Fiction.
Science Fiction.
Thriller.
HTML:“Halting State [is] a near-future story that is at once over-the-top and compellingly believable.” – Vernor Vinge, author of Rainbows End
/> In the year 2018, Sergeant Sue Smith of the Edinburgh constabulary is called in on a special case. A daring bank robbery has taken place at Hayek Associates—a dot-com start-up company that’s just floated onto the London stock exchange. But this crime may be a bit beyond Smith’s expertise.
The prime suspects are a band of marauding orcs with a dragon in tow for fire support. The bank is located within the virtual reality land of Avalon Four, and the robbery was supposed to be impossible. When word gets out, Hayek Associates and all its virtual “economies” are going to crash hard.
For Smith, the investigation seems pointless. But the deeper she digs, the bigger the case gets. There are powerful players—both real and pixelated—who are watching her every move. Because there is far more at stake than just some game-head’s fantasy financial security….… (plus d'informations)
This is his tightest-plotted novel to date, a detective story with a million perfectly meshed moving parts, and a hundred magnificent surprises that had me gasping and shouting YES.
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
In memory of Datacash Ltd. and all who sailed in her, 1997-2000
Books do not get written in majestic isolation, and this one is no exception. Certainly it wouldn't exist in its current form without valuable feedback from a host of readers. I'd particularly like to thank Vernor Vinge, Hugh Hancock, Greg Costikyan, Ron Avitzur, Eric Raymond, Tony Quirke, Robert Sneddon, Paul Friday, Dave Bush, Alexander Chane Austin, Larry Colen, Harry Payne, Trey Palmer, Dave Clements, Andrew Veitch, Hannu Rajaniemi, Soon Lee, and Jarrod Russell. I'd also like to thank my other test readers, too numerous to thank today. Finally, thanks to the publishing folks without whom the book wouldn't have been written: my agent, Caitlin Blasdell, my editor at Ace, Ginjer Buchanan, and my copyeditors, Bob and Sara Schwager.
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
Hello. We're Round Peg/Round Hole Recruitment. We want to offer you a job on behalf of one of our clients.
Citations
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You're a grown-up, these days. You don't wear a kamikaze pilot's rising sun headband and a tee-shirt that screams DEBUG THIS! and you don't spend your weekends competing in extreme programming slams at a windy campsite near Frankfurt, but it's generally difficult for you to use any machine that doesn't have at least one compiler installed: In fact, you had to stick Python on your phone before you even opened its address book because not being able to brainwash it left you feeling handicapped, like you were a passenger instead of a pilot. In another age you would have been a railway mechanic or a grease monkey crawling over the spark plugs of a DC-3. This is what you are, and the sad fact is, they can put the code monkey in a suit but they can't take the code out of the monkey.
Derniers mots
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
Please, note that this Deal needs utmost confidentiality and observe suitable secrecy.
Fiction.
Science Fiction.
Thriller.
HTML:“Halting State [is] a near-future story that is at once over-the-top and compellingly believable.” – Vernor Vinge, author of Rainbows End
In the year 2018, Sergeant Sue Smith of the Edinburgh constabulary is called in on a special case. A daring bank robbery has taken place at Hayek Associates—a dot-com start-up company that’s just floated onto the London stock exchange. But this crime may be a bit beyond Smith’s expertise.
The prime suspects are a band of marauding orcs with a dragon in tow for fire support. The bank is located within the virtual reality land of Avalon Four, and the robbery was supposed to be impossible. When word gets out, Hayek Associates and all its virtual “economies” are going to crash hard.
For Smith, the investigation seems pointless. But the deeper she digs, the bigger the case gets. There are powerful players—both real and pixelated—who are watching her every move. Because there is far more at stake than just some game-head’s fantasy financial security….
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(3.75)
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Il faudrait peut-être que je précise que le braquage a été réalisé par une bande d’Orques et un Dragon dans la banque d’un jeu vidéo en ligne, gérée par une compagnie de gestion de biens virtuels qui vient juste de lancer son introduction en bourse, le tout se passant dans une Écosse indépendante en 2017.
Dans le genre plutôt encombré du thriller technologique post-cyberpunk, Halting State a plus d’un atout: d’une part, il est écrit par quelqu’un qui a été informaticien à l’époque des premières dot-coms et qui sait de quoi il parle.
Un peu trop, peut-être: le texte est truffé de jargon geeko-informatique; j’en ai compris une bonne partie, mais ce n’est pas forcément un style des plus accessible, surtout si on y ajoute la retranscription d’un accent écossais qui ne doit pas être des plus évidents à saisir, même pour des anglophones.
Néanmoins, j’ai trouvé la lecture plaisante – bien plus qu’Accelerando, du même auteur. Le fait que l’auteur joue beaucoup sur la familiarité, en situant son récit dix ans dans le futur, aide beaucoup.
L’intrigue est bien conduite, avec quelques rebondissements là où il faut et deux ou trois surprises originales. J’ai aussi beaucoup aimé le style d’écriture typiquement geek, avec ses hyperboles à grand spectacle et ses métaphores très imagées.
Je vous recommande particulièrement l’édition de poche chez Orbit Books, qui contient une interview de l’auteur qui met en lumière certains des thèmes de son roman. Si vous voulez avoir une mise en bouche, allez sur le blog de l’auteur: il y a mis en ligne les quatre premiers chapitres. (