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A review by rjnn
Nexus by Ramez Naam
5.0
Lives up to the alternate title "Deus Ex: The Novel".
This is a fantastic science fiction book, primarily of the computer science variety, that is thoroughly readable, yet engaging on multiple scientific levels. I found the entire book thought provoking as well as fast paced and entertaining.
The premise of Nexus is a world where you have API access to your brain and body, as well as a networked operating system that runs continuously on your wetware. This world (similar to Cory Doctorow's short story "0wnz0red", but far, far, better) is very much a great leap forward for humanity, but humans aren't going to quietly into the night...
The book greatly benefits from the fact that Naam knows his computer science well. He uses it to great advantage in fleshing out the world behind Nexus, and minimizing the amount of technobabble. I came at this book very much a childhood fan of the video games "Deus Ex" and "Deux Ex: Human Revolution", which both dealt with the world of human augmentation (although less brain-aug, and more physical-aug... they are video games where you beat people up, after all), so I had high expectations. Was not disappointed.
This is a fantastic science fiction book, primarily of the computer science variety, that is thoroughly readable, yet engaging on multiple scientific levels. I found the entire book thought provoking as well as fast paced and entertaining.
The premise of Nexus is a world where you have API access to your brain and body, as well as a networked operating system that runs continuously on your wetware. This world (similar to Cory Doctorow's short story "0wnz0red", but far, far, better) is very much a great leap forward for humanity, but humans aren't going to quietly into the night...
The book greatly benefits from the fact that Naam knows his computer science well. He uses it to great advantage in fleshing out the world behind Nexus, and minimizing the amount of technobabble. I came at this book very much a childhood fan of the video games "Deus Ex" and "Deux Ex: Human Revolution", which both dealt with the world of human augmentation (although less brain-aug, and more physical-aug... they are video games where you beat people up, after all), so I had high expectations. Was not disappointed.