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The Zenith Angle

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1 Rating |
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Format
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
United States, 1 April 2005

Like his peers William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, bestselling author Bruce Sterling writes cutting-edge speculative fiction firmly rooted in today's reality. Now in "The Zenith Angle, he has created a timely thriller about an information-age security expert caught up in America's escalating war on terror.
"Infowar. Cybercombat. Digital security and techno-terror. It's how nations and networks secretly battle, now and into the future. And for Derek "Van" Vandeveer, pioneering computer wizard, a new cyberwarrior career begins on the fateful date of September 11, 2001.
Happily married with a new baby, pulling down mind-blowing money as a VP of research and development for a booming Internet company, Van has been living extralarge. Then the devastating attacks on America change everything. And Van must decide if he's willing to use the talents that built his perfect world in order to defend it.
"It's our networks versus their death cult," says the government operative who recruits Van as the key member of an ultraelite federal computer-security team. In a matter of days, Van has traded his cushy life inside the dot-com bubble for the labyrinthine trenches of the Washington intelligence community--where rival agencies must grudgingly abandon decades of distrust and infighting to join forces against chilling new threats. Van's special genius is needed to make the country's defense systems hacker-proof. And if he makes headway there, he'll find himself troubleshooting ultrasecret spy satellites.
America's most powerful and crucial "eye in the sky," the KH-13 satellite--capable of detecting terrorist hotbeds worldwide with pinpoint accuracy--is perilously close to becoming anorbiting billion-dollar boondoggle, unless Van can debug the glitch that's knocked it out of commission. Little does he suspect that the problem has nothing at all to do with software . . . and that what's really wrong with the KH-13 will force Van to make the unlikely leap from scientist to spy, team up with a ruthlessly resourceful ex-Special Forces commando, and root out an unknown enemy . . . one with access to an undreamed of weapon of untold destructive power.

"From the Hardcover edition.

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£7.74
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Product Description

Like his peers William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, bestselling author Bruce Sterling writes cutting-edge speculative fiction firmly rooted in today's reality. Now in "The Zenith Angle, he has created a timely thriller about an information-age security expert caught up in America's escalating war on terror.
"Infowar. Cybercombat. Digital security and techno-terror. It's how nations and networks secretly battle, now and into the future. And for Derek "Van" Vandeveer, pioneering computer wizard, a new cyberwarrior career begins on the fateful date of September 11, 2001.
Happily married with a new baby, pulling down mind-blowing money as a VP of research and development for a booming Internet company, Van has been living extralarge. Then the devastating attacks on America change everything. And Van must decide if he's willing to use the talents that built his perfect world in order to defend it.
"It's our networks versus their death cult," says the government operative who recruits Van as the key member of an ultraelite federal computer-security team. In a matter of days, Van has traded his cushy life inside the dot-com bubble for the labyrinthine trenches of the Washington intelligence community--where rival agencies must grudgingly abandon decades of distrust and infighting to join forces against chilling new threats. Van's special genius is needed to make the country's defense systems hacker-proof. And if he makes headway there, he'll find himself troubleshooting ultrasecret spy satellites.
America's most powerful and crucial "eye in the sky," the KH-13 satellite--capable of detecting terrorist hotbeds worldwide with pinpoint accuracy--is perilously close to becoming anorbiting billion-dollar boondoggle, unless Van can debug the glitch that's knocked it out of commission. Little does he suspect that the problem has nothing at all to do with software . . . and that what's really wrong with the KH-13 will force Van to make the unlikely leap from scientist to spy, team up with a ruthlessly resourceful ex-Special Forces commando, and root out an unknown enemy . . . one with access to an undreamed of weapon of untold destructive power.

"From the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details
EAN
9780345468659
ISBN
0345468651
Publisher
Dimensions
17.6 x 10.9 x 2.5 centimeters (0.10 kg)

About the Author

Bruce Sterling is the author of nine novels, three of which were selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. The Difference Engine, cowritten with William Gibson, was a national bestseller. He has also published three short-story collections and two nonfiction books. He has written for many magazines, including Newsweek, Fortune, Harper’s, Details, Whole Earth Review, and Wired, where he is a contributing editor. He has won two Hugo Awards for Best Novella. Sterling lives in Austin, Texas.

Reviews

“A darkly comic fable of info-war, the black budget, über-geek idealism, and the politics of Homeland Insecurity. Sterling’s grasp of the surfaces of contemporary reality is deftly prehensile; his understanding of what underlies those surfaces is both compelling and important.”—William Gibson, author of Pattern Recognition

“Vibrates with fantastic in-jokes and insights . . . Rockets along like a hijacked airliner heading straight at you, like a flash-worm compromising every unpatched Windows box on the net at once. Lots of books are called ‘thrillers,’ but very few are this thrilling.”—Cory Doctorow, author of Eastern Standard Tribe and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

“[Sterling offers] great insights about the inner workings of government, private industry, and the threats that could disrupt the online world as we know it. The Zenith Angle mixes technology, politics, dry humor, and suspense to provide a first-rate read.”—Howard A. Schmidt, former CSO for Microsoft and former Special Adviser for Cyber Security for the Bush Administration

“A Catch-22 for the slashdot generation: a wry, cynical, informed peek at the paranoid world of the post-9/11 cyberspookerati. Buy it, read it, be very afraid.”—Charles Stross, author of Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise

“Perhaps the sharpest observer of our media-choked culture working today in any genre.”—Time

“Known for putting more interesting ideas on one page than most writers include in an entire novel.”—The Seattle Times

“One of America’s best-known science-fiction writers and perhaps the sharpest observer of our media-choked culture working today in any genre.”—Time

“Bitingly satiric—and quite often brilliant.”—The New York Observer

“Known for putting more interesting ideas on one page than most writers include in an entire novel.”—The Seattle Times

“Nobody knows better than Bruce Sterling how thin the membrane between science fiction and real life has become, a state he correctly depicts as both thrilling and terrifying.”—Kurt Andersen, author of Turn of the Century

“The reigning master of near-future political SF.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Sterling [has a] gift for creating sympathetic yet fallible characters.”—Library Journal

The godfather of cyberpunk abandons SF in this satiric look at the high-tech security industry after 9/11. Dr. Derek Vandeveer gives up his high-paying job in private industry in order to try to help the government plug the nation's most serious computer security leaks. Unfortunately, he soon discovers that many of the worst problems are either too expensive to fix or impossible to deal with for political reasons. Vandeveer finds himself living in a slum in Washington, D.C., up to his ears in red tape and surrounded by a cast of would-be cyber warriors and failed dot-com entrepreneurs. Even worse, he's paying for the equipment he needs out of his own pocket. Worst of all, Vandeveer's wife Dottie, a world-class astronomer, is off on a mountaintop in Colorado. Meanwhile, something or someone is playing games with America's most sophisticated spy satellite and Vandeveer stakes his reputation on solving the mystery. Sterling (Zeitgeist) knows the world of cyber-security inside out, and he does a fine job of talking the talk without losing his readers. The Vandeveers have a convincingly believable geek marriage and their scenes together are particularly well done. Sterling has always been more comfortable with satire than action, however, and the shift near the end to techno-thriller mode isn't entirely successful. Still, this novel should please the author's fans, many of whom will be interested in the latest innovations in computer security. Agent, Merilee Heifetz at Writers House (On sale Apr. 27) Forecast: A six-city author tour should help Sterling break out of genre, in the footsteps of such other SF writers like William Gibson and Neal Stephenson who have won a wide mainstream readership. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

"A darkly comic fable of info-war, the black budget, uber-geek idealism, and the politics of Homeland Insecurity. Sterling's grasp of the surfaces of contemporary reality is deftly prehensile; his understanding of what underlies those surfaces is both compelling and important."-William Gibson, author of Pattern Recognition

"Vibrates with fantastic in-jokes and insights . . . Rockets along like a hijacked airliner heading straight at you, like a flash-worm compromising every unpatched Windows box on the net at once. Lots of books are called 'thrillers,' but very few are this thrilling."-Cory Doctorow, author of Eastern Standard Tribe and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

"[Sterling offers] great insights about the inner workings of government, private industry, and the threats that could disrupt the online world as we know it. The Zenith Angle mixes technology, politics, dry humor, and suspense to provide a first-rate read."-Howard A. Schmidt, former CSO for Microsoft and former Special Adviser for Cyber Security for the Bush Administration

"A Catch-22 for the slashdot generation: a wry, cynical, informed peek at the paranoid world of the post-9/11 cyberspookerati. Buy it, read it, be very afraid."-Charles Stross, author of Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise

"Perhaps the sharpest observer of our media-choked culture working today in any genre."-Time

"Known for putting more interesting ideas on one page than most writers include in an entire novel."-The Seattle Times

"One of America's best-known science-fiction writers and perhaps the sharpest observer of our media-choked culture working today in any genre."-Time

"Bitingly satiric-and quite often brilliant."-The New York Observer

"Known for putting more interesting ideas on one page than most writers include in an entire novel."-The Seattle Times

"Nobody knows better than Bruce Sterling how thin the membrane between science fiction and real life has become, a state he correctly depicts as both thrilling and terrifying."-Kurt Andersen, author of Turn of the Century

"The reigning master of near-future political SF."
-Publishers Weekly

"Sterling [has a] gift for creating sympathetic yet fallible characters."-Library Journal

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3 out of 5 | From 1 Customer Ratings

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By on April 10, 2009
I might give this a 3.25 perhaps, it was reasonable enough, but probably not a 3.5. A hardcore geeks ends up being involved with security and security agencies of the now more paranoid and fascist variety than before someone crashed a couple of planes into some tall buildings. A security expert, he works for dodgy companies, then the government. It is a little less mundane than that by the end, though. 3 out of 5
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