Techno-Thrillers discussion

Anyone interested in a “buddy read” of Delta-V by Daniel Suarez starting in the next week?



This is not the “official” book of the month. Didn’t get any interest in recent book of the month polls but I’d like to read it. A "buddy read" just needs at least two people (one of other interested person) to make it onto the bookshelf. Other's are more than welcome to join us.

I'll jump in on this. I should be done with Extinction by Thursday.

Unlike most people, I didn't really care for Suarez's Daemon, but I want to give him another shot.

Cool. I'll put it on the shelf, say that it starts on the 27th. I'll call it a July read. I haven't read anything of his.

Publisher's Summary

The bestselling author of Daemon returns with a near-future technological thriller, in which a charismatic billionaire recruits a team of adventurers to launch the first deep space mining operation--a mission that could alter the trajectory of human civilization.

When itinerant cave diver James Tighe receives an invitation to billionaire Nathan Joyce's private island, he thinks it must be a mistake. But Tighe's unique skill set makes him a prime candidate for Joyce's high-risk venture to mine a near-earth asteroid--with the goal of kick-starting an entire off-world economy. The potential rewards and personal risks are staggering, but the competition is fierce and the stakes couldn't be higher.

Isolated and pushed beyond their breaking points, Tighe and his fellow twenty-first century adventurers--ex-soldiers, former astronauts, BASE jumpers, and mountain climbers--must rely on each other to survive not only the dangers of a multi-year expedition but the harsh realities of business in space. They're determined to transform humanity from an Earth-bound species to a space-faring one--or die trying.

Just finished Extinction and immediately started Delta-V. I didn't even read the blurb before starting it, so I had no idea what it was about.

Other than the early appearance of a billionaire, a type of character I just can't seem to avoid these days, I'm liking the early chapters.

I'm tempted to do a re-read of Delta-V with you guys if I can claw back my copy from a friend. My favorite book of 2022 out of 45 books read. I'd dnf'd Daemon twice but tried Delta-V anyway because I'm into rocketry. Very glad I did!

I think I like it. There are times I’m not engaged but it is pretty cool what they are doing

I’m about 70% in. It’s pretty cool. He seems to go down technical rabbit holes semi-regularly, enough to make it seem plausible and then some. I have no idea which of his digressions are real science or not. That and the over-all story arch seem to be his focus. Other than The Expanse, this is asteroid mining notion is new territory for me, and this book is effectively the near future/now, not super futuristic. I like that. Keeps it plausible.

I'm only to the training camp on Ascension Island. I guess this part is necessary, but I can't wait to get to the actual space stuff.

I'm not sure how the author intended the reader to feel about Chapter 8, where six billionaires preen and debate on stage about who is wasting money in the best way while a crowd cheers them on, but I barely avoided just skipping that chapter altogether.

It seemed extremely unlikely that billionaires would debate each other on TV about esoteric details of chemistry or physics in space. We didn’t see Bill and Steve debate computers or software. We don’t see Elon and Jeff debating space ships.

I finished and reviewed it. I liked it overall. Not the best writing but an interesting concept. May have to look at that sequel. I nominated it for an August read.

I'm getting to the end and should finish it in the next day or two. For a techno-thriller, this has so far been very heavy on the techno (which I've enjoyed) but very light on the thriller. Maybe there's some big action climax, but it kinda feels like watching a Discovery Channel show about the drudgery of asteroid mining, rather than a fast-paced plot about how they're all going to die any minute if they don't solve a problem.

So I finally finished, after getting bogged down in some outside stuff and not being able to read as much as usual. I enjoyed the science a lot (the plot, not as much), and although the events seem highly implausible, nothing made me roll my eyes like Eruption did. This is another one of those books where somehow a secret project was kept a secret for years, even after the substantial mission control team were cut off from communicating with the miners and a false narrative of the crew's death in a training mission was floated by a bunch of evil billionaires who tried and failed to murder the crew. Nobody who knew about the Konstantin went to NASA or the media?

My main gripe is about Erika, the female government employee who pops up a few times. She testifies in front of a Congressional panel. She goes to her grandfather's birthday party. She seems nice. Then she disappears for a long time before showing up to give advice to the Swiss lawyer. Now she seems kinda mean. Then she disappears for a while, and shows up towards the end of the book to visit the grave of her now-deceased grandfather. What's her deal? Did I miss or sleep through a chapter where Suarez explains what her character has to do with anything? Narratively, her character makes no sense, and this just seems like a glaring flaw in the book.

3 stars, for the reason listed above. Great science, flawed storytelling.

Probably need a spoiler tag on some of that. I don’t recall the Erica character. There was one (maybe this was her) that did pop in and out somewhere … did talk to lawyer in middle of nowhere … in Nevada? Don’t recall her name. She was written up longer than most side characters as if she was going to be something and nothing happened. It was a dead end and not appreciated. Maybe he needs a new editor. I did drift in and out on this one, and lost track of some of the details. Wasn’t strongly engaged. I did like the concept of the story, but not all the writing, and too much manufactured drama bits. Sure, Musk, Bezos, and Branson all kind of compete on space ventures. Yes, Musk is a narcissist on the spectrum who lobs social grenades and challenged Zuckerberg to a fight. Those things do happen. Yes, huge money would be needed for this plot, but that doesn’t mean anyone actually enjoys reading about billionaires acting out like spoiled little kids. Some of the plot elements seem sprinkled in like someone thinks a thriller needs this and that kind of drama, and the mashed up elements didn’t feel like an integrated story.

Thanks for reading this one with me Tom. Seems like you’re consistently a star below my ratings. Jed is usually about a star above mine. I like all the commentary, whether I align 100% or not.

Seems like you may not be interested in the sequel, Critical Mass. What’s a 5-star technothriller for you?

I had spoilers in the post, then realized the only folks in this thread had already finished the book, so I removed them for clarity. But I'm new here, and would be happy to put them back if that is best practice on these kinds of posts.

Maybe I'm coming off as a grumpy critic, but I'm not trying to. A 3-star book is still a good book to me, just one with flaws. This Erika Lesowski character was just such a random dead-end, it dropped a star from what was probably a 4-star book otherwise. (That, and the tedious billionaire stuff.)

Apparently, Erika has a bigger role in the sequel, but books need to exist as standalone entities, and her character just didn't make narrative sense in this one. All Suarez needed to do was write a short epilogue that shows her doing something that helps us place her into the events that we just read about, and it would have been fine. But he didn't.

The last 5-star novel I read was probably The Ferryman by Justin Cronin. That one's maybe closer to traditional sci-fi, but with a good bit of action. I wrote a short spoiler-free review of it here.

I don't read a lot of trilogies/series, but I would probably read Critical Mass, just to see how Suarez tied up some of the loose ends he left hanging at the end of Delta-V.The book ended so suddenly, I thought I had missed some content.

Hey Steve, another 5-star thriller I read recently (more of a spy thriller, but there are technology elements): First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston. Smart, unpredictable, and my favorite book I've read in the last year.