Josh Conviser is a well-educated, ex-mountaineer turned screenwriter, who clearly admires cyberpunk. This, his first foray into SF literature, evokes the wet dreams of the Bush regime, and the curtailment of freedoms that we're seeing today. As a proposal, the book no doubt sounded very cutting edge. But in its execution something is missing. The author writes like he expects readers to fill in the gaps, perhaps as they would do from references available if this were a movie or TV show. The basis of the characters are interesting and have much potential, but the staccato leaps of logic and lack of characterisation or exposition at critical junctures leave a jumbled impression. So much of the story deals with what's going on inside the world of Echelon, or on the bionic Bond style missions, that little room is left to see what the world is like for everyman. Similarly, the raft of gadgetry ideas become mired in cliché, and despite Conviser's page turning style this inevitably produces a credibility gap. Like the afore-mentioned Six Million Dollar Man, Ryan Laing comes across as having so many advantages that he is never in serious danger of defeat. The story works best when it's engaged in cinematic extravagance, where things rattle and hum in a nicely sub-Matrix style, as Laing and Peters persuade other Echelon operatives to join their quest to find a hacker hideaway named Elysium. The overtones of Orwell's 1984 are deliberately underplayed, conveying the feel of Echelon as the manipulative power behind faceless and relentless authority. However, the question of whether security is more valuable than freedom is sidestepped in favour of information age action. When it works, it's good fun, when it doesn't the author drops into witty conversation mode that grates as often as it entertains. What we're left with at the end is a mystery, tilting toward the sequel.

Does the good outweigh the bad? On balance, I'd have to say yes, but it's a close call.