There would have been many prescient moments when James Swallow conceived the ingenious plot for his latest novel Ghost given the present world focus on the Korean Peninsula.
For the novel's denoument - its very raison d'etre - rests in the embroglia that is the North - South confrontation between and angst in those "warring" south-east Asian states.
The recent raproachment between the two Koreas - who have still to sign an official peace after the conflict reached a stalemate ceasefire in 1953 -
is now at odds with the Swallow storyline which plays out in a mighty battle against an immoral legion of superhackers who weaponise the dark web
But Swallow would never have known that and it is an incidental commentary; an aside to the cracking narrative that puts Marc Dane and his friends in the Rubicon anti-crime conglomorate at the heart of digital terror warfare.
This is a tale for the super geeks, the wizkids of the internet's cyyber world.
and it takes some effort for those of us in the lesser ranks to follow the complexities of hitech computer talk.
This has shades of Westworld but not quite as futuristic.
Those who grew up with the wonderment of James Bond's super toys provided by Q will be in awe of the digital dextrity of the gadgets, gimmicks, weapons, listening devices and means of communication that make style of cyberspace espionage possible for Marc Dane and his Rubicon associates
Dane , a former Royal Navy, recruited into the M16 external spy agency, and then "exiled" to the corporate vigilante world of Rubicon which seeks good rather than evil, sets his task force on a
new, elusive concept the cyber terrorist.
Central is the mystique about the "lady in red", Madrigal who pursues her
deadly agenda of revenge,
weaponising the dark web and where anything connected to the internet becomes vulnerable.
It all adds up to a four-star cyber rush with code crunching and breaking encryptions on the lawless digital frontier.
For the novel's denoument - its very raison d'etre - rests in the embroglia that is the North - South confrontation between and angst in those "warring" south-east Asian states.
The recent raproachment between the two Koreas - who have still to sign an official peace after the conflict reached a stalemate ceasefire in 1953 -
is now at odds with the Swallow storyline which plays out in a mighty battle against an immoral legion of superhackers who weaponise the dark web
But Swallow would never have known that and it is an incidental commentary; an aside to the cracking narrative that puts Marc Dane and his friends in the Rubicon anti-crime conglomorate at the heart of digital terror warfare.
This is a tale for the super geeks, the wizkids of the internet's cyyber world.
and it takes some effort for those of us in the lesser ranks to follow the complexities of hitech computer talk.
This has shades of Westworld but not quite as futuristic.
Those who grew up with the wonderment of James Bond's super toys provided by Q will be in awe of the digital dextrity of the gadgets, gimmicks, weapons, listening devices and means of communication that make style of cyberspace espionage possible for Marc Dane and his Rubicon associates
Dane , a former Royal Navy, recruited into the M16 external spy agency, and then "exiled" to the corporate vigilante world of Rubicon which seeks good rather than evil, sets his task force on a
new, elusive concept the cyber terrorist.
Central is the mystique about the "lady in red", Madrigal who pursues her
deadly agenda of revenge,
weaponising the dark web and where anything connected to the internet becomes vulnerable.
It all adds up to a four-star cyber rush with code crunching and breaking encryptions on the lawless digital frontier.