The Silence of Six by E.C. Myers
Feb. 6th, 2015 12:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckro“What is the silence of six, and what are you going to do about it?”
During a live broadcast of a Presidential debate, Max’s best friend asks that question and then immediately kills himself. Can Max find out what it means before an evil conspiracy silences him?
I found this holds together much better than Fair Coin, in that it doesn’t genre-shift, but also because it sets up everything it needs for the finale from very early on—nothing comes out of nowhere (not even Max’s unseen plan at the very end), which is important in a novel revolving around a mystery. This is clearly a mystery/thriller, as any sci-fi elements are only a matter of playing slightly fast-and-loose with current technology. (And scraping the serial numbers off several things—“Panjea” replaces Facebook as the world’s social network of choice, most notably.)
It’s an interesting sort of chicken-and-the-egg writing question: Did this novel start because Myers had a lot of random knowledge about hacking and came up with a story around it, or did he come up with a story idea and then do a lot of research on hacking (which likely got him put on a government watchlist somewhere)?
It also sets up a bunch of potential sequel hooks, but none of which stop the story from feeling “finished” where it is. If there’s never a sequel, you don’t feel deprived.
Overall: A solid YA hacking-themed thriller. Read it now, because it will be hopelessly dated by the time my son can read YA novels.
Disclaimer: I’m friends with the author. Hi,ecmyers!
During a live broadcast of a Presidential debate, Max’s best friend asks that question and then immediately kills himself. Can Max find out what it means before an evil conspiracy silences him?
I found this holds together much better than Fair Coin, in that it doesn’t genre-shift, but also because it sets up everything it needs for the finale from very early on—nothing comes out of nowhere (not even Max’s unseen plan at the very end), which is important in a novel revolving around a mystery. This is clearly a mystery/thriller, as any sci-fi elements are only a matter of playing slightly fast-and-loose with current technology. (And scraping the serial numbers off several things—“Panjea” replaces Facebook as the world’s social network of choice, most notably.)
It’s an interesting sort of chicken-and-the-egg writing question: Did this novel start because Myers had a lot of random knowledge about hacking and came up with a story around it, or did he come up with a story idea and then do a lot of research on hacking (which likely got him put on a government watchlist somewhere)?
It also sets up a bunch of potential sequel hooks, but none of which stop the story from feeling “finished” where it is. If there’s never a sequel, you don’t feel deprived.
Overall: A solid YA hacking-themed thriller. Read it now, because it will be hopelessly dated by the time my son can read YA novels.
Disclaimer: I’m friends with the author. Hi,
ecmyers!
