Darknet

Author Matthew Mather is more than just a successful writer of speculative fiction: he is also a leading member of the world’s cybersecurity community who started out his career working at the McGill Center for Intelligent Machines. He went on to found one of the first tactile interface companies, which became the world leader in its field, as well as creating a major award-winning brain training video game. In between he’s worked in a variety of start-ups, everything from computational nanotechnology to electronic health records, weather prediction systems to genomics, and even social intelligence research.Matthew’s well-tuned mind steps a bit beyond technology as we know it at present and offers, in story form (or predictions!) where that current state of technology is headed. His writing in many ways feels prescient. Though the reading public has become captivated with his best selling CYBERSTORM, it is likely once the potential film version is realized that the larger public will pay attention to his musings and predictions. Rather than focus on pure sci-fi themes, placing the reader n different worlds and times and often apocalyptic in nature, Matthew instead finds the true terror of out of control technology by placing his current book DARKNET in today’s world: he writes about a Wall Street broker, Jake O'Connell, who gets caught up in the invisible world of assassination markets, virtual currencies, and “chatbots” that can fool people into thinking they are real human beings. And it has been noted the while Mather invents his dystopian vision of the future in this storyl, the novel is, according to Matthew, “based on real-world technologies, whether or not the average person is aware of them.” Or as one interviewer posed, Mather’s books explore the dark possibilities of new technologies, ranging from cyberwarfare, assassination networks, to “virtual corporations” run by artificial intelligence. Although his plots are fictional in nature, Mather explained that much of the technology he writes about either exists or is currently in development.’As his synopsis opines, ‘A terrifying new breed of technology evolves - a dark secret determined to stay hidden. DARKNET is a prophetic and frighteningly realistic thriller set in present-day New York, the story of one man's quest to overcome a shadowy force pushing the world to the brink of destruction, and his incredible gamble to risk everything to save his family. Jake O'Connell leaves a life of crime and swears he'll never return, but his new life as a stock broker is ripped away when his childhood friend Sean Womack is murdered. Thousands of miles away in Hong Kong, data scientist Jin Huang finds a list of wealthy dead people in a massive banking conspiracy. Problem is, some of the people don't stay dead. As Jin begins her investigation, she's petrified to discover her own name on the growing list of dead-but-alive. On the run, Jake O'Connell and Jin Huang race across continents to uncover a dark secret spreading like a cancer into the world. Why was Sean killed, and how is the list of wealthy dead connected? Are some of them really coming back to life? But all this becomes irrelevant when Jake's wife and daughter are attacked.’It is one thing to have a wildly creative imagination and make that tangent to today's state of being, but it is quite another to be able to write such concepts with dignity and intelligence - the trait that makes Matthew's book so poignant to a very large audience. Smart ideas, a gift for conversational interplay, and keen sense of timing are married to an impressive vocabulary and ability to make his words visual. It is no wonder he is an instant success in his rather newly chosen field of writing! Grady Harp, December 15

Engaging. Realistic portrayal of scary things that may not be as futuristic as we like to believe. Kept me guessing (not always easy to do).I work at a credit union and see daily how scammers use the web to their advantage and to the detriment of my members. Meanwhile, there are "good guys" fighting to stay ahead of that and keep us informed. Here's to hoping those good guys win more than they lose.

A thriller based on careful research of a chilling reality of our modern world, the book is well written and well researched. The characters are well drawn. While the book is fiction, it’s based on facts - facts that are clearly explained in a compelling way.

I enjoyed Mathew Mather's Darknet. The plot had a lot of suspense and the characters were relatively believable. What was not believable was the artificial intelligence (AI) in the book. Until I read the biographical end note at the end of the book attributed the AI howlers to someone who has only read popular articles on AI. I was surprised to learn that Mathew Mather worked in software and artificial intelligence.The term "machine learning" doesn't mean what Mather seems to think it means if the plot of Darknet is anything to go by. Machine learning is very narrow and deals with training and learning in narrow contexts. AI does not currently have the ability to learn or react, except in the narrow scope of what it is designed and trained to do.I would have put the abilities of Mather's AI down to poetic license and the desire to create a compelling plot. But in the end notes he makes a claim that such an AI is actually currently possible, which is not the case. Wall Street organizations deploy advanced technology in an attempt to gain an edge in the market. But any AI deployed is not likely to start taking over the company any time in the near future (e.g., the next ten or twenty years).

Mather knocks another one out of the park! Darknet is a riveting thriller from the first page to the last, and it’s scary as all hell that much of this story may actually exist in real life. It certainly makes one wonder how certain events transpired over the past decade or so as they did. Mr. Mather is known for writing intense, thought-provoking novels, and Darknet fills the bill in a most excellent manner. On the technical side, Mr. Mather is usually an excellent, error-free writer, though I did spot a few errors in this book. They were few enough, however, that my grammar/spelling/syntax/sentence structure alarms were not activated. Perhaps he could employ a bot to check over his work prior to publishing, no?

Never a dull moment, fast paced and exciting couldn't put it down

This book took some time to really start me eagerly looking to the next page. But it finally had me. Inexplicably, characters do some pretty dumb stuff. I’m no genius, but they all did… I shook my head more than once, that’s for sure!Overall, it redeemed itself well…. If you’re the type to allow a book to come to a slow boil, maybe this is for you to try….

Enjoyed the book from start to finish. Reminded me of the terminator. Skynet born soon to be a robotic terminator near you.

This reads well as an interesting and fun technothriller. Jake is upset by news of his friend's death, then baffled when it appears that he was speaking to Sean on the phone days after he was killed by a bus. He looks into the matter and ends up investigating Bluebridge, a vast corporation that buys and sells futures - gambling on the prices of shares and commodities. At present the majority of market trades are being made by complex algorithms in fast computers so Bluebridge is headquartered near Wall Street for fast broadband trades. Oddly for such a big company, Bluebridge has been laying off staff, and senior people have been dying. Who is actually running it, and how come the few seniors left are making appearances at meetings in different parts of the country on the same day? But as Jake investigates he runs into trouble, of the kind that comes with estrangement from his wife and kidnap of their young daughter.I enjoyed the location switches which include Hong Kong and Canada, with a Mohawk Reservation featuring strongly. The enterprising Mohawks are hosting casino web gambling on their giant servers. A wide variety of crooks also feature, from mob bosses to Yakuza. At first it is hard to see where each new location or set of characters ties in, but the web is satisfactorily woven and pulls tight at the end.I also enjoyed the IT detail which has clearly been well thought out; a nice touch being the facial recognition program which scans recently posted pictures on social networks to spot an individual in the background of tourist photos. If you want to know about bitcoin, the dark net and AIs, this doesn't give you everything but it's a good jumping off point. Computers, not weaponry, are the arms.Downside, some of the characters are stereotypes, and some of them are whisked across borders rather quickly, cheaply and without jet lag, language difficulties or waiting time for visas, flights and passports. I also saw some incorrect language use such as diffuse where defuse is appropriate. But it's a thriller. Have fun.

Darknet, is was a brilliant read, cleverly teased you so that you thought you could guess what was going to happen next, then a sudden twist took you down another path. Really was one of those books were you could never guess what was coming next.Characters were brilliantly built up as the story progressed, was expecting a good read as I have read several of Mathew Mathers other books that I enjoyed, I was not disappointed.Another Great book.

Described as a gripping tech thriller Darknet is just that. Dealing with the attempted takeover of global economies and governments by Artificial Intelligence you would hope this was Matthew Mather"s imagination in overdrive, but then in the postscript comes evidence if its gradual real life development. In the case of Darknet its left to a diverse group of Americans, Chinese and Mohawk Native Americans to save the day, all the time searching for Jake's kidnapped daughter. A contemporary science fiction thriller that is an undoubted page turner.

an excellent read, kept me interested from very early on with a clever concept and tech that's not beyond the realms of comprehension. Good characters and a healthy pace to the story keeps things moving - the tech concepts are explained well too - enough detail to make it "make sense" but not so much detail that it bores bore the non--techie reader!Added value from a personal perspective, I know people who host with the Mohawks and the company I work for has sold equipment that was installed in the datacentres mentioned!

Modern society relies on IT for most things, but when it becomes sentient watch out! Matthew has spun a web of what the future could hold if we take computer research too far.A roller coaster of action from start to finish I just had to finish it, but enough said folks read it for yourself, oh, and turn off your computers 😂😂