Realtime

Good near-future techno thriller. No real big surprises as far as the mystery goes but that did not detract from my enjoyment of the book. Tiedemann can be a sly story-teller. Instead of drawing you a picture using crayons, he builds the world and the characters by sketching minor details; he might mention a little something about the political landscape that gives you an idea that America, in this book, is a very different place from what it is today. Or he might describe a piece of technology that the characters use that is clearly futuristic to us, but is commonplace to them. Even the clothing, cars, and character behavior is odd at first. As the story unfolds though, it all comes together into a cohesive whole that is, on the one hand, complex and. on the other, simply rendered. No mean feat that.

In typical Tiedemann fashion, (this is the 5th novel of his that I've read), the bulk of the story is driven by character interactions and action sequences. To keep up with what is happening, you will need to read between the lines and pay attention to what people are saying. It's not hard, but that is what will be expected of you as a reader. Thankfully, your task is made easy by the fact that the dialogue is smart, direct, and to the point.

The other appeal of this story is the development of the main character... When we first meet him, Grant Vozcek seems to be an arrogant, condescending, self-centered jerk. Ummm... hold on, there is actually no 'seems to be' about it. He is all of that. But then a strange thing happens; as the story progresses, so does Grant's persona. As details emerge, we find out why Vozcek is the way he is and, as he interacts with FBI agent Reva Cassonare, he also begins to look beyond his own motivations and triggers and finally comes out the other end changed in a positive way. It's not easy for me get to like a character that I started off disliking. Tiedemann manages to bring me around with this one. At the end Vozcek remains a tad unlikable, but he's a much better person than when we first meet him. Another example of 'no mean feat'.

My biggest complaint is agent Reva Cassonare... While she is depicted as being a strong female character, she really just ends up being a typical supporting act for our male hero (or anti-hero as the case may be). Too bad because her character has a lot of potential. Still, that's a small nit to pick for an otherwise smart and entertaining read.

I recommend this book to anyone that enjoys the types of environments created by PKD, Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, or Neal Stephenson. While the style is somewhat different, the world-building is of that caliber.