Like Polsky’s first memoir (“I Bought Andy Warhol“), this book consists mostly of anecdotes about the world of contemporary art. During the time covered in this volume, Polsky made the transition from dealer to “art financial advisor”. Consequently, it’s more about dollars than art, but it’s an interesting read nevertheless, albeit a little impersonal compared to his first book.
It was interesting to read this book, which is about cyber warfare apparently waged by China, during the week that Google made it’s allegation against China about attempts to penetrate Google’s systems. Note that I said “apparently”, which is a bit of a spoiler but the real culprit is telegraphed so early in the book that I’m not spoiling much of a surprise. (So if fictional culprits can make an attack look like it came from China, couldn’t real attackers do the same thing?)
Clarke, a former senior White House advisor to three presidents, uses fiction to make a convincing case that the US infrastructure is very vulnerable to technological attacks. His protagonists are plausible, his villains two-dimensional, and his thriller-writing workmanlike.
This is the conclusion to the story begun in “Daemon” and shares most of that book’s virtues. It’s a little less grounded in present-day reality than its predecessor and is more of a quest with comic book enemies than “Daemon” was. The most interesting parts were the sections set in the self-sufficient communities built by the Darknet followers and attempts by the forces of corporate oppression to destroy them. This book is hard to put down, but less though-provoking than “Daemon”.
This memoir is an amusing series of anecdotes about the art business of the 80’s loosely organized around the author’s quest for a Warhol painting that he could afford. I’m not a Warhol fan and not fond of modern art, but I enjoyed Polsky’s stories, many of which left me wondering how some of of these dealers manage to stay in business. It’s about buying, selling, dealing, partying, and posturing.
This retracing of Thoreau’s 1839 boat trip sounded promising, but I really didn’t enjoy it. If my copy had been a library book I would have returned it unfinished, but since I had received it as a gift (at my own request) I felt obligated to finish it. By the second chapter I was already sick of Leff’s monotonous repetition of the phrase “deep travel”, not to mention the wooden – and, I suspect, made up – dialog he stuck in the mouths of his traveling companions, who must have been terribly embarrassed by the way he portrayed them.
“Daemon” is one of the best novels I’ve read in a long time. Its central character is a dead millionaire computer game designer who has left behind a hidden network of programs to wreck havoc on the world. His system, the “daemon” of the title, is manipulative, remorseless, and will be familiar to anyone who has even been defeated by non-player-characters in a computer game.
Some of Suarez’s characters fight the daemon and, as the book progresses, some choose to join it in what amounts to a world-wide cult . The plot shifts from a story about those who fight the daemon to one about the nature of the war that the daemon has been designed to wage. To say much more would spoil the fun.
Suarez, a computer consultant, knows his stuff. The security holes and hacker antics he uses are real or close enough to real to be plausible. Later in the story some of the technology he incorporates is a little over the top, but by that time the reader has been sucked into the story and everything seems authentic. Suarez may be to computer security what Tom Clancy is to submarine warfare.
If the book has a flaw, it’s the ending. After coming close to falling apart after a chase sequence that is too much like an action movie Suarez springs a couple of surprises but doesn’t give the reader much of plot resolution. This isn’t such a big flaw now that the sequel is available, but it’s rude of authors to leave their readers with so many loose ends.
Complaints about the ending aside, “Daemon” is a great read. It reminded me of “Neuromancer” in that they both create engrossing fictional worlds based on our current hopes and fears about technology. I’m looking forward to the sequel.
