3.5 out of 5 -- Early (1994) Stephenson with the usual memorable characters and a great premise.

Dr. Radhakrishnan is a brilliant neurosurgeon who is conducting cutting-edge research that could lead to treatments for those whose brain has been damaged.

Meanwhile, a medical emergency threatens to curtail Illinois Governor William A. Cozzano's plans to run for President of the United States. But we have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better, stronger, more appealing to the masses.

Eleanor Richmond, unemployed and living in a trailer park in Colorado after her home was repossessed after the housing bubble burst, is tired of politicians saying one thing but meaning something else. And she isn't afraid to say so.

While Eleanor and Cozzano's family and confidants consider their options, a mysterious and very powerful group known as "The Network" thinks that America's time as the preeminent world leader has past and put a plan into effect to secure their continuing survival.

Events unfold that bring Dr. Radhakrishnan, Eleanor, the Cozzanos, and the shadowy Network together leading to a life-and-death climax.

Although the tech aspects of the story are engaging, what I enjoyed most were the memorable characters and the humor. Neil Stephenson has a knack for delivering characters that you want to get to know and care about, the primary reason his books are so long. (smile)

Minor nit: How come it was so easy to dodge the Secret Service on inauguration day? In the real world, no group of bystanders are going to get in the way of the SS doing their duty. And twice?

And is it likely that the SS, other law enforcement and government agencies are going to be dismissed and marshal law declared on Day One of a new president? That isn't likely to happen, right?

Interface is a sci-fi story that takes place in the distant future - 1996. The plot revolves around a new technology - a chip that can be installed in the brain and used to inform and control the host. The governor of Illinois, William Cozzano, has a stroke and loses some of his mental faculties. This makes him the perfect target for the new biochip technology, which allows him to make instant readings of viewers and constituents during speeches, making him an unstoppable candidate in his run for president.

First of all, the biochip-in-your-brain idea basically predicted the brain-machine interface technology used in Elon Musk's Neuralink business. Sci-fi is a lot of fun when you can see the contrast of the author's ideas and the reality of how the future actually played out.

The weakness here is that usually sci-fi takes that idea and applies it to an interesting story. An interesting story, a political campaign is not.

While Stephenson does the best he can with this terrible premise, it quickly becomes watered down with unnecessary dialogue, details, and characters while the sci-fi gets pushed to the back burner.

While readable and spattered with the occasional insightful message about US politics, this is far from Stephenson's best work.

Mostly a note to myself: let the 2015-2021 years fall into the past for a good few.... maybe decades, before getting into this book. Which is a shame, because I adore Neal Stephenson.

If anyone's read this and it honestly doesn't recall horrific real-life memories, let me know!

Stephenson is known for Snow Crash. This book is better. I thought Snow Crash was amusing but silly.

Cryptonomicon is better known also. I though the proper temperature for the milk when eating Captain Crunch was ridiculous.

It is really only 4.5 stars but what can you do?

This book is way more interesting, and even plausible. There is much more talk of cyber-brain interfacing now than 20 years ago. The destruction of a medical research facility near the end is especially interesting considering that this was published SEVEN YEARS before 9/11. What, no smartphones in 1994? Shocking!

Read it and Worry!

A fast paced book that was a surprisingly quick read and made me think a lot about "Fake News" and our current state of politics and paranoia.

The Internet Age's Manchurian Candidate where instead of unreliable brainwashing by Communists we have brain implants directly manipulated by a Karl Rove-like puppet master. I gave an extra star from what would probably be a three star book because of the cynicism about the political process.

It started a bit slow. Lots of different threads that you knew were going to be woven together but the weaving took a long time. Engaging in the end but nothing phenomenal.

This is a wonderful political adventure novel, with a thin vein of science fiction running through it. If all political thrillers were this smart, snappy, funny, and thought-provoking, I would read a lot more of them. Or perhaps Clancy is a real knee-slapper and I just don't remember. But Interface follows an electoral campaign and along the way manages to ask some very profound, fundamental questions about the ethics of self-improvement and the nature of identity and life itself, all while being an enjoyable romp of a novel. The characters are well-developed and interesting (though from this and Reamde, we now know never to be a weaselly man with a problem with alcoholism who is ungallant toward women in a Stephenson novel), the story is well-paced, the plot is fiendishly clever, and the action is well-done. All this along with prose that occasionally made me chuckle out loud.

Books like these make me wonder why Stephenson's novels have not already been made into sensationally popular blockbuster movies. The bones are all there: charismatic characters, adventure, special effects, and a joyous buoyancy that doesn't worry too much about being overly pedantic. Maybe people have offered and Stephenson is just being picky, which is laudable, but this would make a phenomenal movie, one I'd love to see, and maybe it would get more people reading Stephenson. Which can only be a good thing. I recommend this book to those who already love Stephenson, and to those who don't yet know they could.

Furthering my conviction that Neal Stephenson is an amalgam of Tom Clancy, Dan Brown and electronics promotional literature. (Is there part of nerd-culture I'm not familiar with that's really into brand names? I could have done with about 10% of the references to the "Calyx" workstations that everyone sits in front of.)

But seriously, this is high-tech genre fiction: one-dimensional characters, perfunctory dialog and a by-the-numbers plot. I guess maybe it's good beach reading if you're into that kind of thing? It appears I'm not.

I loved this book and am surprised that it hasn't been made into a movie yet. It's a well-written, gripping combination of media manipulation, abuse of power and the fight of a small band of decent people trying to overcome the big guys. With a side order of intelligent humour. I had a hard time putting it down in the last two days.

The story of using emotional profiles of the American people to elect the president. It relies on clever technology that gives instantaneous feedback on people's responses and allows it too be used to stimulate the candidates mind. The characters are well drawn. There are several unexpected twists.
There was a similar story written on the sixties that primed a candidate with selective data from each electoral district as he campaigned there. I don't recall three end of that book.
Interface was published at the dawn of the she of public Access to the internet. Smartphones were barely imagined.
Stephenson wrote the book with his uncle. They created a thought provoking book. The didn't imagined the 2020 invasion of the capital.

Ironic book from so many years ago whose prescience illustrates one of my favorite things about science (speculative) fiction: When they get it right, they get it right! An early Stephenson book, this novel really showcases political manipulation, digital ethics, and the future of accessibility (see the TED talk that talks about the brain implant that turns your thoughts into text on YT).