Nexus

Executive Summary: Fascinating, enticing, thrilling, terrifying.

Audio book: It's Luke Daniels. If you don't know that means it's a good audio book without me saying, you've been missing out. This book has been on my radar for awhile, and I already owned the ebook. The fact that Luke Daniels did the audio and that there was a cheap whipsersync upgrade got me to finally pull the trigger. Yet another reason to thank Luke Daniels!

Full Review
I wish there were more books like this. It's totally in my wheelhouse. Not quite Cyberpunk, but close. Sci-Fi that is smart, plausible, and not overly dystopian. And it's well written, with interesting and well developed characters. It's hard to believe it's a debut novel.

This is one of those books that I kept thinking about even when I wasn't reading it. The ideas here are so thought provoking.

I've wanted to have the internet in my head for at least 15 years. Maybe longer. Instant access to all the information in the world? I mean smart phones are great and all, but the interface is clunky. Just think it and bam. Programming your brain? Where do I sign up?

Except.. Opening yourself up to cyber viruses, brain hacking, or even just internet trolls? Frightening.

Everything here is pretty grey. Is Nexus OS good? Is it bad? It seems to have both positive and negative potential. Some of those in favor of it appear to have the best of intentions. Yet at the same time, some of those opposed to it, do as well. Whose right? Should the government block certain research and technologies for good of it's citizens?

And at the core of it all, Nexus is a drug. I've never been a drug user. I don't think I've even been drunk in over 10 years. So the idea of needing drugs is a big turn off to me personally. My main disappointment in this book is the general lack of consequences of the technology.

I don't mean the possible bad things that someone can do to you/your brain. What does Nexus do to your brain? Is it addictive? What are the long term effects of constant use? Hopefully these things will be explored in the later novels.

Apart from that though, this book was really great. I was always eager to pick it back up. I've already jumped right into the second book and have blown through it pretty quickly.

If you want a smart, well written, thought provoking sci-fi novel, definitely give this book a try.