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thomcat's review against another edition
4.0
Thirty years in the future, we have a drug which allows brain to brain communication - and a group of hackers who upgrade this drug to a permanent sidekick. This extended groupthink is sought by governments and shady groups who want a post human future, and this novel is the action movie that results.
I first read this 9 years ago, a year after it was published. Marked it 5 stars, no review - the only book I didn't review that year. Not sure why, but thought it was time to go back and correct that. I did follow up with Naam's non-fiction book [b:The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet|16291969|The Infinite Resource The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet|Ramez Naam|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1362081373l/16291969._SX50_.jpg|23389875] and the just-published sequel. My review of the sequel didn't tell me much about this book either.
As many other reviews have noted, this book is written like an action movie (or the novelization of an action movie), with additional scenes of dialog about the morality of the situation. On reread, some of this is a bit clunky to read. For this reason, and the fact that I couldn't remember much of the story, I will reduce the review to 4 stars.
The morality message is more important now than ever. At one point, main character Kade has a conversation with monks about an analogy to his device - speech. If learning speech took a decade and he could release a device which helped people learn in weeks, would he do it?
"Even though it would surely be used at times for profanity or vile speech?"
"Even though fools might read dangerous things written by bigger fools, might follow their instructions and hurt themselves or others?"
"Even though writing might be used to describe weapons that could be used to kill others?" Ananda asked.
"Even though charismatic fascists might use the power of speech to stir people up, to incite violence, to stoke hatred, to create war?"
Kade answers yes to each question, then answers the question "Why" with, "Because I think people would use it for more good than harm."
This is a question (and challenge) we are facing with social media and free speech today, even more so than in 2012. Now to reread the sequel, then read the final book in the trilogy for the first time.
I first read this 9 years ago, a year after it was published. Marked it 5 stars, no review - the only book I didn't review that year. Not sure why, but thought it was time to go back and correct that. I did follow up with Naam's non-fiction book [b:The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet|16291969|The Infinite Resource The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet|Ramez Naam|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1362081373l/16291969._SX50_.jpg|23389875] and the just-published sequel. My review of the sequel didn't tell me much about this book either.
As many other reviews have noted, this book is written like an action movie (or the novelization of an action movie), with additional scenes of dialog about the morality of the situation. On reread, some of this is a bit clunky to read. For this reason, and the fact that I couldn't remember much of the story, I will reduce the review to 4 stars.
The morality message is more important now than ever. At one point, main character Kade has a conversation with monks about an analogy to his device - speech. If learning speech took a decade and he could release a device which helped people learn in weeks, would he do it?
"Even though it would surely be used at times for profanity or vile speech?"
"Even though fools might read dangerous things written by bigger fools, might follow their instructions and hurt themselves or others?"
"Even though writing might be used to describe weapons that could be used to kill others?" Ananda asked.
"Even though charismatic fascists might use the power of speech to stir people up, to incite violence, to stoke hatred, to create war?"
Kade answers yes to each question, then answers the question "Why" with, "Because I think people would use it for more good than harm."
This is a question (and challenge) we are facing with social media and free speech today, even more so than in 2012. Now to reread the sequel, then read the final book in the trilogy for the first time.
gearons's review against another edition
1.0
This is really an action book with sci fi concepts and tropes - not what I was looking for. Choosing to start this book off with a sexual assault scene that is played off as a funny prank led me to believe I was reading an anti-hero or at least a character who would eventually realize their mistakes/experience narrative growth. Kade did neither of those things.
majkia's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent book of the fairly near future, whee a street drug is enhanced by a young scientist so that it can connect minds. The US government is on a crusade to block this drug and to stop any humans from being changed into enhanced post-humans and goes after the scientist and anyone he cares about or who helps him.
standingwave's review against another edition
5.0
Nexus is the best kind of speculative sci-fi exploring the impact of nano drugs both on the intensely personal level of the individual and on humankind and culture at large. The story isn't shy about having such a broad scope and the writing and characters consistently deliver on it.
Both the action and the science are tightly crafted and come at you in a fast paced style befitting the augmentations powering the soldiers, scientists, and bureaucrats we follow in Naam's near future world. The setting is refreshingly global and international, as are the characters, which lends even greater weight to the myriad social implications of runaway technology that Naam explores. The topics of human augmentation, bioethics, privacy, hacking, and more are clearly ones that Naam knows well and he navigates them expertly in weaving a truly gripping tale.
Both the action and the science are tightly crafted and come at you in a fast paced style befitting the augmentations powering the soldiers, scientists, and bureaucrats we follow in Naam's near future world. The setting is refreshingly global and international, as are the characters, which lends even greater weight to the myriad social implications of runaway technology that Naam explores. The topics of human augmentation, bioethics, privacy, hacking, and more are clearly ones that Naam knows well and he navigates them expertly in weaving a truly gripping tale.
ledigiacomo's review
adventurous
informative
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
sbrads's review against another edition
3.0
Overall, a basic story with a good concept but the lengthy exposition and fight scenes missed the mark for me. I know there are lots of readers who will enjoy those elements, and I would say if you are one of them then you might love this book. It is a bit of a deviation from my usual reads but I still enjoyed it and will continue on with the series
bebe_o_liver's review against another edition
4.0
This was a very fun listen. It had (very) speculative neuroscience, nerdy grad students, buddhism, post-human special agents, "uploaded" scientists, lots of actions and plot full of exciting twists and turns. The narration was very good. I'll definitely be listening to the other two parts of the trilogy.
trike's review against another edition
2.0
This one is okay, rounded up to 2 stars. It's your basic cyberpunk thriller going over well-trod ground. The action sequences are nice, but the writing shifts from the staccato thriller writing to clunky comic book exposition where characters talk AT each other rather than TO each other.
I suppose if someone wasn't familiar with the history of cyberpunk, this might seem fresh and interesting, and Naam's real-life job as a technologist at Microsoft gives him some tech cred in this sphere, but there's a lot of been-there done-that to the idea.
The basic idea is that the drug Nexus is comprised of nanotech you swallow which connects your brain to the minds of other people running the tech. Nexus allows people to communicate with a version of telepathy and telempathy (feeling what others feel), share memories and control devices mentally.
It had promise early on, but once rhe story gets going the OS never crashes, which seems to be the most fantastical aspect of the story. I've never had a computer that DIDN'T crash. The iPad I'm typing this on crashes every so often, particularly Safari when I'm asking it to play a video or something in a second browser tab. I can only imagine that the Nexus OS would crash under high stress moments like the ones we see in the more intense action scenes.
I also didn't buy that it worked the same way on everyone. We don't even see colors or hear sounds the same way from one person to the next, and video games or movies which are fine for one person can cause everything from headaches to seizures in someone else, so I can't imagine how any sort of tech like Nexus would work so well across so many different people. I would think that the notion of mind-to-mind sharing would be inconsistent at best simply because the way we experience the world can be so very different from person to person.
That would be fodder for an interesting angle to examine: the attempt to connect people via shared experiences would necessarily exclude those who weren't able, for one reason or another, to fully utilize the Nexus tech. Naam's doesn't really take a look at this idea. It's mostly just talk about how people would use it mostly for good rather than evil, despite the fact our introduction to the main character has him uncontrollably performing a sex act that would be considered assault (at the least, rape at the most) if he had been able to get his pants off. Playing it for laughs didn't humanize him so much as utterly undercut the notion that people would use it for good. Go look at the comments section of any given YouTube video and imagine those people inside your head.
The single best version of this type of tech is the short story "Dogfight" by William Gibson and Michael Swanwick, which was published back in 1985 and can be found in [b:Burning Chrome|22323|Burning Chrome (Sprawl, #0)|William Gibson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1349075772s/22323.jpg|2457086]. (You can find the text online. Trigger warning for rape.) But it shows how unintended consequences can arise from technology, and it lands a helluva powerful blow in just a few pages.
Google has run into this time and again, even endangering people's lives, and that's just by relatively innocuous things like sharing contact lists via Gmail. I'd think something like this would be even more dangerous because of those unintended and unforeseen consequences.
I don't think I'll be reading the sequels.
I suppose if someone wasn't familiar with the history of cyberpunk, this might seem fresh and interesting, and Naam's real-life job as a technologist at Microsoft gives him some tech cred in this sphere, but there's a lot of been-there done-that to the idea.
The basic idea is that the drug Nexus is comprised of nanotech you swallow which connects your brain to the minds of other people running the tech. Nexus allows people to communicate with a version of telepathy and telempathy (feeling what others feel), share memories and control devices mentally.
It had promise early on, but once rhe story gets going the OS never crashes, which seems to be the most fantastical aspect of the story. I've never had a computer that DIDN'T crash. The iPad I'm typing this on crashes every so often, particularly Safari when I'm asking it to play a video or something in a second browser tab. I can only imagine that the Nexus OS would crash under high stress moments like the ones we see in the more intense action scenes.
I also didn't buy that it worked the same way on everyone. We don't even see colors or hear sounds the same way from one person to the next, and video games or movies which are fine for one person can cause everything from headaches to seizures in someone else, so I can't imagine how any sort of tech like Nexus would work so well across so many different people. I would think that the notion of mind-to-mind sharing would be inconsistent at best simply because the way we experience the world can be so very different from person to person.
That would be fodder for an interesting angle to examine: the attempt to connect people via shared experiences would necessarily exclude those who weren't able, for one reason or another, to fully utilize the Nexus tech. Naam's doesn't really take a look at this idea. It's mostly just talk about how people would use it mostly for good rather than evil, despite the fact our introduction to the main character has him uncontrollably performing a sex act that would be considered assault (at the least, rape at the most) if he had been able to get his pants off. Playing it for laughs didn't humanize him so much as utterly undercut the notion that people would use it for good. Go look at the comments section of any given YouTube video and imagine those people inside your head.
The single best version of this type of tech is the short story "Dogfight" by William Gibson and Michael Swanwick, which was published back in 1985 and can be found in [b:Burning Chrome|22323|Burning Chrome (Sprawl, #0)|William Gibson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1349075772s/22323.jpg|2457086]. (You can find the text online. Trigger warning for rape.) But it shows how unintended consequences can arise from technology, and it lands a helluva powerful blow in just a few pages.
Google has run into this time and again, even endangering people's lives, and that's just by relatively innocuous things like sharing contact lists via Gmail. I'd think something like this would be even more dangerous because of those unintended and unforeseen consequences.
I don't think I'll be reading the sequels.
tegaaa's review against another edition
5.0
Great, Great, Great book, recommended by my friend Ben Day, I was really into the story, looking forward to reading the sequels. Good fun, and deeply intellectual, what is the future of the human race, how will we evolve and how will we deal with evolution, trans-human, meta-human. Very interesting.
Good Job Mr. Naam.
Good Job Mr. Naam.