vg In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1968

About the author

Christopher Hodder-Williams was an English writer, mainly of science fiction, but he wrote novels about aviation and espionage as well. Before his career in writing, Hodder-Williams joined the army in 1944, and served in the Middle East and lived in Kenya and New York, later settling in the UK. Many of his books are early examples of what would later be called techno-thrillers. He also worked as a composer and lyricist, and wrote numerous plays for television.

Reviews

[James Bromley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful, just awful.

It’s wildly hard to follow, massively sexist. I’ve never hated a protagonist more when I’m clearly supposed to think he’s cool and edgy, instead he’s just a dick.

The plot makes no sense, none of the actions of each character are justified and the important topics and themes are not explained at all which means you have to read a whole page before any context is given to a conversation so badly written you’ll have to read it 3 times over.

All of the Characters names are so similar that it makes it hard to read and once again just the level of sexism is inexcusable for any era.

You can tell that the authors daddy used to be CEO of the publishing company. 0/10

[Snufkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating topic and truly ahead of its time: a story of how computers start to control humanity, written in the 60s. However the style is hard to follow at times as characters' narratives swap frequently and we jump from one place to another.

[MR CHRISTOPHER · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantasy fun

Good story to get lost in. Plenty of twists and turns and maybe a taste of the future, when computers rule.

[Tony Fecteau · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very dated book. It was causing some issues in my brain when trying to compare it to our current 2020 world.

[Neil Thompsom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really heavy going, took me several goes to finish it

[Alien · Rating 1 out of 5]

He wants to confront his business partner, who wants to sell the joint electronics company. The business partner belongs to a group of technicians who produce electronic music, but they are more like a religion.

People are different. This hit me in the face, when I tried to read this book. What I mean ist that the author is very different from me.
I had big problems following his lines of thought. Often the sentences seemed to have no logical sequence. His dialogs seem disjointed to me. Very strange.
I quit the book after only 1 1/2 chapters.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointed in this version. This is a book a read when I was much younger and thoroughly enjoyed. The problem with this version is the transcription. There are a lot of mistakes, spellings, grammr, chapters that dont start fresh but just continue from the end of the previous chapter by way of a new sentenct. All in all it made it difficult to read. Disappointed - not in the story = but in the transcript.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fistful of Digits, by Christopher Hodder-Williams, was written in the '60s and is an anti-technology thriller which depicts a terrifying future when self-programming computers can think for themselves and do as they please. The first half of the story was entertaining, but the rest of it was hard to follow and led to a very predictable ending.

[Beautifulday4makeup The-book-and-Me · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
It is about computers which start to think for themselves. I had a very hard time getting into it though. For me it felt like a difficult read. What i find good though is that if you realise that this book was written years ago, it is quite good!

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the ideas in this novel are so ahead of their time, considering it was written in the late 60s. Anti technology, which I am to a certain extent, from a non materialistic point of view (always the last to take up new technology) and the idea that technology will take over is a concept not without merit.

Why have I only discovered this author in 2016?

Ray Smillie

[Venture Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is published by Venture Press.