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Searching... Amity Public Library | FIC KENNEDY | Searching... Unknown |
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Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this novel of secret computer skullduggery, Kennedy (Code Conquistador neatly packages computer science, introduces a few good actors and punches all the right buttons until some bugs short-circuit the whole program. Fueling the action is a race for computer supremacy, as American and Japanese groups each try to build the supercomputer that will signal domination. Led by an obsessed genius, the Japanese are on the verge of victory. Attempting to stymie their success is an appealing team: Toole, an ex-con who robs banks over computer lines, Karen Albert, a beautiful computer scientist, and mysterious Mr. Cobb, an apparent government agent with high connnections. Their sabotage plan, involving poker, seduction and sophisticated code-cracking, is turned upside down by deceit and double-dealing at every turn. While most of the early action is well-paced and entertaining, as it nears its climax, the book begins to fizzle instead of bubble. (March 31) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A quirky cast of computer-wielding misfits adds dash to an otherwise bland techno-thriller by the author of Code Conquistador (1982). J.P. Toole, a cardsharp-cum-con-man who had been caught using his Apple II computer to relieve Citibank of a million plus dollars, is sprung from prison by John Cobb, a tight-lipped NSA agent. As the condition of his release, Toole pools rip-off-artist skills with beautiful Karen Albert, a former M.I.T. professor who's one of the world's top computer experts. Their mission: to travel to Tokyo to derail a computer development project that, if successful, will guarantee Japanese victory in the technology race. The architect of the nascent supercomputer is former Olympic gymnast Yamagata Fujii, a brilliant egotist whose downfall, Toole postulates, may be his ravenous--and most un-Japanese--personal ambition. But while Toole and Albert play at industrial espionage, infiltrating poker games, a whorehouse, even Fujii's backyard hot tub in their attempt to break into the computer, their boss Cobb is cooking up a deeper double cross. The cleverly rendered portraits of these skittish schemers and their various hangers-on raise expectations of an equally engaging showdown. Alas, instead of dazzling computer pyrotechnics, the battles of wit diffuse, and the thrills tend towards the bonk-on-the-head variety. Shallow plotting mars this Far-Eastern romp, but Kennedy's deadpan descriptions and occasional concessions to farce make for some fun nonetheless. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.