Turing's Delirium

by Edmundo Paz Soldán

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160	6	180,870	(3.04)	11
Set against the backdrop of the globalization crisis, Edmundo Paz Sold 's award-winning literary thriller is a modern chapter in the age-old fight between oppressed and opressor. The town of Ro Fugitivo is on the verge of a social revolution-not a revolution of strikes and street riots but a war waged electronically, in which computer viruses are the weapons and hackers the revolutionaries. In this war of information, the lives of a variety of characters become entangled: Kandisky, the mythic leader of a group of hackers fighting the government and transnational companies; Albert, the founder of the Black Chamber, a state security firm charged with deciphering the secret codes used in the information war; and Miguel Sn?z, the Black Chamber's most famous codebreaker, who begins to suspect that his work is not as innocent as he once supposed. All converge to create an edgy, fast-paced story about personal responsibility and complicity in a world defined by the ever-increasing gulfs between the global and the local, government and society, the virtual and the real.… (more)

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This underwhelming book is very close to a much superior work, Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Very much a Cryptonomicon set in Bolivia, the author has interspersed short chapters of the stream of consciousness of a side character with very little help to the plot which drags down the story significantly. For those interested in the cryptology portion of the book there is minimal information on codebreaking or early computers. It really is more a pseudo-history of hapless codebreakers working for a dictator with intermittent reign in Bolivia. Set after an evolution of this organization, there is suddenly a contemporary revolutionary threatening the computer systems and energy grid of the dictator in a modern South American state. The story does move along, and weaves in all the historical cultural relevant issues such as family members being 'disappeared' long ago, corruption, the military, poverty, and more. Do not expect much of this book. (

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shawnd | Aug 25, 2009 |

This is a political thriller, with a cryptographic background. Each chapter takes the point of view of a single character, going back and forth between them as the book progresses, which keeps things moving. The writer's lack of first-hand experience in some of the cyberenvironments he describes is occasionally noticable, but he never strays into cliche or doubletalk. (Well, hardly ever.)

It's set in Bolivia, around 2003 or 2004. The government of democratically-elected General Montenegro (formerly dictator) is under pressure from the populace, having taken privatization one step too far.

The cast of characters:

Saenz, cryptanalyst for the government, nicknamed Turing
Ruth, his wife
Flavia, his Daughter
Albert, his old boss, now comatose
Ramirez-Graham, his new boss
Judge Cardona
and Kandinsky, leader of the Resistance (

)

grunin | Nov 7, 2008 |

An interesting read, however it was stylistically not something I'm used to. Chapters are told from different character's points of view, but different characters are from different POV (1st, 2nd, 3rd person.) This took some getting used to. The story as a whole was good, but the ending was abrupt, I felt that all of the characters had a few more chapters of story to resolve. (

)

morydd | Nov 14, 2007 |

Disappointing. The cover promises "sleek, brisk, and clever" along with "fast-paced, thinking person's thriller." I found it slow, not exciting, filled with cyber-inaccuracies, and one-dimensional characters. I just don't get what the reviewers saw in this book. Took me FOREVER to finish it because I just wasn't excited about picking it up. (

)

keferunk | Sep 24, 2007 |

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Canonical title

Turing's Delirium

Original title

Delirio de Turing

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People/Characters

Miguel Senz

Important places

Ro Fugitivo

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

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Set against the backdrop of the globalization crisis, Edmundo Paz Sold 's award-winning literary thriller is a modern chapter in the age-old fight between oppressed and opressor. The town of Ro Fugitivo is on the verge of a social revolution-not a revolution of strikes and street riots but a war waged electronically, in which computer viruses are the weapons and hackers the revolutionaries. In this war of information, the lives of a variety of characters become entangled: Kandisky, the mythic leader of a group of hackers fighting the government and transnational companies; Albert, the founder of the Black Chamber, a state security firm charged with deciphering the secret codes used in the information war; and Miguel Sn?z, the Black Chamber's most famous codebreaker, who begins to suspect that his work is not as innocent as he once supposed. All converge to create an edgy, fast-paced story about personal responsibility and complicity in a world defined by the ever-increasing gulfs between the global and the local, government and society, the virtual and the real.

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