I really enjoyed the story - it felt topical, not dated. It is a little slow to start, and much of the character development is a little drawn out and leaves you wondering how this will all tie together, but it is interesting and absorbing, as well as thoughtful. There are some stretches that make you think - this would never really work in the real world, but despite that, there is significant content to make you think.

I thought this was very entertaining all the way, although not suspenseful - but that's not surprising for this author. However, it was less technical than many of his books, so that normally puts you off, don't let it in this case, although it is slightly technical. But I thought there were some truly interesting characters, with a lot of humor throughout. Unfortunately, the most interesting character was one of the bad guys. I liked him and wasn't sure whether he was a good guy or a bad guy until the end; actually, I'm still not really sure he was such a bad guy.

Some might think the premise isn't likely or believable, but I would answer with "Are you sure?" I think perhaps the Trump fake news and misinformation coming from Washington might make this a lot more likely. Fake news rules in this story, although it was written long before the recent elections. But likely or not, it's a fun read. For those complaining that it's not on par with other Neal Stephenson books, I say "so what" and "who says?"

TBH I didn't think I'd enjoy a 25 year old sci-fi political thriller all that much. I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe some small part of my brain craved heroes speedily faxing things or racing to pay phones. It was very quaint. Sadly the horrific political machinations were completely believable and not even that shocking. It was a fun, dated, action-filled read.

I'm a fan of Neal Stephenson's writing but for some reason I hadn't come across this one before. Unfortunately, this story didn't work for me especially well. It was all a bit too predictable and many of the characters were not especially believable. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't especially captivating. It took me a lot longer than normal to finish this though to be fair that seems to be true for me in general since COVID hit. I'm hoping my reading pace will return to a more normal level soon.

Entertaining book that captures the socio-political zeitgeist of the USA for the last ten years.

For me, this book falls into the "mainstream fiction" category; a category of books that I don't often read. And with this expectation I embarked upon this novel and have been enjoying the mind candy aspect. But throughout this book I often found myself chuckling at the so very true social commentary. Great entertainment and great gallows humor as we all get to experience the decline of American civilization.

UPDATE: Just finished this book; it was a lot better than I thought it would be. I liked the ending and the many eery parallels to current reality. Written in 1994, it seem so appropriate for today's political struggle between the few who believe in liberty and the status quo that believes in control and tyranny. Recommended.

I always think authors who set their sci fi in current times and base it in real technology are, um, courageous? What's wildly bleeding-edge in 1994 sounds lame and antiquated in 2011. I guess that's the real problem with describing actual instead of "near future" technology. Luckily for my commuting sanity, the story here is ok (think mid-grade Crichton?) and knowing the awesomeness that is to come from one half of this writing duo, I can forgive nearly anything for the price of a single Audible credit.

19/2/11
Finished listening to this yesterday. Demoting it to 2 stars,because really, other than my affection for Stephenson, it doesn't have much going for it. In fact if it was by any other author I would probably give it one star. It is interesting to see how an author develops over time- this book, while crappy, touches on a lot of interesting and familiar Stephenson themes: secret power structures; currency and the relationship between events and value; technology; a female protagonist (in this case two). The story is complicated (and made overcomplicated by deus ex-ish appearances out of the blue of new characters at convenient moments) and interesting- I don't think Stephenson could be boring if he tried. It's just contrived and not very well written imo- there's a lot of using the same adjective twice in one paragraph, and "he said, she said" dialogue. It's hard to imagine the amazingly beautiful and erudite prose style of 21st century Stephenson as belonging to the same guy who penned this. OMG maybe he has had one of those implants!1!111!! (you have to read it if you want to get my lame joke).

A incredible premise, well executed plot.

Tho written with someone else, this story keeps some Neal Stephenson characteristics: attention to detail which slows down the pace to agonizingly slow; some interesting background factual knowledge (and quite a lot more than you really think is necessary except to prove how knowledgeable the writer is and how much research he/they did); and from time to time some zingers of similes, tho fewer than a reader of "Zodiac" might expect and not all of them are felicitous.

I "read" this on Audible, and found myself falling asleep a lot. At first, I'd rewind to where I'd fallen asleep, but after a while I stopped doing that as I was getting bored and just wanted to get on with it, and the bits I missed were, well, missable.

Halfway through and I was ready to abandon ship, when suddenly I noticed a couple of details that seemed like the usual pseudo-journalistic ones this book is full of, but they seemed familiar and they were definitely part of the plot, but not being signalled by the author(s). Coolio! Suddenly the boring narrative voice appeared as a deliberate authorial ploy, not just 2nd-rate writing. I liked it when the "crazy guy" was introduced and he quickly showed himself to be a lot smarter than the inventor chappie who was trying to recruit him!

Still, on the whole, over-long: the plodding journalistic tone risks working too well and sending the reader to sleep! Some memorable characters, tho: Cy Ogle, campaign manager and Eleanor Richmond in particular.

The technology that appears in this 1994 book is probably way out of date, which is a scary thought.

Espectacular novela. Un político, candidato a la presidencia de los EE.UU., sufre un accidente cerebrovascular, digámoslo así, y comienza a recibir una avanzadísima terapia cerebral que irá mucho más allá de lo esperable. Además de la ciencia de la novela, los diálogos y los personajes me parecieron muy bien construidos, muy naturales. Hasta las partes de transición de la novela son interesantes. Apasionante.

An intriguing read - both for the science and the politics. The science came off as believable, but where this books shines is the dead right tone it gives the politics in the book. I've been working in politics and campaigns for three decades and the window this gives into that world, while not factually correct at all times, is definitely correct in capturing the essence.

And like with all Stephenson books, this delivers memorable characters and settings. There seems to be a bit more humor in this book than Stephenson usually delivers (and thus reminded me much more of Bruce Sterling).

As a DC-area native, I especially found the inclusion and description of this area to be well done and accurate for the most part.

In summary, this book provides a chilling what-if on what the confluence of technology and politics might bring about, and it does it with some humor, great characters, and a story that winds its way through many subplots while never losing sight of the goal. The descriptions of locations in the book I am familiar with were dead on, as were the descriptions of electoral politics and life within the bubble of Washington DC.


Note on the author:
I got an older copy of this from a friend and for the author it listed "Stephen Bury" and then had a little sticker on it that said "With Neal Stephenson!". So going in, I'd known Stephenson had some influence on it and it wasn't until after I finished the book that I looked up the author and saw it was a collective pseudonym for Stephenson and his uncle.

Wasn't really much of a surprise as while I was reading I ran across numerous passages where I said to myself "Man, Stephenson must have written this entire passage!" Especially for this era of Stephenson's career, this is very much true to his writing style then (first part of the '90s_.

I think this was much more of a political intrigue than I ever really want to read - too close to reality, too relevant to political currents from which I would like to run away and hide, even though I know that it is impossible... I am very sadly reminded of how things that were considered relevant to a political campaign in 94, even if in fictional form, are still the same today, 21 years later, and SP even mentions were points of discussion during elections 100 years before that... What does it say about us as "foreword thinking" or actually achieving any of our idealistic goals? No mater, long ago I decided that my books should have nothing in common with the politics of today and this was just a bit too-close for comfort.
Apart from my personal reservations, it was another great book by SP. He is smart and witty as always, although the book was a bit slow in development and a tad choppy. Not his best, but even in his worst SP is better that the rest of the field :)

Yhdysvaltain presidentti pitää vaalien alla unionin tila -puhettaan ja lupaa parantaa valtion rahatilannetta jättämällä valtion ottamien lainojen korot maksamatta. Illinoisin kuvernööri William Cozzano saa tämän seurauksena aivohalvauksen ja toisaalla suursijoittajien salainen verkosto närkästyy vielä pahemmin. Kuvernöörin sisäpiiri ostaa aikaa vihjailemalla kuvernöörin harkitsevan presidenttiehdokkuutta, mikä sopii sijoittajaverkostolle erittäin hyvin — presidentti on vaihdettava paremmaksi.

Cozzanolle tarjotaankin pian mahdollisuutta päästä kokeilemaan aivan uudenlaista hoitoa aivohalvaukseen. Cozzanon päähän istutetaan biosiru, jonka avulla hän saavuttaa — ja ohittaa — aikaisemman toimintakykynsä tuotapikaa. Cozzanon päähän pystytään välittämään suoraan Yhdysvaltain väestöä kuvaavan tilasto-otoksen mielipiteitä eri asioista — siis reaaliaikaista tutkimusdataa siitä, mistä kansa tykkää. Kuinka tällainen ehdokas voi olla voittamatta?

Kirja etenee erikoisella tavalla. Siitä saa vähän teknotrillerivaikutelman (Bruce Sterlingin määritelmän mukaan teknotrilleri on scifi-kirja, jossa on mukana presidentti), mutta mikään tiukka trilleri Interface ei ole, ainakaan ennen loppuaan. Tapahtumat etenevät pitkään yllättävän leppoisasti ja ilman varsinaisia pahiksia, juonta rakennellaan kaikessa rauhassa.

Mikäs rakennellessa, sillä Interface on Stephensonin tyyliin hulvattoman hauskaa luettavaa. Tyylin tunnistaa hyvin, vaikka kirja onkin selvästi mainstreamimpi kuin vaikkapa Cryptonomicon. Tästä voivat nauttia muutkin kuin nörtit. Vaikka tekniikka onkin vähän vanhentunutta — selvimmin se näkyy videonauhurien valtavasta määrästä — juttu toimii silti ja kirja on tupaten täynnä todella herkullisia yksityiskohtia.

Kirjan loppu on hivenen pettymys, mutta matkan varrella Interface tarjoaa niin runsaasti viihdettä, että sitä ei voi olla suosittelematta. Mainitaan vielä, että lukemassani Arrowin julkaisemassa pokkarissa oli huomiota herättävän paljon painovirheitä, joten joku muu laitos voi olla parempi.

Interface on julkaistu alunperin salanimellä Stephen Bury, jonka takana ovat siis Neal Stephenson ja tämän setä George Jewsbury, joka käyttää taiteilijanimeä J. Frederick George. (4.5.2010)