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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.

Been meaning to read this for a while, and it is on a friend's University reading list. I chose the annotated version so as to have a better understanding of 120 year old language.

Enjoyed this quite a bit, the first third was pure adventure novel. When finally they met up with She, things slowed down, as Haggard used antiquated English to reflect the characters use of archaic Arabic language. Apparently this convention was used by other authors of the day, but that didn't make it any easier for me to follow.

Difficult language and all, the adventure story takes a few interesting twists past this point. I think a quote from page 161 sums the entire story up nicely - "... by a law of nature man is apt to think but lightly of a woman's crimes, especially if that woman be beautiful, and the crime committed for the love of him."

Having never read H. Rider Haggard before, I intend to seek out at least King Solomon's Mines - preferably an annotated version thereof.

Elizabeth Moon's novel The Speed of Dark won a Nebula award, and was nominated for the Clarke and Locus SF awards. In my opinion, this novel didn't reach those heights.

Most of the novel is told from the perspective of the main character, Lou Arrendale. In this future earth, autism is cured at birth, but Lou is from a generation that missed out on that cure. He and several other autistic adults work for an unnamed company, putting their pattern recognition skills to good use - Lou's highly functioning group of is the most profitable in the company. In his spare time, he participates in a fencing group and within the novel attends his first tournament. Here also, pattern recognition provides a great boon.

A pair of conflicts in the novel stem from his new boss (a cost-cutting and short-sighted ladder climber) and a member of his fencing group. Interesting is the way that Lou mostly recognizes the first threat but not the second, assuming the motives are good because of the professed friendship. Another conflict shown is Lou versus "normal" society, dealing with airport security personnel or service station employees.

Elizabeth Moon's own son is autistic, and both her descriptions and Lou's point of view are lovingly crafted. Much of the "science fiction" here likely comes as a wish for a better world for her son and autistic persons everywhere. While reading this book, I also finished Malcom Gladwell's David and Goliath. In that book, he talks of the success of some dyslexics, and Moon's subjects show similar success. I very much enjoyed this aspect of the novel. I have no doubt that a lot of the brain science described is also very accurate.

Unfortunately, the rest of the SF in this story just doesn't hang together. There is a mentioned "space program" and the medical procedures that make up the main story point, but that's about it. The rest of the world felt dated, as if it were still 2003.

The author jumps out of character when she wants to show something behind the scenes. These episodes are sporadic and jarring; it would have been better to use a second character (involved in each of the incidents) or perhaps have Lou find out about them later.

The ending of the novel felt very sudden. After hundreds of pages describing Lou's thoughts in detail, the story drops to just a few. It feels as if a diary were no longer kept. Perhaps that was the intention, but I would have preferred more closure. Does the son of Lou's supervisor take the treatment? Does Lou continue to fence, and is his skill affected there or at work?

While I enjoyed the success of Lou at work and in hobbies, the rest of the novel just didn't work for me - it was just okay, the equivalent of one and a half stars out of five.