Book Review - The Last Firewall by William Hertling

This is the third book in the author's Singularity series and I've enjoyed them all so far and this book proved to be no exception. In fact as I read each book I appreciate the development of the author's talent.

Each  of the books take an aspect of the technological singularity and in this one he examines the crossover between the physical world and cyberspace and in particular how it can affect individuals. The technology is handled in an easy to understand manner, although personally I quite like hard sci-fi so I would have been happy for there to be a bit more detail, but enough is conveyed to get a feel for what is new.

It also looks at some of the aspects of how society has changed in response to the technological developments and an interesting world is constructed from this. Again I would happily have read more detail, but enough is drawn to see how things fit together.

The story is fast paced and well written and drew me through the story quickly. There were some aspects I thought as unlikely, or inadequately explained, but overall it meshed together well. Apart from wanting more detail my main criticism would be for the main protagonist. He serves his purpose well enough, but does come across as a bit of a bond villain. There were hints as to his motivations that worked for me, but again the lack of detail meant that they didn't come across as strongly as they could have been.

So this review might seem a little over critical for a book I enjoyed, and that's mainly because there was potential for this to be a stand out novel in the genre. As it is it's merely an excellent read :-)

Click on image to buy from Amazon

In the year 2035, robots, artificial intelligences, and neural implants have become commonplace. The Institute for Ethics keeps the peace, using social reputation to ensure that robots and humans don't harm society or each other. But a powerful AI named Adam has found a way around the restrictions.

Catherine Matthews, nineteen years old, has a unique gift: the ability to manipulate the net with her neural implant. Yanked out of her perfectly ordinary life, Catherine becomes the last firewall standing between Adam and his quest for world domination.


Click here to buy The Last Firewall from Amazon (and it's an excellent cyber story)