When Bad Writers Make Bad Predictions: Ramez Naam's Nexus
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Author: Ramez Naam
Title: Nexus Genre: science fiction What’s the next step in human evolution? Well, if you believe Ramez Naam, one of the “great” minds responsible for Internet Explorer and MS Outlook, it’s Nexus. That would be a sort of mind-altering drug that through some weird, ill-described nanocyberpunkishsteamdreck allows you to overlay a software interface on your brain, and in the process become post-human. In other words, complete and utter crap. It’s made even worse by the inability of the author to string together a cogent plot without dipping into the wide world of stereotyped tropes (assuming a trope can be more trope-y, that is). But anyway… Kaden “Kade” Lane and his friends took Nexus 3 and turned it into Nexus 5. The drug’s called “nexus” because it turns a human brain into a nexus of wireless nodes that can communicate with wireless nodes in another, nearby brain also “running” nexus. Lane and his fellow grad students (shades of Brin and Page) augmented the drug with an OS that can run apps like “Bruce Lee,” which directs your body as if you were a martial arts master, and “porn star” that… well, you get the point. Naturally, the big, bad gummint wants to shut down nexus 5 – some sort of paranoia about mind control and enslavement – so they send hot chick Robyn Rodriguez (not her real name, that’s Samantha Catarenes [not her real name, that’s Sarita Catalan]) to seduce the information out of the callow youth. In the process, of course, she tangles with his buddy the enhanced ex-marine, but manages to escape… Caught red-handed with a highly illegal drug, Lane gets handed a sort of plea bargain: go under cover with the government to capture a Chinese bigdome (also hot), a Thai drug lord, and maybe a cadre of cloned soldiers called “Confucian Fist.” It oughta be easy – surely there’s an app for that. Lane and “Robyn” head to an international conference in Bangkok, where all hell breaks loose. Everyone there seems to already be “running nexus,” and all of them want to do some sort of mind meld with Lane to steal whatever it is that makes his brand of the drug “better” that what they already have. In the process, dozens of people will be blown to bits and, we’ll get to watch the inevitable “good guy finds out she’s really a bad guy” moment. Yep, utter dreck. It used to be that quality speculative fiction was created at the intersection of talent and knowledge; a space that was never heavily populated: think Asimov, Niven, Sturgeon, Clarke. In the era of rampant self-publishing, neither one is necessary – but what’s worse is that many a person with a modicum of knowledge has been able to parlay that into a publishing contract. Apparently Ramez Naam is a case in point: he may have some knowledge – or, more likely, a feverish imagination – but he’s got zip for talent. Nexus demonstrates that last pretty well. It’s a SpecFic novel set about 25 years in the future, though the only difference between 2013 and 2040 is the drugs (will anyone even remember Bruce Lee in 2040, when he’s been dead for 67 years? But I digress… Naam has some ideas (not very original, by the way) about how mankind is due to evolve into “posthumanity,” and he’s thrown a mishmash of them on the page. Of course, in a pseudolibertarian WikiLeakish sort of “sensibility,” Naam is apparently naïve enough to think that releasing Nexus 5 to the world will solve all mankind’s ills. Even if his idea weren’t the height of naiveté, Naam’s inability to create readable fiction pretty much ruins Nexus. He starts with lousy characters: the “grad students changing the world” trope – even going so far as to make one, Rangan Shankari (quite probably a version of the author himself), a world-famous DJ in his “spare time.” Three of the principals behind Nexus 5 are grad students, although one – hot chick Ilyana – seems to have little purpose other than to be the token female; the fourth is an ex-marine killing machine… now how did three cloistered students get tangled up with an ex-marine? And, of course, the gorgeous “Sam,” who has her own messy past – the trope of all tropes. Once the evil government agency seduces/blackmails/coerces Lane into doing their bidding, the action shifts from the Bay Area to Bangkok. And when I say “action,” I mean ACTION. Once Kade and Sam are in Thailand, the blood flows freely and the brain matter splatters widely. People explode, sometimes setting off an inferno. Helicopters attack monasteries, shooting missiles at limousines. It’s all the sort of encounter special effects wizards salivate over, though readers – at least those who haven’t spent half the past week playing HALO – will find wildly overdone. And, of course, through it all the “enhanced” Sam keeps her cool and Lane even gets to boot up Bruce Lee a time or two. Avoid this dreck, folks. Unfortunately, Naam has already loosed a sequel to Nexus on the world, and both novels have garnered rave reviews from the less discerning rabble at the river. More’s the pity – but at least you now know who not to trust for book reviews! |