Customer Reviews

Breakpoint

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Richard Clarke has just shot to the top of my list of people I'd love to interview. In only three books, one nonfiction and two fiction, he's grabbed my attention and paranoia about all the scientific and technological changes that are going on -- and that will be going on -- in the world.

BREAKPOINT isn't the best writing to hit fiction because there are writers who paint pictures and characters with words better, but there's no one I can think of who writes with the easy authority Clarke brings to his novel. The author has been involved in Washington politics since 1973, and been involved in the clandestine evolvement of scientific advances with DARPA and other think-tank institutes that work on defense technologies.

The novel centers on a terrorist threat against the United States that starts with the destruction of communications nodes that allow the internet to work. With those avenues shut down, banking, investing, business dealings, and even political diplomacy get crippled in a matter of hours. Clarke points out how pervasive the emerging technology is, and how everyone seems to have integrated it into their lives. Presented even in fiction, this is truly scary stuff and I found myself thinking about the possibilities as much as the plot and characters.

Two crack agents of the Intelligence Analysis Center are assigned to ferret out the truth. Although almost paper-thin characters, Jimmy Foley and Susan Connor pull the reader through the frantic chase for the truth behind the attacks. There's just enough insight behind the characters to flesh them out, but not get in the way of the plot. BREAKPOINT is about technology, not people, and Clarke keeps his focus sharply on delivering a summation of what's out there in the world that's just out of sight, and to what ends those things might go.

The plot is straightforward, though there are enough surprises to keep the interest there, but Clarke's views on what's going to happen through the Transhumanist Movement and the overload of technology on old communications systems are the best.

I found myself reading sections of the book over and over again, not concerning characters, action, or plot, but about the information Clarke deals out with the no-nonsense rapidity of a blackjack dealer. He shows you the cards, but you have to form your own opinion about what you think, though Clarke isn't shy about suggesting what you should pay attention to and probably think.

Clarke is a writer a cut above most technology thriller writers. He's a man who has been behind the scenes and witnessed all of these things he writes about. There's a credibility there that I haven't found in anyone else's writing. And Clarke writes well enough that readers will understand easily what he's getting at.

I'm looking forward to more. This isn't just entertainment. Clarke is providing and education as well. Read the book and prepare to learn a lot of scary information that's all true.

I didn't read Clarke's earlier novel, but I found Breakpoint to be entertaining. I noticed some people complained about his writing style, and I admit it's not perfect, but I read a book for the story and the entertainment value. Breakpoint is indeed a very fast read, and I thought he did a great job tying in new and emerging technologies to create a story that is set in the future, but is imaginable. Will the book win a literary award? Not even close. Is the book entertaining? Absolutely. The characters are not deep, and you will not feel an emotional tie to them, but the pace is fast and the story is interesting.

Whether it's judging future applications of scientific advancements or determining whom our enemies are,
"Breakpoint" illustrates the need to not leap to erroneous conclusions. Rather, the meat of this novel is very
good at stressing the axiom, "think before you act".
The only faults I find have to do with cardboard characters and dialogue that sometimes reads like something
from a "B" movie. However, it is the discussion and use of technology which saves the day.

I read this book over a relaxing weekend on the couch. It has likeable characters who readers will enjoy joining on this romp through technological thrills. For avid readers of techno-thrillers and national security themed novels - BREAKPOINT is new way of presenting fact to readers by including a series of end notes that gives you more information on the technological innovations described throughout the story. It would be great to see other novelists follow this line to help readers see the facts through the fiction. Another thing I liked most about the book is not only that the characters are engaging, but that as the United States and the global community continue to confront challenges in the War on Terror, Iraq, and nuclear proliferation -- there is also a much ignored focus on the many commercial and scientific innovations that will indeed revolutionize society and the way we engage with each other in confronting numerous new medical, scientific, educational, and national security issues. Read this book for fun or for new knowledge - either way you can't lose.

If you are interested in the potential merger of genetic research, nanotechnology, religious fundamentalism and the internet, this exciting book will be an eye-opener. I'm only giving it 4 stars due to the fact that character development is a little sparse and sometimes the narration comes off a little goofy ("Susan digested the new information, and the pasta."). The true value of this book, however, comes from Mr. Clarke's ability to use his first-hand knowledge of the latest technological developments and the political landscape to create an interesting tour of what the future may hold.

Even though I am not a computer geek, I found the story to be quite interesting and not too confusing. As pointed out in the author's notes at the end of the book, all of the technological developments referenced in this book are in progress at this time. This is a quick and entertaining read, but viewers of the Colbert Report should know that, contrary to Stephen's assertions during the interview, there is no robo-sex.

A series of nearly simultaneous bombings knock out Internet communications between North America and Europe. A few days later, three major communications satellites suddenly spiral out of orbit, lost forever. A supercomputer data center, one of the major control nodes for the Globegrid project about to come on-line, is blown up. Another Globegrid computer center is attacked, and hackers cause the entire United States power grid west of the Mississippi to shut down. Evidence points to China as the power behind these attacks on the American technology infrastructure, and the Pentagon is happy to oblige this view. While the FBI, the CIA, and the rest of the country's massive investigative resources struggle and fumble to find the cause, a black, female junior intelligence analyst, an Irish cop from New York City, and a good-hearted hacker improbably outwit them all and discover the truth.

There are three ways to view (and review) BREAKPOINT, Richard Clarke's second foray into the world of science-based fiction. First, as a potboiling techno-thriller and diverting airplane read, BREAKPOINT succeeds moderately well, although somewhat like Robert Ludlum with a pseudo-geeky technological edge, or perhaps Tom Clancy mixed with Michael Crichton (whose book PREY Clarke obliquely references), both laced with amphetamines. Still, as a fast and escapist read, Clarke delivers a serviceable if ultimately predictable story (I guessed the "answer" nearly 100 pages from the end of the book) - give it a 4 when viewed from this perspective.

Second, we can look at BREAKPOINT as a sort of jeremiad, a catalog of warnings about how fragile and vulnerable our networked world has become. It can also be viewed as a lesson on science gone out of control, surpassing the limits of the culture and legal system to accommodate the radical changes looming on the technological horizon. Mr. Clarke gives us a veritable laundry list of technological nightmares: impenetrable and monolithic self-correcting software, massively global networks beyond human ability to control, Internet-connected devices that invade personal privacy and are filled with software time bombs, Trojan horses, and back doors, genetic engineering to enhance human characteristics (even adding two chromosomes to the human gene!), pharmaceuticals for memory enhancement, laser missiles --pretty much everything this side of global warming (although even that is referenced). On this score, Mr. Clarke is little more than an updated version of that classic 1970 sci-fi movie, Colossus: The Forbin Project (itself later updated by The Terminator and the Star Trek movies featuring the Borg, among others). Give BREAKPOINT a 3 on this angle. Mr. Clarke is thorough to the point of technological overload, but in an odd way, the overload is both instructive and informative (albeit sketchily).

Finally, BREAKPOINT can be considered as a literary work, even respecting the lower expectations of this genre. On that score, the book merits a gentleman's 2. The writing is perfunctory and predictable, the sort one would expect from a career analyst who has little idea how to move from writing white papers to writing fiction. Several grammatical errors are annoyingly evident, as are the sloppy misspellings (twice) of Guangzhou as Guangzho, references to what is likely the Chinese city of Dalian as Dalin, and the incorrect identification of the movie Gattaca as Gattica. The main characters are thinly developed and stereotypical - the Irish NYC cop, the Russian Mafioso, the Chinese diplomat/spy, the American military leaders and Presidential cabinet. Mr. Clarke manages just two exceptions, positive in the case of the hacker Soxster (who actually exhibits a moderately distinctive personality) and negative in the case of the heroine, Susan Connor. Susan deserves special mention here, being without doubt the whitest black person ever captured in a published novel (she makes Colin Powell look like P. Diddy). BREAKPOINT rushes from one location to another, capturing none of them. At the same time, in an America that is being systemically technologically kneecapped according to the story line, there is no sense of citizen dismay or dislocation, no sense of media outrage or despair, no sense that things are any worse than a blown fuse in a private home.

On balance, I rate BREAKTHROUGH at 3 stars, about average for its genre but less than what I might have hoped for from Mr. Clarke. As I read this book, I could not help thinking that Mr. Clarke with his high-profile platform might have been the only reason this book was published - the same book submitted by an unknown author would probably have never seen the light of day. C'est la vie.

I wanted to escape a little from work so started this book and finished it within 24 hours. It's a quick read, and Clarke gives the reader insights into many new technological innovations that I had not heard of. If you liked this book, you should also read Against All Enemies and The Scorpion's Gate. All three are very informative and interesting.

There are novels that are written by authors who obviously haven't taken the time to do research and have little or no expertise in the area that they are writing about. This is not the case with Richard Clarke. Clarke's resume is impressive. He is the kind of expert that any author in this genre would love to spend even a few minutes with.

The information in the novel about advancing technologies is fascinating stuff but the novel itself is just so-so. Clarke's writing is adequate at best, his characters are wafer thin, and the plot zips along at such a rapid pace it feels like a film treatment. (It actually would make a good action flick)

The plot is little more than an excuse for Clarke to give the reader a whirlwind tour of up and coming technologies. The premise of the novel is that someone (the Chinese perhaps) is sabotaging the world's cutting edge technologies. This plot allows Clarke to introduce the reader to everything from robot dogs to genetically enhanced babies to super armor suits for soldiers. My favorite part of the novel was actually the author's note at the end where Clark discusses the technologies featured in the novel and their current state of development.

The novel is worth reading if you have an interest in emerging technologies but aside from that, there isn't much to get excited about.

Clarke's book is highly revealing. While his book is fictional, the information that surrounds his story is not. Interestingly, much of America's great infrastructure is `hiding in plain sight.' It is only hidden because so few people know about it and where exactly it is, but it is not guarded. Many have spoken about chemical and gasoline manufacturers as sites for potential terrorism activity. Clarke talks about something else. He talks about communications.

It turns out that in just a few locations the majority of internet and telephone connections to Europe can be attacked almost with impunity, if one knows where they are located. Clarke's point is to show that there are huge vulnerabilities in American systems and processes which could be exploited by terrorists at any time. These terrorists can be internal or external. In fact, due to the advantages of the Internet and DARPA very complex terrorist activities can be executed from virtually any part of the world. Clarke posits that the software code that runs communications was also attacked through hidden "back doors" that are built into the software by the designers and is not subject to normal security checks of the software. A user or terrorist with this "back door" information could get into a piece of software and modify it partially or totally.

Clarke writes an interesting, but slightly predictable mystery story to highlight his concern about attack on American infrastructure. Yet, the story does hold the reader's attention and does a good job of illustrating just how many ways there are to mount a serious attack from afar on those systems. It is highly recommended for readers of modern mystery novels. While Clarke talks about concepts and entities that seem futuristic, the basic science to perform these things is already extant. It can be done and in some cases, it has been done. Clarke's talent lies in his experience as a high level government employee in the area of terrorism for so long. Clarke now thinks like a terrorist and is therefore able to map out stories that have a real life feel to them. Clarke is an author to watch.

The author is learning a new trade - writing fiction. His characters are still two dimensional and his segues rough, but he throws a dizzying number of premises very quickly at the reader. His skill is in exposing large ideas rather than in character development.

This is a much faster read than his first novel, and less confusing overall. I could not put this book down, and am looking forward to his next novel. His style will smooth out and his characters become more robust with experience.