Whole Wide World

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Summary: none
Review: Electrifying and shocking, (McAuley's) WHOLE WIDE WORLD is a terrific blend of John Grisham, Tom Clancy, and Orwell's 1984. One of the best suspense SF novels around! Gary S. Potter Author/Poet

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Summary: Murder Under Surveillance
Review: I've read Whole Wide World twice now. The first time I was slightly disappointed to find that an imaginative and visionary author like Paul McAuley had produced what seemed merely a competent technothriller. The second time, the competence was undoubtedly clear, in fact I'd go so far as to say that in terms of pacing, characterisation and plot, this is as good a technothriller as you will find. However it is also far more than a good vacation read - it is also a throughtful consideration of the very serious social questions posed by intensfied surveillance.

McAuley's near future England is still suffering the effects of an unsolved terrorist attack on its information systems. The legal and moral climate has become harsher and the events have led to even more intensive surveillance of public places and communications, in particular a new intelligent video surveillance system, the Autonomous Distributed Expert Surveillance System (ADESS) that 'learns' as it watches. The case is murder: a student with a taste for digital art and web exhibtitionism, is killed under the eye of her webcams. She also happens to be the niece of the inventor of ADESS. Called upon to investigate is our largely anaymous hero - the book is written from his point of view so we get nicknames: 'minimum' because of his height 'Dixon'; after an old BBC TV detective because of his old-fashioned style; and eventually a first name, John. But no surname. He is an outsider but not the classic outsider cop - intelligent, honest, short, keeps fit, doesn't drink or smoke too much - but he does bend the rules, gets personally involved and mess up, and is hated by many other cops because his role in failing to stop a terrorist bombing that killed several other policemen (when in fact he was trying to stop those same policemen beating and raping a suspect). Very much a sympathetic narrator, and well characterised, as are many of the other protagonists.

Surprisingly there isn't really much related to surveillance in SF, and the great Encyclopedia of Science Fiction doesn't even have an entry for it. Apart for the mainstream classics like Zamiatin's 'We', Orwell's '1984', and Huxley's 'Brave New World', all you are left with is Anthony's ridiculous 'Macroscope', Bob Shaw's vraiable fix-up, 'Other Days, Other Eyes', and a few short stories like Asimov's 'The Dead Past' and Knight's 'I See You'. David Brin has written libertarian non-fiction about surveillance, 'The Transparent Society', but it only features in the background of novels like 'Earth'. Of course there is Philip K. Dick, but his scramble-suited infiltrators and psi-cop stories, however excellent, are very much more concerned with the metaphysics of identity than with real world developments.

It is therefore good to see a talent like McAuley consider the issues. And the UK is the right location - we have more surveillance cameras per head of population that anywhere else in the world, and very little public debate. ADESS isn't an unrealistic possibility: there are already working facial recognition systems, and neural networks will make 'learning' systems very likely. What McAuley does is consider how these technologies relate to power and manipulation - it isn't a case of whether these systems 'get into the wrong hands', but when and how they are abused. His portrayal is a lot more sophisticated than Brin's optimistic libertarianism, and does not shy away from posing the big questions about states, corporations and profit, without at the same time arguing that surveillance is all bad.

All in all, a technothriller with more to think about in it than most, especially if you realise than the UK's CCTV networks are being looked at as an example by many states, including the USA, after September 11th. Recommended.

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Summary: In England's hot unpleasant climes
Review: Paul McAuley's _Whole Wide World_ is a science fiction/murder mystery, and works well as both. A young woman is murdered, her computers destroyed, and then we discover the crime was broadcast on her website. Our narrator really fills the bill as an anti-hero; short, disrespected, dumped by his girlfriend, demoted from detective work to a do-nothing police support division. He is pulled into this crime when asked to pick up and examine the computers, and finds he cannot stay away from the case.

McAuley sets the book in in London, maybe eight years from now. Cameras cover every block, and a vast AI ties them together. A terrorist virus has crippled all computer networks, and most haven't recovered completly. Social mores have gotten more restrictive; porn is completely illegal, and foreign books/movies/magazines censored. And London is hot and uncomfortable, with screens and mesh everywhere (presumably to keep out virus-carrying mosquitoes, but never specifically mentioned), more like New Orleans than the UK.

Our hero must handle colleagues who wish him ill and try to keep him away from the case, the victim's uncle who invented the CCTV AI system and has too many secrets, his absent girlfriend who can't decide what to do with him, and a series of taunting emails from the possible perp. Like all good mysteries, each question answered leads to five more; each suspect checked out only implicates formerly trusted people. McAuley does a great job ratcheting up the tension as our unnamed protagonist tries to win his good name back. The descriptions of near-future London were well-written and disturbing enough to linger for days. And the issues raised about privacy will keep you thinking long after you put the book down.

A great read for SF readers, mystery fans, and computer geeks.

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Summary: Stylish, Gripping Near Future Crime Cyberpunk Fiction
Review: Raymond Chandler meets William Gibson in one of the finest science fiction novels of recent years, courtesy of acclaimed British science fiction author Paul McAuley. This is more than a film noirish detective novel akin to the best from the likes of Raymond Chandler combined with elements of cyberpunk from William Gibson and his fellow "mirrorshades" cyberpunk fiction scribes. It is a thoughtful, often disturbing, look at surveillance and privacy; these are themes not normally found in much science fiction, with cyberpunk frequently taking the lead in these issues. However, until now, these subjects have not been presented in such a forceful, mesmerizing tale.

A fortyish detective in the London police department becomes involved in a murder investigation of a young college student, whose uncle is the inventor of the surveillance technology ADESS. This robotic technology has greatly reduced crime at the expense of personal liberty and privacy. His odyssey will take him to illicit porn dealers and computer hackers involved in a conspiracy to blackmail the deceased girl's uncle through the streets of London, and finally, to the distant data haven of Havana, Cuba and a climatic encounter with the man responsible for the girl's death. Meanwhile he is beset with fear over his girlfriend's safety when she becomes yet another pawn in the killer's bloody intellectual chess game with him. This stylish, extremely well-written novel should be regarded as one of the finest examples of contemporary science fiction, and deserves the "whole wide world" as its potential audience.

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Summary: Provocative and interesting--security and human rights
Review: Since the Infowars, English Detective Inspector John ? has been plagued by his doubts and shuffled into the remote bowels of British crime enforcement. In this dystopic near-future, England and much of the world are overrun by computer viruses, networked security cameras that can track and identify nearly anyone, and new morality laws that forbid virtually everything, even requiring editing of Disney movies before they pass the censors.

But murder is still a crime and Sophie Booth's murder is the DI's chance to reclaim active status in the police. It was a particularly nasty murder--complete with torture and finally a knifing. Worse, it was broadcast over the net and only one viewer bothered to notify the police. As the DI investigates, he begins to believe that the crime is not the straighforward murder it is made out to be. Finding the killer may not be enough to unveil the entire crime. As the police force turns against him, the DI is forced underground, taking chances that put him outside the pale.

Author Paul McAuley writes a tense SF mystery. The near-future environment he describes feels real and possible. For the most part, his technological crime advances ring true. The DI is well motivated and carefully drawn. His relationship with the missing Julie adds to his humanity and the violence of the crime motivates his extreme thirst for justice.

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Summary: Great Gritty Near Future Procedural
Review: This near-future police procedural is unfortunately one of those genre-crossing novels that's probably not going to get the attention it deserves from either pure science fiction or crime readers. That's a pity, because while it may not contain enough sci-fi elements for that cadre, it is one of the better crime novels I've read in recent years. The story is set in London, about ten years in the future. Temperatures are regularly in the 90s (presumably due to global warming), and the effects of a terrorist attack on London's information systems several years ago are still unfolding. The forces of morality have grown notably stronger (including a proliferation of Legion of Decency type organizations), and Internet blue laws prohibit the production of online porn in the UK. Another effect of the "Info War" is an intensification of state surveillance of public space, led by an experimental networked and artificially intelligent system of CCTV camera linked to police systems. This system, which uses facial recognition technology to track people as they move through London, is only a short step from reality, which helps impart a greater sense of immediacy and realism that many sci-fi books have.

In this setting is a diminutive fortysomething techie detective, stuck in a crummy job in a dying IT division of the Metropolitan police. Like many a fictional detective hero, he can't escape a dark past, leaving him ostracized and more or less a loner, save for an ex-girlfriend he's trying to win back. His sad little existence is interrupted by his routine involvement in a very non-routine case-the torture and murder of a young woman, broadcast via webcams across the Internet. He manages to second himself to the flashier homicide unit that takes over the case, and is soon in deep. Clues point toward a master porn techie who's been in trouble before for stalking, but there's also the matter of the woman's uncle, who happens to be the guru behind the new CCTV camera system technology. Naturally, obstacles, red herrings, and all manner of bedevilment impede the detective's progress, but like all obsessed heroes, he persists 'till the bitter climax. The book actually loses a bit of steam in the end, when the action leaves London and shifts to Cuba, which has remade itself as host for websites that no one else will host. McAuley's gritty future London is an integral part of the story, and Cuba never comes alive in the same way. It's not the most original mystery, but the prose crackles and draws you deep into the hero's unhappy life while presenting a fascinating imagining of the near future, and the combination is something quite unusual and worth reading.