BOOK Review: THE BLUEPRINT by Wesley Cross
THE BLUEPRINT by Wesley Cross is the rare example of combining two different flavors of science fiction: the technothriller ala Tom Clancy and cyberpunk dystopianism. I'm going to freely admit that I am biased on this subject since I did something similar with the cyberpunk spy series, Agent G. Still, I picked up this book on my own recognizance and this will be an honest review based on what I thought of it.
The premise is in the not-so-distant future, the American government is weakening, and corporations are slowly taking control but in a less overt way than most cyberpunk. Instead, they have started waging covert wars against one another to drive stocks down, eliminate valued employees, or intimidate owners into selling out to the largest guys.
Jason Hunt is the husband of a cyberneticist taking up a new job at a firm about to be acquired by his father's old enemy. He barely survives an assassination attempt by a rival company and his life goes through a series of disasters that leave him with nothing to lose. That's when he decides to fight back and use a combination of white-collar crime, fraud, hackers, and psy-ops to try to reclaim his life.
One of my favorite cyberpunk novels is Walter Jon Williams' HARDWIRED, where the protagonists are among the only protagonists to ever strike a serious blow against the megacorps. This be by making use of similar means to fight them at their own game of money as well as power. As such, I really like this and while it goes against a lot of punk sensibilities, it also feels believable. Well, not believability, as there's some Mission Impossible-esque moments but I still enjoyed it.
The book is half hard science fiction novel and half-technothriller. Our protagonists, which are not just limited to Jason Hunt, are trapped in a world that is rapidly going down the tubes. The police don't even respond to corporate-related crime because there's too much money involved as well too much danger. We get the perspective of the mercs involved and they tend toward the ruthlessly amoral at best to the utterly evil at worst. At one point, there's a genuinely horrible scene involving sexual violence that is all off camera but illustrates what sort of people the villain hires.
Fair warning.
As mentioned, I liked the backstabbing and double-dealing throughout the story. The villains are brutal and ruthless, but they also overlook the fact people can't just be bribed or killed without someone noticing. The world isn't entirely under their control yet and infighting also is problem they suffer since of course it is. The action is surprisingly good throughout the book and some good scenes that jump off the page.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and the characters. I wish the writer had included a Cast of Characters at the beginning of the book, however, because I sometimes got confused as to who was who due to the surprisingly large number of POVs. However, other than that, I believe this was enjoyable from start to finish and I've already purchased the sequel.
