Hack The Planet!
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I finally got round to reading "Cyberpunk" It's the original book which gave forth the name for the genre (after Neuromancer). Except not really because there does exist all of Phillip K Dick's works. Spoilers ahead; obviously.
It's not what I was expecting. I really though that it would be about rebelling against the system. Y'know, because of the "-punk" and all that.
It started out like that; a group of kids skipping school, hacking smart-cabs and banks. The main character - "Mike Harris" - hates his dad, rightly so, as he's forcing him down a path to become an astronaut, something he has little interest in. "Aha!" I thought. This is a fantastic set-up. Surely this book will be about young Mike fighting against authority, doing his own thing in a world that doesn't want him to.
Then comes the moment when he is caught. A wiretap on the hacker's line reveals all their actions, caught red handed in 0's and 1's. Digital encryption wasn't something that had been invented yet in 1981 so it wasn't in this imagining of the future either I suppose. Dad gets mad and revokes his PC privileges. In response he erases any evidence that his dad ever existed. His father retaliates by sending him to a military camp. The men in black that nab him off the street work for this camp.
"Oh - that's not quite what I was expecting. Is he going to hack his way out of the summer camp? Wait there's no computers there? What about his friends back at home?" I had a lot of questions when this happened. The exposition is over, this must be the start of the problem to overcome? Right? Not quite. He survives the summer, and is forced to stay for another year. Is this the problem getting bigger? David vs Goliath? Nope. It's not that either.
This book has no large problem that must be overcome before the plot concludes. Honestly I find it a little bit infuriating. As I read, I kept trying to find the problem that needed to be overcome. As a hacker myself, I can attest that overcoming problems is a huge part of what makes someone a hacker. And it also makes for a good book which I guess is more important. Eventually I settled on one possible plot hook: Trying to remain yourself when taken from your roots. A punk in a military complex. A hacker in a forest with no computers.
Will he refuse to conform? Will he come out unrecognisable to his friends?
After being there for years - literal years - avoiding the people who want to chastise him for being different, he establishes himself as fully capable, yet unwilling. This was more like what I was expecting. The biggest change in peoples perception of him comes after he wins this hunger-games like contest. This garners him some respect. And he finally has a place where he can stretch his legs. He is now the head of technology for the camp. They need to modernise. But then the head of the complex dies and his racist POS son takes over.
Finally, something/someone to fight.
After talking with the instructors there, whom he has befriended, they all decide they want out. He sets up the institute to go bankrupt within two years, and the story ends.
We must imagine what it is like when the villain gets what he deserves. Whether Mike meets his friends and family. And whether he still hacks banks.
Even after writing all this, I still can't decide what the book is about. It's a really good book. A proper page turner. But it's structure is so different from all other books. I feel like a crazy person searching for meaning in a book that has none, which is probably the case.
I don't really like how there isn't a large problem to solve or a McGuffin to chase. It makes me feel like I'm missing the point. I haven't even talked about the Librarian. He felt like a Chekhov's gun kinda character. He provided some information that came in handy later. Nor the whole sequence during the first summer where he played war games.
Well that's all from me folks. I'll see you around, if you choose to come back here.