- Title:
- The Insecure Mind of Sergei Kraev
- By:
- Eric Silberstein
- Pages:
- 392
- Rating:
- 4
For fans of Neal Stephenson, Andy Weir, and Liu Cixin comes a novel reviewers describe as “a great Black Mirror episode” with the “page-turning pacing of Michael Crichton.”
The year is 2100. The lack of trust that characterized the early Internet era is long behind us. Mathematical proof ensures neural implants can’t be hacked, and the Board of Reality Overseers blocks false information from spreading.
When undergraduate Sergei Kraev, who dreams of becoming a professor, is accepted into the Technion’s computer science graduate program, he throws himself into his research project: making it possible for neural implants to transmit information directly to the brain. If he succeeds, he’ll earn a full professorship.
But Sergei falls under the influence of Sunny Kim, the beautiful and charismatic leader of a K-pop dance cult. Sergei believes in Sunny’s good intentions and wants to protect her from critics, leading him to perform a feat of engineering that leaves billions of brains vulnerable to attack.
With the clock ticking towards catastrophe, can Sergei see the truth about Sunny and undo what he’s done?
Weaving together compelling characters and spanning decades and continents, The Insecure Mind of Sergei Kraev is a classic tale of love, ambition, and self-interest building to a shattering finish.
This was gripping. I struggled a little in the beginning, the lack of a focus on the Western World viewpoint we’ve all come to expect from this class of fiction was jarring to start with, and I think because it wasn’t set off-planet in some futuristic diaspora, recognizing that there are cultures other than our own so much a part of the world was interesting and derailed me some from the message.
It didn’t last, of course, culture shock can only last so long, and I found myself flipping pages with feverish intensity as the time ticked down and bad things were about to happen. I enjoyed the character dynamics, the maths, the ideas of an engaged and implanted world coupled with the respect for the Pre, even the cautionary tale of the implants creators all added layers to a very engaging and powerful story.