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Martin Hench #1
Red Team Blues
A grabby next-Tuesday thriller about cryptocurrency shenanigans that will awaken you to how the world really works.
Martin Hench is 67 years old, single, and successful in a career stretching back to the beginnings of Silicon Valley. He lives and roams California in a very comfortable fully-furnished touring bus, The Unsalted Hash, that he bought years ago from a fading rock star. He knows his way around good food and fine drink. He likes intelligent women, and they like him back often enough.
Martin is a―contain your excitement―self-employed forensic accountant, a veteran of the long guerilla war between people who want to hide money, and people who want to find it. He knows computer hardware and software alike, including the ins and outs of high-end databases and the kinds of spreadsheets that are designed to conceal rather than reveal. He’s as comfortable with social media as people a quarter his age, and he’s a world-level expert on the kind of international money-laundering and shell-company chicanery used by Fortune 500 companies, mid-divorce billionaires, and international drug gangs alike. He also knows the Valley like the back of his hand, all the secret histories of charismatic company founders and Sand Hill Road VCs. Because he was there at all the beginnings. He’s not famous, except to the people who matter. He’s made some pretty powerful people happy in his time, and he’s been paid pretty well. It’s been a good life.
Now he’s been roped into a job that’s more dangerous than anything he’s ever agreed to before―and it will take every ounce of his skill to get out alive.
Martin Hench is 67 years old, single, and successful in a career stretching back to the beginnings of Silicon Valley. He lives and roams California in a very comfortable fully-furnished touring bus, The Unsalted Hash, that he bought years ago from a fading rock star. He knows his way around good food and fine drink. He likes intelligent women, and they like him back often enough.
Martin is a―contain your excitement―self-employed forensic accountant, a veteran of the long guerilla war between people who want to hide money, and people who want to find it. He knows computer hardware and software alike, including the ins and outs of high-end databases and the kinds of spreadsheets that are designed to conceal rather than reveal. He’s as comfortable with social media as people a quarter his age, and he’s a world-level expert on the kind of international money-laundering and shell-company chicanery used by Fortune 500 companies, mid-divorce billionaires, and international drug gangs alike. He also knows the Valley like the back of his hand, all the secret histories of charismatic company founders and Sand Hill Road VCs. Because he was there at all the beginnings. He’s not famous, except to the people who matter. He’s made some pretty powerful people happy in his time, and he’s been paid pretty well. It’s been a good life.
Now he’s been roped into a job that’s more dangerous than anything he’s ever agreed to before―and it will take every ounce of his skill to get out alive.
213 pages, Hardcover
First published April 25, 2023
About the author
Cory Doctorow
228 books5,524 followersCory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of the YA graphic novel In Real Life, the nonfiction business book Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, and young adult novels like Homeland, Pirate Cinema, and
Little Brother
and novels for adults like
Rapture Of The Nerds
and Makers. He is a Fellow for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 507 reviews
May 11, 2023
It's funny, almost the entire time I was reading this, I was ambivalent about the story. I had put this on hold at my library and my turn came up. I began reading it and thought "Meh. I must have been on a hold jag. Not sure I want to read this now." But here's the thing, I thought about this when I had to put it down, I smiled a lot as I read and was always happy to continue reading it. Part of my ambivalence was that I just wasn't sure I could power through the Palo Alto tech bro landscape with a forensic accountant, poring over minimalist luxury and the of-the-moment references. I more than powered through and I could actually read whatever happens next in Hench's life. There's a worthy mystery and very many moving parts closing in on Hench after he does a job for an old friend. It's always the last favour that is the problem, it seems.
The meal descriptions were pretty decent (there were several between all the eluding danger). Overall, it made me consider that somewhere along the way, some men may prioritize their meals and their alcohol over a whole lot else. I watched an episode of Midsomer Murders once where a gentleman of a certain age explained why he'd swiped a car from his retirement village. He needed to get to the pub as they did a great lunch. After recounting it in detail he said "These things are important to a chap." Lots of focus on those here. I didn't hate it, just found the focus interesting.
Past me knew what she was doing when she put this on hold at the library.
Recommended.
The meal descriptions were pretty decent (there were several between all the eluding danger). Overall, it made me consider that somewhere along the way, some men may prioritize their meals and their alcohol over a whole lot else. I watched an episode of Midsomer Murders once where a gentleman of a certain age explained why he'd swiped a car from his retirement village. He needed to get to the pub as they did a great lunch. After recounting it in detail he said "These things are important to a chap." Lots of focus on those here. I didn't hate it, just found the focus interesting.
Past me knew what she was doing when she put this on hold at the library.
Recommended.
April 30, 2023
I’m a longtime fan of Doctorow’s work, and I have a lot of respect for his politics. But wow, ok, this book was not for me. I guess he’s trying to reach a particular kind of straight white male reader who loves the trappings of tech wealth (the kind who will salivate over descriptions of bourbon, watches, mid century modern furniture, social media mapping, and strong but somehow always sexually available women), and who is a tiny bit curious about progressive politics. Ok … I hope this strategy works, in the quest to convert crypto bros into Bernie bros! But it’s not something I want to endure. I struggled to find sympathy for the main character. His handwringing about the homeless crisis in SF, and an unspecified charity-based attempt to “fix” it, were especially cringe-inducing. Where are the radical ideas that were central to *Walkaway*?
March 30, 2023
3.5 Stars
This was a fun sci fi thriller filled with techno babble and hacking adventures. I was hoping Cory Doctorow would remind me of Neal Stephenson but unfortunately the story didn't quite reach that level. I wish there had been more depth to the scientific elements.
Yet this was still an enjoyable pageturner. One of the best aspects of this novel was the choice to make the protagonist older. I appreciated the maturity it gave the story, but I wasn't expecting so much focus on his relationship.
This wasn't what I expected but I still enjoyed it. I would definitely be interested in trying some of this author's blacklist.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
This was a fun sci fi thriller filled with techno babble and hacking adventures. I was hoping Cory Doctorow would remind me of Neal Stephenson but unfortunately the story didn't quite reach that level. I wish there had been more depth to the scientific elements.
Yet this was still an enjoyable pageturner. One of the best aspects of this novel was the choice to make the protagonist older. I appreciated the maturity it gave the story, but I wasn't expecting so much focus on his relationship.
This wasn't what I expected but I still enjoyed it. I would definitely be interested in trying some of this author's blacklist.
Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.
March 15, 2023
A not too elderly, consultant, forensic accountant involved in the hunt for crypto-criminals becomes embroiled with really Bad Guys. A neo-hardboiled novel with strident social commentary on 'the rich and everyone else'.
Cryptocurrency, Money Laundering, Tax Evasion and the Spycraft of Going Off-The-Grid
My ARC, dead tree copy was a modest 159 pages of 8-9 pt type with a US 2023 copyright. It’s a short novel that could have been a novella.
Cory Doctorow is a British-Canadian blogger, journalist, editor, and science fiction author. He is the author of more than ten novels of post-cyberpunk genre fiction, many short stories, and a couple of non-fiction books. I have read several books and short stories by the author. The latest was The Man Who Sold The Moon (my review).
Marty Hench was a long-in-the-tooth forensic account savvy in the technical aspects of financial crime. He’s very much the Cool Old Man. His last job was his Big Score. It skirted on the seamier side of cryptocurrency. Except, the Bad Guys, Mis-Blamed Hench for their caper’s fallout. This was very much opposite the, Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player ethics of Red Team/Blue Team confrontations over money. Those are typically settled with an assist from sketchy lawyers and then get wrapped in NDAs to eventually disappear.
Doctorow is a proficient, experienced author. The writing was technically good. Prose was written in a clear, unaffected manner. I did find a few typographical and grammatical errors, as well as repetition. However, I blame them on this being an ARC-version of the manuscript.
Both dialog and descriptive prose were very hip in the Wired Magazine style of the digerati. Dialog was good. It was laced with sly and obvert digital culture references, including name drippings [sic]. In places I laughed-out-loud. However, a background in tech and Silicon Valley would be helpful to get it. The descriptive narrative was very good, although it could become quiet technically complex. Still, you don’t read a Doctorow book without having a love for info dumps and technospeak?
There was a single POV in the story—Marty Hench, the protagonist. He was a technically gifted, elderly, bachelor, making a living chasing money through the labyrinth of the financial system via computer-based investigation techniques. The job title was Forensic Accountant . Hench traditionally worked by word-of-mouth for the digerati. He, “makes them whole”. I’d call him a Corporate Samurai, with a green, eyeshade. I also would have assumed he was somewhere on the spectrum, despite Doctorow’s written denial? He lived as a Man of Wealth and Taste; an alt-successful version of his boomer peers in the gig economy. I’d also give him an untutored diagnosis of loner or isolator? Hench's eating, drinking and (lack of) exercise habits were well covered. Although, Doctorow tried hard for Hench to be a 67-years old man, he read physically more like the 50-year old Doctorow.
Supporting characters included: Wilma “Raza” Razafimandimby, Mrs. Sethuramani Lazer, and Ruth Schwartzburg. I've read many of the author's books. I think Doctorow is enthralled by the Women Are Wiser trope? Raza’s the Cool Old Woman. She’s also Hench's Confidant and The Reliable One. She’s not a geek, but she’s brilliant in her own way. (All Doctorow’s Good Guys are brilliant and extremely talented folks.) Lazer was Doctorow’s most unlikely character. Her Horatio Alger story of lifting herself to success, through: innate brilliance, good-looks, good fortune, hard work and marrying well made her the story’s Mary Sue. (Doctorow invariably always has one.) Schwartzburg is Hench’s Silver Vixen love interest and responsible for the Deconfirmed Bachelor subplot. Doctorow also makes heavy use of the Knowledge Broker plot device. Hench always, “knows a guy", or "knows a guy who knows a guy”. They’re typically, not obviously bent: bankers, lawyers, and C-level technocrats.
This was a No Antagonist story. It relied on the Greater-Scope Villainy supplied by Mexican drug cartels and Russian-esque kleptocrats. The story’s Big Bad being a corollary of very bright, computer-savvy, young folks making poor life choices. Also, the author brings-in his techno-libertarian distain for large, three initialed US government agencies.
In addition, there were numerous NPCs. They were stereotypes from: Silicon Valley and tech-types (I most closely identify with the Techbros sans man bun in the story), thugs, government agents, corporate apparatchiks, bent lawyers and bankers, the homeless, and the unsung heroes of activist and welfare organizations.
The story contained: sex, drugs, music references and violence. (Its not YA, like the author's Little Brother series.)
Hench has a lot of consensual sex without the aid of The Little Blue Pill. All sex was of the fade to black type, with Hench pulling his boots on the next morning whilst sitting on the bed. Prostitution and prostitutes were mentioned within the context of the demimonde. Softcore, legal in California drugs were consumed. I would have pegged Hench as preferring sativa vs.indica edibles? Hard core drugs were mentioned within the context of the demimonde. Beer, wine and liquor was consumed, but not to the state of drunkenness. I detected what may be the author’s bourbon snobbery in the liquor descriptions? Music references were appropriate for a 67-year old “Man of Wealth & Taste”. I re-listened to Otis Reading’s, (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay and streamed the catalog of the, Preservation Hall Jazz Band as a result.
Violence was minimal, but frequently threatening. There were no gun battles. It was mostly physical, blunt or edged weapons type. It was gory and descriptive. Note there was the threat of torture and its results were described. Body count was moderate.
Location of the story was “Northern California”, with the majority of the action taking place within 400 miles of San Francisco. Many well known San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Oakland locations appeared in many scenes. Familiarity with the Bay Area would be helpful in understanding Hench's movements.
The story started out as a MacGuffin setup as Hench tries to make Mrs. Lazer and her husband “whole”. He then gets trapped in the Retirony (the portmanteau of Retirement and Irony) of the result. In this case its literally an, on-the-beach-type retirement vs. the long dirt nap riff of the trope. A Run or Die plot results, where Hench goes off the grid in plain sight. It then segues into a Black-and-Gray Morality play as Hench has to do some questionable things to make himself whole.
This story was a techno-fest. A large part of the narrative existed to support the description of the technology of cryptocurrency. Subordinate to that was the technology of the surveillance society. In most places Doctorow’s scenarios were credible or riffs of capers on the public record. The level of technical detail was very high, with only a minimum of hand waving. I frankly didn’t mind the info dumps, but many folks will find them challenging.
Two technical details that jumped out at me were, Hench’s 35-foot, tour bus would have used diesel fuel vs. gasoline, and Trustlesscoin’s (the Lazer business) CoLo DC cage would have had optical fibre drops, not copper for its highly transactional workload.
A larger problem I had was the success Hench had at overcoming purely technical challenges. “Bright, young Dutch folks”, did Deus Ex Machina database duty for him early in the story. However, it was near superhuman what he could achieve in short periods of time under difficult circumstances by himself. It reeked of Hollywood Hacking.
The largest problem I had with the construction of the story was its pacing and its HEA ending. The pacing of the story felt very uneven. When the story moved quickly—it was real quick. Then it would languish for several chapters, before sprinting forward again. Then the story ended, in a very short number of pages. However, there were three chapters appended to the ending . With some severe pruning, this story could easily be slimmed-down to novella size.
This was an OK political, techno-thriller. I liked parts of it. It included: cryptocurrency, money laundering, tax evasion and the spycraft of going off the grid. It also had a dash of hardboiled in it. It reminded me of Hammett/Chandler in places. However, not everyone will like it. It was technically, complicated, with a lot of exposition. Doctorow’s politics on the poor and homeless, and "the very rich and everyone else", verged in places toward being screeds. And, I thought the main character was the youngest 67-year old in: body, mind and deed witnessable. (He didn't take any meds.) On the other hand, if: woke, digital, hipsterism is your jam you’re going to like this. It’s dense and cleverly written. In places its arch. Recommended for geeks and the digerati.
Finally, the book's title, A Martin Hench Novel implies future books with the character from the author. I'll likely read the next one.
Readers of the book might be interested in Andy Greenberg’s, Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency , which this book quickly reminded me of. In addition, I think that many might find the boomer Hench’s life as a “Man of Wealth & Taste” working the gig economy should be compared with his peers experience in Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century?
Cryptocurrency, Money Laundering, Tax Evasion and the Spycraft of Going Off-The-Grid
My ARC, dead tree copy was a modest 159 pages of 8-9 pt type with a US 2023 copyright. It’s a short novel that could have been a novella.
Cory Doctorow is a British-Canadian blogger, journalist, editor, and science fiction author. He is the author of more than ten novels of post-cyberpunk genre fiction, many short stories, and a couple of non-fiction books. I have read several books and short stories by the author. The latest was The Man Who Sold The Moon (my review).
Old age and cunning will triumph over youth and enthusiasm every time.
Marty Hench was a long-in-the-tooth forensic account savvy in the technical aspects of financial crime. He’s very much the Cool Old Man. His last job was his Big Score. It skirted on the seamier side of cryptocurrency. Except, the Bad Guys, Mis-Blamed Hench for their caper’s fallout. This was very much opposite the, Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player ethics of Red Team/Blue Team confrontations over money. Those are typically settled with an assist from sketchy lawyers and then get wrapped in NDAs to eventually disappear.
Doctorow is a proficient, experienced author. The writing was technically good. Prose was written in a clear, unaffected manner. I did find a few typographical and grammatical errors, as well as repetition. However, I blame them on this being an ARC-version of the manuscript.
Both dialog and descriptive prose were very hip in the Wired Magazine style of the digerati. Dialog was good. It was laced with sly and obvert digital culture references, including name drippings [sic]. In places I laughed-out-loud. However, a background in tech and Silicon Valley would be helpful to get it. The descriptive narrative was very good, although it could become quiet technically complex. Still, you don’t read a Doctorow book without having a love for info dumps and technospeak?
There was a single POV in the story—Marty Hench, the protagonist. He was a technically gifted, elderly, bachelor, making a living chasing money through the labyrinth of the financial system via computer-based investigation techniques. The job title was Forensic Accountant . Hench traditionally worked by word-of-mouth for the digerati. He, “makes them whole”. I’d call him a Corporate Samurai, with a green, eyeshade. I also would have assumed he was somewhere on the spectrum, despite Doctorow’s written denial? He lived as a Man of Wealth and Taste; an alt-successful version of his boomer peers in the gig economy. I’d also give him an untutored diagnosis of loner or isolator? Hench's eating, drinking and (lack of) exercise habits were well covered. Although, Doctorow tried hard for Hench to be a 67-years old man, he read physically more like the 50-year old Doctorow.
Supporting characters included: Wilma “Raza” Razafimandimby, Mrs. Sethuramani Lazer, and Ruth Schwartzburg. I've read many of the author's books. I think Doctorow is enthralled by the Women Are Wiser trope? Raza’s the Cool Old Woman. She’s also Hench's Confidant and The Reliable One. She’s not a geek, but she’s brilliant in her own way. (All Doctorow’s Good Guys are brilliant and extremely talented folks.) Lazer was Doctorow’s most unlikely character. Her Horatio Alger story of lifting herself to success, through: innate brilliance, good-looks, good fortune, hard work and marrying well made her the story’s Mary Sue. (Doctorow invariably always has one.) Schwartzburg is Hench’s Silver Vixen love interest and responsible for the Deconfirmed Bachelor subplot. Doctorow also makes heavy use of the Knowledge Broker plot device. Hench always, “knows a guy", or "knows a guy who knows a guy”. They’re typically, not obviously bent: bankers, lawyers, and C-level technocrats.
This was a No Antagonist story. It relied on the Greater-Scope Villainy supplied by Mexican drug cartels and Russian-esque kleptocrats. The story’s Big Bad being a corollary of very bright, computer-savvy, young folks making poor life choices. Also, the author brings-in his techno-libertarian distain for large, three initialed US government agencies.
In addition, there were numerous NPCs. They were stereotypes from: Silicon Valley and tech-types (I most closely identify with the Techbros sans man bun in the story), thugs, government agents, corporate apparatchiks, bent lawyers and bankers, the homeless, and the unsung heroes of activist and welfare organizations.
The story contained: sex, drugs, music references and violence. (Its not YA, like the author's Little Brother series.)
Hench has a lot of consensual sex without the aid of The Little Blue Pill. All sex was of the fade to black type, with Hench pulling his boots on the next morning whilst sitting on the bed. Prostitution and prostitutes were mentioned within the context of the demimonde. Softcore, legal in California drugs were consumed. I would have pegged Hench as preferring sativa vs.indica edibles? Hard core drugs were mentioned within the context of the demimonde. Beer, wine and liquor was consumed, but not to the state of drunkenness. I detected what may be the author’s bourbon snobbery in the liquor descriptions? Music references were appropriate for a 67-year old “Man of Wealth & Taste”. I re-listened to Otis Reading’s, (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay and streamed the catalog of the, Preservation Hall Jazz Band as a result.
Violence was minimal, but frequently threatening. There were no gun battles. It was mostly physical, blunt or edged weapons type. It was gory and descriptive. Note there was the threat of torture and its results were described. Body count was moderate.
Location of the story was “Northern California”, with the majority of the action taking place within 400 miles of San Francisco. Many well known San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Oakland locations appeared in many scenes. Familiarity with the Bay Area would be helpful in understanding Hench's movements.
The story started out as a MacGuffin setup as Hench tries to make Mrs. Lazer and her husband “whole”. He then gets trapped in the Retirony (the portmanteau of Retirement and Irony) of the result. In this case its literally an, on-the-beach-type retirement vs. the long dirt nap riff of the trope. A Run or Die plot results, where Hench goes off the grid in plain sight. It then segues into a Black-and-Gray Morality play as Hench has to do some questionable things to make himself whole.
This story was a techno-fest. A large part of the narrative existed to support the description of the technology of cryptocurrency. Subordinate to that was the technology of the surveillance society. In most places Doctorow’s scenarios were credible or riffs of capers on the public record. The level of technical detail was very high, with only a minimum of hand waving. I frankly didn’t mind the info dumps, but many folks will find them challenging.
Two technical details that jumped out at me were, Hench’s 35-foot, tour bus would have used diesel fuel vs. gasoline, and Trustlesscoin’s (the Lazer business) CoLo DC cage would have had optical fibre drops, not copper for its highly transactional workload.
A larger problem I had was the success Hench had at overcoming purely technical challenges. “Bright, young Dutch folks”, did Deus Ex Machina database duty for him early in the story. However, it was near superhuman what he could achieve in short periods of time under difficult circumstances by himself. It reeked of Hollywood Hacking.
The largest problem I had with the construction of the story was its pacing and its HEA ending. The pacing of the story felt very uneven. When the story moved quickly—it was real quick. Then it would languish for several chapters, before sprinting forward again. Then the story ended, in a very short number of pages. However, there were three chapters appended to the ending . With some severe pruning, this story could easily be slimmed-down to novella size.
This was an OK political, techno-thriller. I liked parts of it. It included: cryptocurrency, money laundering, tax evasion and the spycraft of going off the grid. It also had a dash of hardboiled in it. It reminded me of Hammett/Chandler in places. However, not everyone will like it. It was technically, complicated, with a lot of exposition. Doctorow’s politics on the poor and homeless, and "the very rich and everyone else", verged in places toward being screeds. And, I thought the main character was the youngest 67-year old in: body, mind and deed witnessable. (He didn't take any meds.) On the other hand, if: woke, digital, hipsterism is your jam you’re going to like this. It’s dense and cleverly written. In places its arch. Recommended for geeks and the digerati.
Finally, the book's title, A Martin Hench Novel implies future books with the character from the author. I'll likely read the next one.
Readers of the book might be interested in Andy Greenberg’s, Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency , which this book quickly reminded me of. In addition, I think that many might find the boomer Hench’s life as a “Man of Wealth & Taste” working the gig economy should be compared with his peers experience in Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century?
May 2, 2023
There's a loose-limbed quality to Cory Doctorow's Red Ream Blues that fits the age of its protagonist. A 67-year-old forensic accountant who has worked in tech all of his life, when - yep - that could be a thing. A fixer for those who have been hacked, scammed or otherwise bamboozled he is a self-described red team player, ie he works in offense, its his job to find the flaws in systems that others might have utilised. A very different job to the blue team, trying to create unbreakable security. Red Team only has to find one flaw.
What it is, and Doctorow certainly doesn't hide this, is a soft-boiled PI story, an investigator doing one last job for a friend and coming up against organised crime, dames to die for and a McGuffin in and around the cryptocurrency. But this is a Doctorow character and one that seems quite personal, so he may have red team blues but he's wearing a white hat as he plays with the black hats in his green vehicles. There is an element of a shaggy dog story here too, as the initial case is solved in the first third, time passes and things slowly pick up again. Its episodic nature also gives Doctorow an opportunity to play around with another aspect of dot-com millionaire rarely considered - what do you do with all that money when you've spent most of your life eating packet Ramen.
There is much to be said for the vibe of Red Team Blues, even if it does contain the kind of murder and death-toll I would expect of a Dashiel Hammet. At the same time there are moments when it feels like Doctorow is running through his take on dot com morality, maybe I am jaded with the negatives of crypto and the moral ambivalence of the techbros. Also he basically sets up three femme fatels and pays off none of them, in what feels like a stab at gender equality takes an essential building block out of the form. Nevertheless if you want to read a de-tech-tive novel, and one where the lead is unfailingly nice to everyone, you won't find a better example.
What it is, and Doctorow certainly doesn't hide this, is a soft-boiled PI story, an investigator doing one last job for a friend and coming up against organised crime, dames to die for and a McGuffin in and around the cryptocurrency. But this is a Doctorow character and one that seems quite personal, so he may have red team blues but he's wearing a white hat as he plays with the black hats in his green vehicles. There is an element of a shaggy dog story here too, as the initial case is solved in the first third, time passes and things slowly pick up again. Its episodic nature also gives Doctorow an opportunity to play around with another aspect of dot-com millionaire rarely considered - what do you do with all that money when you've spent most of your life eating packet Ramen.
There is much to be said for the vibe of Red Team Blues, even if it does contain the kind of murder and death-toll I would expect of a Dashiel Hammet. At the same time there are moments when it feels like Doctorow is running through his take on dot com morality, maybe I am jaded with the negatives of crypto and the moral ambivalence of the techbros. Also he basically sets up three femme fatels and pays off none of them, in what feels like a stab at gender equality takes an essential building block out of the form. Nevertheless if you want to read a de-tech-tive novel, and one where the lead is unfailingly nice to everyone, you won't find a better example.
January 27, 2024
I wanted to read Cory Doctorow because I had an understanding he was some sort of an anarcho-punk. I enjoy his twitter threads and he seems politically aligned with me. That being said, I don't know what the fuck this was. I know this is about my expectations, but even from the synopsis, it felt like it would be more about crypto-grifters and such, you know, skewering those annoying Silicone Valley bros. This was not that. And it didn't feel punk at all.
So I didn't know this, but red team vs blue team is a concept about security. Red team are the attackers, finding vulnerabilities in security systems, while blue team are the defenders, creating those systems. The main character is Martin, a 67-year old forensic accountant who has spent his life being red team. And the book would like you to know he fucks. Like a lot. Even though it's not necessarily his habit. He fucks a lot in this book.
So Martin does a job for a friend and then he is stuck in a very shitty situation that he has to get out of, by playing on his red team strengths. This was an interesting core to the character, but beyond that, I didn't find much to connect with. Martin has a good opinion and amiable dynamics with billionaires, CEOs, the kind of lawyers that hide your assets and so on. That irked me so much and it really didn't get subverted.
There is a lot of racial diversity when it comes to other characters (not a lot of them have white people names), but all the other characters feel very two-dimensional and sometimes the whole diversity thing feels very awkwardly introduced. Raza, his friend, an economy professor, kinda fills the magical Black woman role, who is there to support Martin in his quest. (Raza is five foot two, a heterodox economist reviled by the majority of her profession and beloved by her grad students and the Democratic Socialists of America. She is a war refugee, speaks five languages fluently, and is one of the best cooks I’ve ever met. She is brilliant, funny, and compassionate. And she gives one hell of a pep talk.)
I perhaps would have rated this even lower because of my politics disappointments, but the last third does get a bit more interesting when it delves deeper into NIMBY sentiments in San Francisco and the life of homeless people. Not by much, though. There's a lot here (without spoiling), that's about spending habits and how that changes with the circumstances.
Another thing I did like was that we had some casually non-judged polyamorous people. Even then, Martin, does a thinking like this: Even before I heard of ethical nonmonogamy, I had been painfully disabused of the idea that an adult woman was any man’s “girl.” I had some patient women to thank for that lesson and a few impatient ones who’d made sure it stuck. Stuff like this just feels so awkward to me, cause I'm like: great, yay, those women did emotional labor for you, well done.
More awkward: That wasn’t something I’d have ever thought to say to someone, but I discovered that I felt good about someone saying it to me. I guess that’s what they call emotional intelligence. Maybe I should spend my remaining years cultivating it. It felt a bit cringy to me. Sure, I guess, the character is an old and that's his perspective, but I still turned my nose up at these things, because I'm bitchy.
I will not be continuing in the series, but I will give this author another try, because I already have a hardcover of Walkaway that was gifted to me. Hopefully that's better!
2.5/5
So I didn't know this, but red team vs blue team is a concept about security. Red team are the attackers, finding vulnerabilities in security systems, while blue team are the defenders, creating those systems. The main character is Martin, a 67-year old forensic accountant who has spent his life being red team. And the book would like you to know he fucks. Like a lot. Even though it's not necessarily his habit. He fucks a lot in this book.
So Martin does a job for a friend and then he is stuck in a very shitty situation that he has to get out of, by playing on his red team strengths. This was an interesting core to the character, but beyond that, I didn't find much to connect with. Martin has a good opinion and amiable dynamics with billionaires, CEOs, the kind of lawyers that hide your assets and so on. That irked me so much and it really didn't get subverted.
There is a lot of racial diversity when it comes to other characters (not a lot of them have white people names), but all the other characters feel very two-dimensional and sometimes the whole diversity thing feels very awkwardly introduced. Raza, his friend, an economy professor, kinda fills the magical Black woman role, who is there to support Martin in his quest. (Raza is five foot two, a heterodox economist reviled by the majority of her profession and beloved by her grad students and the Democratic Socialists of America. She is a war refugee, speaks five languages fluently, and is one of the best cooks I’ve ever met. She is brilliant, funny, and compassionate. And she gives one hell of a pep talk.)
I perhaps would have rated this even lower because of my politics disappointments, but the last third does get a bit more interesting when it delves deeper into NIMBY sentiments in San Francisco and the life of homeless people. Not by much, though. There's a lot here (without spoiling), that's about spending habits and how that changes with the circumstances.
Another thing I did like was that we had some casually non-judged polyamorous people. Even then, Martin, does a thinking like this: Even before I heard of ethical nonmonogamy, I had been painfully disabused of the idea that an adult woman was any man’s “girl.” I had some patient women to thank for that lesson and a few impatient ones who’d made sure it stuck. Stuff like this just feels so awkward to me, cause I'm like: great, yay, those women did emotional labor for you, well done.
More awkward: That wasn’t something I’d have ever thought to say to someone, but I discovered that I felt good about someone saying it to me. I guess that’s what they call emotional intelligence. Maybe I should spend my remaining years cultivating it. It felt a bit cringy to me. Sure, I guess, the character is an old and that's his perspective, but I still turned my nose up at these things, because I'm bitchy.
I will not be continuing in the series, but I will give this author another try, because I already have a hardcover of Walkaway that was gifted to me. Hopefully that's better!
2.5/5
July 5, 2024
This was truly fun, I wavered between a 4 and a 5 but at the end of the audiobook came this message:
And a 5-star it is! (There is also a lovely paean to fair use.) I started grownup life as an IP lawyer, and that IP lawyer that still lives in me is singing. Doctrow is a little more "information wants to be free" than I am, but I celebrate his decision to live his values and I certainly support the credo that creators should own their shit until they willingly sell their shit.
Now that the PSA has ended I will say that this book is loads of fun. I have a hard time with tech crime thrillers because most of the writers of said books know nothing about law or tech. I know a lot about one of those things, and a little about the other and that is enough to make most of the genre unreadable for me. Doctorow knows more than I about one of those things, and may also know more about the other and I am putty in his hands. (He also knows tech bros and is great at poking fun. I laughed a lot reading this.)
Martin Hench, our hero, is an attractive, commitment-resistant 60-something forensic accountant who lives on a former tour bus, a Nissan Leaf he bought used. I love the unsexiness of that! But he is a genius forensic accountant and knows how to trace assets like no one else. Though technically retired, when an old friend of his, now a tech billionaire, has a cryptokey stolen Martin steps up (for a quarter billion dollar payday.) That cryptokey is not only worth a billion dollars but also if deciphered would provide bad people with money and information that would destabilize or destroy many businesses. I won't tell more of the story than that, but will say that Martin is a gifted and principled professional who also pulls a lot of very hot and very smart women (who are more or less age-appropriate insofar as they are all into the double digits on their college reunions.) When he does the knight in shining armor thing he doesn't do it because women are weak and need his protection, he does it because many men are assholes who screw over capable and decent women and he has the power to find the assets they hide with his big swinging accounting skills.
I did have two issues with the book. The first is that Doctrow wears his politics on his sleeve here. I don't for the most part have an issue with that, but a little more subtlety would be awesome. I appreciate that he is the anti-Ayn-Rand, but he doesn't have to emulate her writing style to be that. The second issue was that there is a group of bad guys from various former-Soviet bloc nations and their role and their actions are not well set out. I think I know what they did, but I am not 100% sure I followed. That plotline could have used some massaging.
Overall, a really fun ride that embraces decency and accountability and focused human (and humane) connection with all from cryptogeeks to Uber drivers to unhoused addicts to undocumented restaurant employees. Action and adventure with a humanist worldview is rare and beautiful.
This book is sold without digital rights management, a form of bullshit encryption that purports to prevent unauthorized copying but really just locks readers, writers and publishers to large monopolistic platforms (*cough* Audible *cough*.) Thank you for supporting a pluralistic future where you own the books you buy.
And a 5-star it is! (There is also a lovely paean to fair use.) I started grownup life as an IP lawyer, and that IP lawyer that still lives in me is singing. Doctrow is a little more "information wants to be free" than I am, but I celebrate his decision to live his values and I certainly support the credo that creators should own their shit until they willingly sell their shit.
Now that the PSA has ended I will say that this book is loads of fun. I have a hard time with tech crime thrillers because most of the writers of said books know nothing about law or tech. I know a lot about one of those things, and a little about the other and that is enough to make most of the genre unreadable for me. Doctorow knows more than I about one of those things, and may also know more about the other and I am putty in his hands. (He also knows tech bros and is great at poking fun. I laughed a lot reading this.)
Martin Hench, our hero, is an attractive, commitment-resistant 60-something forensic accountant who lives on a former tour bus, a Nissan Leaf he bought used. I love the unsexiness of that! But he is a genius forensic accountant and knows how to trace assets like no one else. Though technically retired, when an old friend of his, now a tech billionaire, has a cryptokey stolen Martin steps up (for a quarter billion dollar payday.) That cryptokey is not only worth a billion dollars but also if deciphered would provide bad people with money and information that would destabilize or destroy many businesses. I won't tell more of the story than that, but will say that Martin is a gifted and principled professional who also pulls a lot of very hot and very smart women (who are more or less age-appropriate insofar as they are all into the double digits on their college reunions.) When he does the knight in shining armor thing he doesn't do it because women are weak and need his protection, he does it because many men are assholes who screw over capable and decent women and he has the power to find the assets they hide with his big swinging accounting skills.
I did have two issues with the book. The first is that Doctrow wears his politics on his sleeve here. I don't for the most part have an issue with that, but a little more subtlety would be awesome. I appreciate that he is the anti-Ayn-Rand, but he doesn't have to emulate her writing style to be that. The second issue was that there is a group of bad guys from various former-Soviet bloc nations and their role and their actions are not well set out. I think I know what they did, but I am not 100% sure I followed. That plotline could have used some massaging.
Overall, a really fun ride that embraces decency and accountability and focused human (and humane) connection with all from cryptogeeks to Uber drivers to unhoused addicts to undocumented restaurant employees. Action and adventure with a humanist worldview is rare and beautiful.
January 8, 2024
Short novel or long novella. A good length for me. #1 of a planned series: "A Martin Hench novel"
Here's the author at Scalzi's, https://whatever.scalzi.com/2023/04/2...
Excerpt:
"Martin Hench is a 67 year old forensic accountant, the star of my new novel Red Team Blues, an anti-finance finance thriller that readers inhale in a single sitting. ...
Marty’s spent 40 years tracking down Silicon Valley’s most eye-watering finance scams and he’s ready to retire – as soon as he finishes one last job. His old pal Danny Lazer’s lost the keys to the backdoor he unwisely put in his new cryptocurrency, and if he doesn’t get them back before someone makes a billion dollars disappear, the money-launderers and crime syndicates who depend on Danny’s system are going to insert themselves into his life in sudden, violent ways."
A good short read, as I expected (and hoped). Doctorow's potted history of cryptography and cryptocurrencies is excellent. As is his insider knowledge of computing in general, and Silicon Valley in particular. Who knew that each and every iphone has a special, secret encrypted module, that views its owner with suspicion: what if said customer is tempted to go off the Reservation and buy apps from another source than the Apple Store? Apple wouldn't like that, and has wired each phone to prevent such treachery.
SQUICK warning: grotesque murders-for-hire lie within! Proceed with caution. . . .
Charles' review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... has more details of the three strong women characters, all of whom I liked more than he did. His comment about Mrs. Sethuramani Lazer, widow of the MC's old pal was a bit odd. He calls her a "Mary Sue." Does he think Doctorow is a woman? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue
He is distantly related to the more famous novelist Doctorow.
The ending was a bit too pat and feel-good for me. I mean, we know Martin Hench is to be an ongoing character, and I expected a happy(ish) ending. I liked Wilma “Raza” Razafimandimby's "Feynman Lectures" on economics, though I'm dubious about economics as a serious field of study. The ending felt hurried and rushed to me. Cautiously recommended to Doctorow fans. 3.5+ stars, rounded up.
Here's the author at Scalzi's, https://whatever.scalzi.com/2023/04/2...
Excerpt:
"Martin Hench is a 67 year old forensic accountant, the star of my new novel Red Team Blues, an anti-finance finance thriller that readers inhale in a single sitting. ...
Marty’s spent 40 years tracking down Silicon Valley’s most eye-watering finance scams and he’s ready to retire – as soon as he finishes one last job. His old pal Danny Lazer’s lost the keys to the backdoor he unwisely put in his new cryptocurrency, and if he doesn’t get them back before someone makes a billion dollars disappear, the money-launderers and crime syndicates who depend on Danny’s system are going to insert themselves into his life in sudden, violent ways."
A good short read, as I expected (and hoped). Doctorow's potted history of cryptography and cryptocurrencies is excellent. As is his insider knowledge of computing in general, and Silicon Valley in particular. Who knew that each and every iphone has a special, secret encrypted module, that views its owner with suspicion: what if said customer is tempted to go off the Reservation and buy apps from another source than the Apple Store? Apple wouldn't like that, and has wired each phone to prevent such treachery.
SQUICK warning: grotesque murders-for-hire lie within! Proceed with caution. . . .
Charles' review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... has more details of the three strong women characters, all of whom I liked more than he did. His comment about Mrs. Sethuramani Lazer, widow of the MC's old pal was a bit odd. He calls her a "Mary Sue." Does he think Doctorow is a woman? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue
He is distantly related to the more famous novelist Doctorow.
The ending was a bit too pat and feel-good for me. I mean, we know Martin Hench is to be an ongoing character, and I expected a happy(ish) ending. I liked Wilma “Raza” Razafimandimby's "Feynman Lectures" on economics, though I'm dubious about economics as a serious field of study. The ending felt hurried and rushed to me. Cautiously recommended to Doctorow fans. 3.5+ stars, rounded up.
September 9, 2023
Rec. by: Brevity and wit, and an intriguing subtitle
Rec. for: What's the opposite of a tech bro?
Cory Doctorow does Thomas Pynchon—kinda sorta.
Red Team Blues is "a Martin Hench novel" (it says on the cover, with no hint of any other Martin Hench novels floating around—turns out there's a reason for that). Anyway, Marty Hench is a very Pynchonesque protagonist, a blunt-talking and world-weary sexagenarian "forensic accountant" who somehow reminded me a lot of Larry "Doc" Sportello, Pynchon's Cali burnout investigator from Inherent Vice.
Marty tools around Silicon Valley in a converted rock star's tour bus given to him in lieu of a fee by a grateful client. He calls the bus "Unsalted Hash," which is neither a drug nor a breakfast reference.
Marty's a loner—mostly by choice, but living in a bus, even a luxurious one, does help keep him single:
As is the trigger for Red Team Blue's plot: Marty's actually on the verge of retiring, but his old friend Danny Lazer, a fellow Silicon Valley pioneer, pulls him back in for one last big job. Lazer's current business, a cryptocurrency concern called "Trustless," might be in big trouble if a certain security breach actually happened, and if it comes to light.
Marty takes Danny's case on spec... but solving it (which of course he does) turns out to be among the least of his worries.
All of this silicon skullduggery requires a lot of setup, extensive conversations explaining for example how Trustless is different from other crypto companies (a frequent refrain in the book is "I remember when 'crypto' was short for 'cryptography'"). The first few chapters of Red Team Blues read more like a compilation of bOiNGbOiNG articles than like fiction.
Once we're through the preliminaries, though, Doctorow does pick up the pace. Considerably.
Marty's a stand-up guy, who makes what I (also) consider moral choices throughout the book. He deserves a happy ending. I'm not going to tell you exactly how Red Team Blues ends, of course, but you should know that one more way in which this novel follows the private detective's template is that Doctorow does wrap things up with a nice pretty bow. Eventually—but not before Martin goes through some serious shit.
Doctorow's also very observant, and I appreciated observations like these:
For a novel as short as Red Team Blues—just 212 pages in this small-format hardback—there are a lot of descriptive passages about the making of food, types of booze, and details of various other products that Hench buys or uses. I'm not sure all that detail was strictly necessary. As a fellow evangelist, though, I did appreciate the plug for the Aeropress (p.27). (Note: this is an unsolicited endorsement.)
I zipped through this book in one day—it's that short and quick, which is a good thing. And I may just see whether I can find The Bezzle, the only other Martin Hench novel. Erm, when it comes out, that is, some time in 2024.
Rec. for: What's the opposite of a tech bro?
Cory Doctorow does Thomas Pynchon—kinda sorta.
Red Team Blues is "a Martin Hench novel" (it says on the cover, with no hint of any other Martin Hench novels floating around—turns out there's a reason for that). Anyway, Marty Hench is a very Pynchonesque protagonist, a blunt-talking and world-weary sexagenarian "forensic accountant" who somehow reminded me a lot of Larry "Doc" Sportello, Pynchon's Cali burnout investigator from Inherent Vice.
Marty tools around Silicon Valley in a converted rock star's tour bus given to him in lieu of a fee by a grateful client. He calls the bus "Unsalted Hash," which is neither a drug nor a breakfast reference.
Marty's a loner—mostly by choice, but living in a bus, even a luxurious one, does help keep him single:
"Well, for one thing, no woman wants to marry a man who lives out of his car," I said.Martin Hench does get laid, rather more often than seems plausible given his age and lifestyle... but that too is part of the template for a hard-boiled private investigator, isn't it?
—p.89
As is the trigger for Red Team Blue's plot: Marty's actually on the verge of retiring, but his old friend Danny Lazer, a fellow Silicon Valley pioneer, pulls him back in for one last big job. Lazer's current business, a cryptocurrency concern called "Trustless," might be in big trouble if a certain security breach actually happened, and if it comes to light.
Marty takes Danny's case on spec... but solving it (which of course he does) turns out to be among the least of his worries.
All of this silicon skullduggery requires a lot of setup, extensive conversations explaining for example how Trustless is different from other crypto companies (a frequent refrain in the book is "I remember when 'crypto' was short for 'cryptography'"). The first few chapters of Red Team Blues read more like a compilation of bOiNGbOiNG articles than like fiction.
Once we're through the preliminaries, though, Doctorow does pick up the pace. Considerably.
Marty's a stand-up guy, who makes what I (also) consider moral choices throughout the book. He deserves a happy ending. I'm not going to tell you exactly how Red Team Blues ends, of course, but you should know that one more way in which this novel follows the private detective's template is that Doctorow does wrap things up with a nice pretty bow. Eventually—but not before Martin goes through some serious shit.
Doctorow's also very observant, and I appreciated observations like these:
How could a city this rich be this poor? I mean, I knew. I knew: all you needed was financial secrecy so the wealthy could hide their riches from taxation and then loose lobbying rules so they could convert their winnings into wealth-friendly policies.—and—
—p.130
It is what it is. An idiot's mantra.
—p.141
For a novel as short as Red Team Blues—just 212 pages in this small-format hardback—there are a lot of descriptive passages about the making of food, types of booze, and details of various other products that Hench buys or uses. I'm not sure all that detail was strictly necessary. As a fellow evangelist, though, I did appreciate the plug for the Aeropress (p.27). (Note: this is an unsolicited endorsement.)
I zipped through this book in one day—it's that short and quick, which is a good thing. And I may just see whether I can find The Bezzle, the only other Martin Hench novel. Erm, when it comes out, that is, some time in 2024.
September 17, 2023
In recent years I've been wary of reading Cory Doctorow's novels, as his young male protagonists get on my nerves. I enjoy the technological themes he explores, though, and was convinced to read Red Team Blues by his description of it at a scifi book festival event. It really helped that the male protagonist is older this time, indeed retired. Marty Hench is a forensic accountant who has done well from the rise of Silicon Valley. He gets pulled in for One Last Job (classic trope for a reason) by an old friend who also happens to be a billionaire. I definitely preferred Marty to Doctorow's younger protagonist novels, although it was a bit irritating that all the hot ladies wanted to sleep with him.
What made Red Team Blues well worth reading, though, was the involving plot, solid examination of cryptocurrency, and, above all, thoughtful consideration of the morality of wealth. This is not a theme that fiction ostensibly about technology tends to deal with. I appreciated how Doctorow showed extremes of wealth and poverty from Marty's perspective. These include his billionaire pal (who is briefly and astoundingly stingy about paying him), people whose job is to protect the ultra-wealthy from being taxed, and street sleepers of San Francisco. A conventional thriller plot would have ended once One Last Job finishes and I found it much more interesting that Doctorow works through the lasting ramifications, for Marty and others.
I think I still prefer Cory Doctorow's nonfiction writing on pluralistic.net, but this was a fun novel with interesting things to say about wealth inequality under the surveillance capitalism.
What made Red Team Blues well worth reading, though, was the involving plot, solid examination of cryptocurrency, and, above all, thoughtful consideration of the morality of wealth. This is not a theme that fiction ostensibly about technology tends to deal with. I appreciated how Doctorow showed extremes of wealth and poverty from Marty's perspective. These include his billionaire pal (who is briefly and astoundingly stingy about paying him), people whose job is to protect the ultra-wealthy from being taxed, and street sleepers of San Francisco. A conventional thriller plot would have ended once One Last Job finishes and I found it much more interesting that Doctorow works through the lasting ramifications, for Marty and others.
I think I still prefer Cory Doctorow's nonfiction writing on pluralistic.net, but this was a fun novel with interesting things to say about wealth inequality under the surveillance capitalism.
June 10, 2024
I haven’t read a ton of Cory Doctorow, but I enjoyed what I have read so far. He is clearly very smart, has a great conversational voice, and as tech journalist, I really appreciate that he can write about stuff that is normally a bit out of my direct expertise and explain it plainly enough that I can keep up with his story and make sense of the technology he discusses without having to Google all the technobabble.
‘Red Team Blues’ is a short novel about a man named Martin Hench, who makes a living as a forensic accountant, meaning someone who can trace money in the intricate world of digital funds, cryptocurrency and all that stuff that someone with my income would not really know anything about. One of Martin’s strengths is that he learned about all those things as the technology was evolving, so he truly understands it down to its bedrock, and reminds people frequently that when he started doing this work, crypto meant ‘cryptography’.
He takes on a job to help an old friend, but in the process, ends up putting himself in the cross hair of some extremely dangerous people who settle their scores in an old school way: murder. This forces Hench, who has always considered himself as belonging on the Red Team, aka the team that’s on the attack, to shift gears and settle into the Blue Team, those who play defensively, for a while.
Doctorow uses this story to talk about, well, a lot of things, but the prevalent themes here surveillance capitalism, homelessness in San Francisco, organized crime and how greed and stupidity make all those things much worst. I liked the main character quite a bit: he’s smart and very fair-minded, and he knows his limits. I understand that a lot of the characters appear in other books by Doctorow, and I am a bit curious, but not enamoured enough with his writing to feel super motivated to check them out urgently.
This is a very intelligent and fast-paced tech-thriller, but those books are simply not my regular cup of tea: I picked it up mostly because I needed something quick and light to read while visiting my in-laws, and because this is exactly the sort of book I can discuss with my father-in-law over breaky. Fun and informative, but a little too light for my taste.
‘Red Team Blues’ is a short novel about a man named Martin Hench, who makes a living as a forensic accountant, meaning someone who can trace money in the intricate world of digital funds, cryptocurrency and all that stuff that someone with my income would not really know anything about. One of Martin’s strengths is that he learned about all those things as the technology was evolving, so he truly understands it down to its bedrock, and reminds people frequently that when he started doing this work, crypto meant ‘cryptography’.
He takes on a job to help an old friend, but in the process, ends up putting himself in the cross hair of some extremely dangerous people who settle their scores in an old school way: murder. This forces Hench, who has always considered himself as belonging on the Red Team, aka the team that’s on the attack, to shift gears and settle into the Blue Team, those who play defensively, for a while.
Doctorow uses this story to talk about, well, a lot of things, but the prevalent themes here surveillance capitalism, homelessness in San Francisco, organized crime and how greed and stupidity make all those things much worst. I liked the main character quite a bit: he’s smart and very fair-minded, and he knows his limits. I understand that a lot of the characters appear in other books by Doctorow, and I am a bit curious, but not enamoured enough with his writing to feel super motivated to check them out urgently.
This is a very intelligent and fast-paced tech-thriller, but those books are simply not my regular cup of tea: I picked it up mostly because I needed something quick and light to read while visiting my in-laws, and because this is exactly the sort of book I can discuss with my father-in-law over breaky. Fun and informative, but a little too light for my taste.
August 30, 2023
Martin Hench, a 67-year-old Red Team Forever IT guy, thinks he's about to retire from tracking illicit financial ventures and travel the country in his RV. But he gets a call from a longtime acquaintance who needs help tracking a theft from his cryptocurrency business. And that pulls Martin into some very dangerous territory that is nothing like retirement.I'm not entirely sure why I picked this book. IT isn't my thing, even if I do always seem to be friends with IT people. And I had no idea what Red Team (or Blue Team) was until this book forced me to look it up.
But I do have objections to wealthy people offshoring their money to weasel out of taxes, and I think cryptocurrency is a total scam, so the financial detective aspect of this book intrigued me.
And this turned out to be a pretty good story. I liked grouchy Martin and the fact that he's old. I enjoyed his mix of (typical Cory Doctorow) cynicism with a desire to be a good person and work for the angels despite the cynicism. He had some really creative solutions to the puzzles he's faced with, and reading about his MacGyvering was entertaining. I did roll my eyes at how pretty much every woman he interacts with finds him attractive, but at the same time it's kind of nice that he's got a romantic/sexual life. Elderly characters don't always get that.
You don't have to know anything about IT to enjoy this book, but it might help if you care a little about finance. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, and definitely plan to read the next one in this series when it arrives.
April 10, 2023
Red Team Blues is a plot-driven detective story told in Cory Doctorow’s distinctive style of high tech internet sub-culture.
The main character of Marty Hench is engaging, and the plot clips along at a good pace, with a good supporting cast of characters. I genuinely wanted to know how everything turned out, and cared about the fate of Hench and his friends.
Doctorow manages to keep the writing accessible and engaging, while also talking about some quite complex technology (in this case cryptocurrency and blockchain). This is done in a way that effectively illustrates how immersed the characters are in this high tech world, without spoon feeding the reader with explanations and exposition that might get in the way of that momentum of the plot - there is just enough explanation to support the narrative and the important aspects of the plot.
While the plot does carry you along, I couldn’t help feeling there was a lack of depth in both the main arc of the plot, and some of the characters. For me, many of the supporting characters were a little too similar, and their personalities not explored or differentiated enough. This didn’t spoil what was a fun and engaging read, but did prevent me from giving a higher rating.
Thank you #NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the free review copy of #RedTeamBlues in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The main character of Marty Hench is engaging, and the plot clips along at a good pace, with a good supporting cast of characters. I genuinely wanted to know how everything turned out, and cared about the fate of Hench and his friends.
Doctorow manages to keep the writing accessible and engaging, while also talking about some quite complex technology (in this case cryptocurrency and blockchain). This is done in a way that effectively illustrates how immersed the characters are in this high tech world, without spoon feeding the reader with explanations and exposition that might get in the way of that momentum of the plot - there is just enough explanation to support the narrative and the important aspects of the plot.
While the plot does carry you along, I couldn’t help feeling there was a lack of depth in both the main arc of the plot, and some of the characters. For me, many of the supporting characters were a little too similar, and their personalities not explored or differentiated enough. This didn’t spoil what was a fun and engaging read, but did prevent me from giving a higher rating.
Thank you #NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the free review copy of #RedTeamBlues in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
September 29, 2024
Stars: 2 out of 5.
This was my first encounter with cory Doctorow, and the result is rather underwhelming. The blurb sounded very promissing - a forensic accountant, cybercrimes, cryptocurrencies, and all that jaz. I was fully onboard and ready to enjoy a good story. Unfortunately, the book itself was a big disappointment.
My biggest issue with this book, and why me and this story didn't mesh at all, is the writing style. The prose is extremely dry and impersonal, even though it's not third person omniscient. We are watching the events unfold from Marin's perspective. But the book reads more like an instruction manual than a heart-poinding crime story. I mean, the author describes a horrifying scene of death and torture in the same dry language as a romantic encounter our protagonist has with one of his lady friends. Both scenes are supposed to evoke emotions, instead, they just induce boredom.
Part of the problem is also that the author doesn't particularly do a good job with showing things. We are told that Martin is profoundly shocked by what he saw when he found those slain kids, but we are not shown that. Show us hims having nightmares about it, or a panic attack once he gets out of the crime scene, or something. Don't just tell me that he didn't sleep well, then continue with the story like nothing happened. I can't be emotionally invested in a situation, if the protagonist doesn't seem to care one way or another either.
My second problem is Marty himself. Boy, does he have plot armor or what? Also, he reads more like the author's wish fulfilment than a real person. So he is 67, doesn't exercise or try to keep himself in shape (at least the author doesn't mention him going to the gym even once or for a hike, or something). He drinks like an Irishman, easts whatever he wants... yet he doesn't seem to have any health issues (at 67), or have to take medication for anything, and he can spend weeks homeless in the streets of SF and still be a functional human being after that? Oh, and all hot, intelligent, younger women he encounters fall head over heels for him instantly. No seriously, this guy has more intimate encounters in this book than James Bond. Either this dude won the gene pool jackpot, or the author really doesn't know what being in upper sixties feels like for most of the population.
On top of that, the story got bogged down in useless descriptions of dinners the protagonist cooked and consumed, alcohol he drank, or other rather useless trivia that didn't advance the plot in any way. I mean, you could easily have trimmed off at least 100 pages. It would have made the book a lot tighter and faster to read. As it stood, I got bored a few times while reading and had to skim along until the plot would pick up again.
All in all, this was a disappointing book for me. I don't think I will be continuing with this series, and honestly, I don't know if I will check out other books by this author.
PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This was my first encounter with cory Doctorow, and the result is rather underwhelming. The blurb sounded very promissing - a forensic accountant, cybercrimes, cryptocurrencies, and all that jaz. I was fully onboard and ready to enjoy a good story. Unfortunately, the book itself was a big disappointment.
My biggest issue with this book, and why me and this story didn't mesh at all, is the writing style. The prose is extremely dry and impersonal, even though it's not third person omniscient. We are watching the events unfold from Marin's perspective. But the book reads more like an instruction manual than a heart-poinding crime story. I mean, the author describes a horrifying scene of death and torture in the same dry language as a romantic encounter our protagonist has with one of his lady friends. Both scenes are supposed to evoke emotions, instead, they just induce boredom.
Part of the problem is also that the author doesn't particularly do a good job with showing things. We are told that Martin is profoundly shocked by what he saw when he found those slain kids, but we are not shown that. Show us hims having nightmares about it, or a panic attack once he gets out of the crime scene, or something. Don't just tell me that he didn't sleep well, then continue with the story like nothing happened. I can't be emotionally invested in a situation, if the protagonist doesn't seem to care one way or another either.
My second problem is Marty himself. Boy, does he have plot armor or what? Also, he reads more like the author's wish fulfilment than a real person. So he is 67, doesn't exercise or try to keep himself in shape (at least the author doesn't mention him going to the gym even once or for a hike, or something). He drinks like an Irishman, easts whatever he wants... yet he doesn't seem to have any health issues (at 67), or have to take medication for anything, and he can spend weeks homeless in the streets of SF and still be a functional human being after that? Oh, and all hot, intelligent, younger women he encounters fall head over heels for him instantly. No seriously, this guy has more intimate encounters in this book than James Bond. Either this dude won the gene pool jackpot, or the author really doesn't know what being in upper sixties feels like for most of the population.
On top of that, the story got bogged down in useless descriptions of dinners the protagonist cooked and consumed, alcohol he drank, or other rather useless trivia that didn't advance the plot in any way. I mean, you could easily have trimmed off at least 100 pages. It would have made the book a lot tighter and faster to read. As it stood, I got bored a few times while reading and had to skim along until the plot would pick up again.
All in all, this was a disappointing book for me. I don't think I will be continuing with this series, and honestly, I don't know if I will check out other books by this author.
PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
November 19, 2023
I like seeing books with older protagonists. Again, Cory writes a book that is part expose part scifi. Again he paints a leftist fantasy. I didn't resonate with this one as much because I am of the "fuck crypto-currency" leftist varietal, but it was about as utopic as one gets in a book with assassins, so hurrah Cory!
CONTENT WARNING:
CONTENT WARNING:
January 31, 2024
totally wasted my time reading this SF thriller about cryptocurrency 🫠 my disappointment is immeasurable
October 26, 2023
This is a first book is a planned series by Cory Doctorow. I assumed it will be a near-future warnings SF, like his Little Brother and later books, but it is even more a techno-thriller with not-yet-created tech present, but not playing a major role in the story. I read it as a part of the monthly reading for October 2023 at SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group. The book was published in 2023
The story starts with the protagonist getting a lot of urgent calls from a Silicon Valley billionaire. In is somewhere between 2030 and 2050 and the hero is 67 years old Martin Hench, single, a successful problem-solver. He is a self-employed forensic accountant and an investigator. He is good in what he does, but his price can be quite steep for some – it is a non-negotiable 25% of recovered items.
So, he is contacted by Danny Lazer, one of the tech nerds turned billionaires, roughly of Martin’s age and he has a problem that something was stolen from him, which can turn his virtual currency Trustlesscoin from being worth $1bn to zero. Consider the flat fee of our hero and you understand how crucial the problem is.
Overall an interesting read but honestly I expected less mystery and more SF, and this hasn’t been delivered.
The story starts with the protagonist getting a lot of urgent calls from a Silicon Valley billionaire. In is somewhere between 2030 and 2050 and the hero is 67 years old Martin Hench, single, a successful problem-solver. He is a self-employed forensic accountant and an investigator. He is good in what he does, but his price can be quite steep for some – it is a non-negotiable 25% of recovered items.
So, he is contacted by Danny Lazer, one of the tech nerds turned billionaires, roughly of Martin’s age and he has a problem that something was stolen from him, which can turn his virtual currency Trustlesscoin from being worth $1bn to zero. Consider the flat fee of our hero and you understand how crucial the problem is.
Overall an interesting read but honestly I expected less mystery and more SF, and this hasn’t been delivered.
May 3, 2023
This was a terrible mystery. Hench is well realized, the observations on crypto and surveillance are (as expected) on the nose and the day to day mechanics of homelessness in SF are interesting enough. But I thought this was supposed to be a mystery, and the mystery part is only minimally present.
July 2, 2023
[Strong 3½. Full review coming.]
May 4, 2023
Unlike many of Doctorow's previous technological stories this one does not feature a teen or twentysomething protagonist. In Red Team Blues, the centers around Martin Hench, a 67 year old, soon to be retired investigative forensic accountant. Martin is an expert in uncovering the carefully hidden digital trails used by corporations, one percenters, and organized crime groups to hide and shelter their wealth. He is the best there is at uncovering money laundering schemes.
As always with Doctorow, the story takes place on the cutting edge of current technology and includes discussion of cryptocurrency, social media, Tor browsers, and the like. This time instead of a bright young mind discovering these technologies you instead have a wise master who was there at the birth of the internet (perhaps reflecting Doctorow's own growth from Wunderkind to mature expert). He also includes, as we have come to expect from him, many reflections on the social order, economics, and an open eyed and compassionate look at income disparity in this country.
Doctorow is a master at looking at technology and weaving an impossible to put down story that in spite of the nuggets of computer knowledge interspersed in the story remains human. You care for and identify with the characters in the story. You learn about the wonders and joys of technology. You are shown the impact of income disparity on the very real people who live without shelter and regular meals in our cities. This is a wonderful book that I read in just a couple of days and now I will wait impatiently for him to write the next one.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eArc free of charge in exchange for an unbiased review.
As always with Doctorow, the story takes place on the cutting edge of current technology and includes discussion of cryptocurrency, social media, Tor browsers, and the like. This time instead of a bright young mind discovering these technologies you instead have a wise master who was there at the birth of the internet (perhaps reflecting Doctorow's own growth from Wunderkind to mature expert). He also includes, as we have come to expect from him, many reflections on the social order, economics, and an open eyed and compassionate look at income disparity in this country.
Doctorow is a master at looking at technology and weaving an impossible to put down story that in spite of the nuggets of computer knowledge interspersed in the story remains human. You care for and identify with the characters in the story. You learn about the wonders and joys of technology. You are shown the impact of income disparity on the very real people who live without shelter and regular meals in our cities. This is a wonderful book that I read in just a couple of days and now I will wait impatiently for him to write the next one.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eArc free of charge in exchange for an unbiased review.
January 31, 2024
Unfortunately this one just didn’t work for me. The plot points are kind of chaotic and unclear, the mysteries too easily solved, so many big bad guys chasing the protagonist, but also each other (?), and the stakes of it all just didn’t seem very important.
I could have forgiven most of that if it had included some kind of speculative je ne sais quoi, or maybe an incisive new take on cryptocurrency and money laundering and tax evasion, but alas none of the thematic points were very compelling to me either.
I could have forgiven most of that if it had included some kind of speculative je ne sais quoi, or maybe an incisive new take on cryptocurrency and money laundering and tax evasion, but alas none of the thematic points were very compelling to me either.
January 17, 2023
Got this book from free giveaway.
Cory Doctorow is a good writer and fine intellect. I follow him on Medium and enjoy his attack on monopoly, revelation of incompetence and hypocrisy in politics both left and right, musing on intellectual property, and fight against the copyright trolls.
However, had he put 10% of his writing prowess into this book, it would not have been such a boring drag. Have you had the experience of watching a new movie so predictable and unengaging that you are tempted to fast forward the useless plot but stop short only because you are afraid some key points might be buried in the padding? That's how I felt while reading, I don't know, three quarters of the book. The worst part is that there is no plot point in the padding! The padding is there just for padding's sake.
I think the disappointment is due to the misalignment of my expectation. I expect the main story being how Mr. Hench unraveled a crypto-centered puzzle using logic, ingenuity, and some hand-waving technology. Yet the actual detective work is fewer than twenty pages. The rest is just Mr. Hench hiding away from the actual actions. The plot armor is thick in this one, with Mr. Hench being so smart, rich, charming, and without a hint of real danger that I don't even know why I should care about him. Nor are the other characters any better than plot tools. You could switch their names and barely any change will be noticed.
The story reads like a middle-aged, well-educated, liberal man's wet dream, with a misleading synopsis on the back cover.
Cory Doctorow is a good writer and fine intellect. I follow him on Medium and enjoy his attack on monopoly, revelation of incompetence and hypocrisy in politics both left and right, musing on intellectual property, and fight against the copyright trolls.
However, had he put 10% of his writing prowess into this book, it would not have been such a boring drag. Have you had the experience of watching a new movie so predictable and unengaging that you are tempted to fast forward the useless plot but stop short only because you are afraid some key points might be buried in the padding? That's how I felt while reading, I don't know, three quarters of the book. The worst part is that there is no plot point in the padding! The padding is there just for padding's sake.
I think the disappointment is due to the misalignment of my expectation. I expect the main story being how Mr. Hench unraveled a crypto-centered puzzle using logic, ingenuity, and some hand-waving technology. Yet the actual detective work is fewer than twenty pages. The rest is just Mr. Hench hiding away from the actual actions. The plot armor is thick in this one, with Mr. Hench being so smart, rich, charming, and without a hint of real danger that I don't even know why I should care about him. Nor are the other characters any better than plot tools. You could switch their names and barely any change will be noticed.
The story reads like a middle-aged, well-educated, liberal man's wet dream, with a misleading synopsis on the back cover.
Read
May 29, 2023Cory Doctorow has a couple of failure modes for me, and it's early in the novel but I feel like they're strongly in play, to the point where I'm quitting.
1. "I wanted to write non-fiction, but fiction pays better." It's infodump central with your host, Cory Doctorow! And here's the thing: I typically love an infodump. Unfortunately, Doctorow is often telling me things I already know while presenting them as knowledge no one has. Also, he loves having characters do infodumps when they are still basically a name on a page. And that makes perfect sense, because you know it's not the character talking. It's Doctorow, lecturing while moving the character's mouth up and down.
2. "I very much believe in equality and social justice, but also I am here to write dudes being dudes and tech bros being tech bros." This is actually fine, except for the part where I am not all that interested in dudeliness or tech bros.
I don't know. I'd love to hear that the plot is good enough that I'll forget all about this, or that the characters really get good twenty pages after I quit. But until I hear that, I'm sticking this in a box marked "as done as it's gonna get."
1. "I wanted to write non-fiction, but fiction pays better." It's infodump central with your host, Cory Doctorow! And here's the thing: I typically love an infodump. Unfortunately, Doctorow is often telling me things I already know while presenting them as knowledge no one has. Also, he loves having characters do infodumps when they are still basically a name on a page. And that makes perfect sense, because you know it's not the character talking. It's Doctorow, lecturing while moving the character's mouth up and down.
2. "I very much believe in equality and social justice, but also I am here to write dudes being dudes and tech bros being tech bros." This is actually fine, except for the part where I am not all that interested in dudeliness or tech bros.
I don't know. I'd love to hear that the plot is good enough that I'll forget all about this, or that the characters really get good twenty pages after I quit. But until I hear that, I'm sticking this in a box marked "as done as it's gonna get."
May 4, 2023
A superb blend of hardboiled detective fiction and cypherpunk, with and undercurrent of social satire. Highly recommended.
May 5, 2023
Red Team Blues is a story about a 67 year old accountant getting ready to retire. You would say that sounds kind of odd and pretty boring, wouldn't you? And you would be dead wrong. What we get is a damn good caper novel -- a high-pressure story full of suspense, danger, forensic sleuthing, and even a bit of romance.
The best place to learn more about what to expect is Cory Doctorow's own introduction over at John Scalzi's blog. https://whatever.scalzi.com/2023/04/2...
I listened to the audio version which is very professionally narrated by Wil Wheaton. (I got it from Libro.fm. It is not available at Audible because Doctorow refuses to have DRM on his works.)
This was my first Cory Doctorow read. I quite enjoyed it; in fact, I powered right through it. I’ll be checking out his other books.
Solid 4 stars.
The best place to learn more about what to expect is Cory Doctorow's own introduction over at John Scalzi's blog. https://whatever.scalzi.com/2023/04/2...
I listened to the audio version which is very professionally narrated by Wil Wheaton. (I got it from Libro.fm. It is not available at Audible because Doctorow refuses to have DRM on his works.)
This was my first Cory Doctorow read. I quite enjoyed it; in fact, I powered right through it. I’ll be checking out his other books.
Solid 4 stars.
April 27, 2023
This was my first book by Cory Doctorow and I’ll definitely be looking into his other books.
Marty is a 67 year old forensic accountant specializing in cryptocurrency and how to find where it’s hidden… I think. Honestly, the first part of this book went WAY over my head and for much of it, I had no idea what the techno babble was about. Once the info dump was over, the techno thriller Sci-Fi aspect of the book started and I read most of it in one sitting. Also, it is a fairly short book so it was a quick read.
I did enjoy Marty’s character along with his two friends, Raza, and Ruth. Marty lives in a used rock star’s tour bus and I enjoyed reading about his lifestyle on the road.
He takes a case that gets him a huge mess of trouble with the very Bad guys and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to see how he’d survive.
I decided to read this book thinking I might learn a tad bit about the world of cryptocurrency and bitcoin and whatever else it’s called. But nope. Nada. It’s still so far over my head and after this book I think I’ll keep it that way. I still have no idea what Red Team or Blue Team means.
With that said, after glossing over the info dump at the beginning, I did enjoy the techno thriller! Very much! I’m really happy that I decided to read Red Team Blues.
*Thank you so much to Tor Books and NetGalley for the advance eGalley!*
Marty is a 67 year old forensic accountant specializing in cryptocurrency and how to find where it’s hidden… I think. Honestly, the first part of this book went WAY over my head and for much of it, I had no idea what the techno babble was about. Once the info dump was over, the techno thriller Sci-Fi aspect of the book started and I read most of it in one sitting. Also, it is a fairly short book so it was a quick read.
I did enjoy Marty’s character along with his two friends, Raza, and Ruth. Marty lives in a used rock star’s tour bus and I enjoyed reading about his lifestyle on the road.
He takes a case that gets him a huge mess of trouble with the very Bad guys and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to see how he’d survive.
I decided to read this book thinking I might learn a tad bit about the world of cryptocurrency and bitcoin and whatever else it’s called. But nope. Nada. It’s still so far over my head and after this book I think I’ll keep it that way. I still have no idea what Red Team or Blue Team means.
With that said, after glossing over the info dump at the beginning, I did enjoy the techno thriller! Very much! I’m really happy that I decided to read Red Team Blues.
*Thank you so much to Tor Books and NetGalley for the advance eGalley!*
January 1, 2024
Kind of typical Cory Doctorow book, in a nice way. I always feel a little better after a CD book, like a nice buzz making me slightly me more... optimistic, at least less pessimistic. Here again. There is precious little violence and killing (distant, some) and somehow everything turns out nicely solved. Little brother style. And of course, some romantic conclusion, which was bearable by being not too much in the way of the story.
And I would really really like to take a long trip in The Salted Hash!
And I would really really like to take a long trip in The Salted Hash!
June 14, 2023
MOSTLY Spoiler free
I love Cory Doctorow and all he does but this book was a huge letdown. I heard some interviews where the hosts had review copies and lauded the book but I was left dumbfounded.
The plot is pretty standard whodunit-but-in-Silicon-Valley involving crypto keys and billionaires (a lot of billionaires) and a little gum-shoe detective work mixed with a ton of apps and "not quite there yet" techno babble but at no point in the novel did it feel like the stakes were high. The opening 10-20 pages are a real slog of crypto terminology and info-dumping and the mystery is solved fairly quick which leads to a bunch of other non-relevant and downright boring encounters with nameless faces who represent people and parties we never see. Any time there's a hint of action Marty Hench, the lead who will have a trilogy it seems, presses some buttons on a phone and diffuses it in no time.
The real drag of the book is the characters are boring. They all fit in this mold of Silicon Valley veterans who made, or made and lost, bajillions of dollars and feel guilty about it but whatchagonnado? They enjoy cocktails and steaks while opining about their gains and losses, the plot never gets going, Marty has guilty sex with all of the women he encounters after sipping a $2,000 bottle of bourbon, no one seems to have any desires or goals outside, and they just talk in circles about their money and being on "red team" or "blue team". It felt like watching the second act of a CBS drama that never went to commercial break.
Marty Hench himself is a bland blob of a man who has bajillions of dollars at his disposal (and never thinks to use it for bodyguards or a plane ticket to Aruba to solve literally all of his problems) but keeps penny pinching on everything he sees to make some point about homelessness in Palo Alto or something. All I know about him is he USED TO decipher deep economic tech crimes, likes to cook, and has a Batman-Belt of a phone with an app for every occasion to assure the reader there's never even a tiny bit of action.
There's no villain either. Marty has some different mob elements chasing him but they're just window dressing and are never seen or do anything active to Marty.
Finally, there's just enough political pot shots and emotional grand standing to illicit a hearty eye roll every 18 pages or so.
I wanted to like this, and I still support Cory's work outside of fiction, but this is the fourth book I've read by him and it's not my style.
I love Cory Doctorow and all he does but this book was a huge letdown. I heard some interviews where the hosts had review copies and lauded the book but I was left dumbfounded.
The plot is pretty standard whodunit-but-in-Silicon-Valley involving crypto keys and billionaires (a lot of billionaires) and a little gum-shoe detective work mixed with a ton of apps and "not quite there yet" techno babble but at no point in the novel did it feel like the stakes were high. The opening 10-20 pages are a real slog of crypto terminology and info-dumping and the mystery is solved fairly quick which leads to a bunch of other non-relevant and downright boring encounters with nameless faces who represent people and parties we never see. Any time there's a hint of action Marty Hench, the lead who will have a trilogy it seems, presses some buttons on a phone and diffuses it in no time.
The real drag of the book is the characters are boring. They all fit in this mold of Silicon Valley veterans who made, or made and lost, bajillions of dollars and feel guilty about it but whatchagonnado? They enjoy cocktails and steaks while opining about their gains and losses, the plot never gets going, Marty has guilty sex with all of the women he encounters after sipping a $2,000 bottle of bourbon, no one seems to have any desires or goals outside, and they just talk in circles about their money and being on "red team" or "blue team". It felt like watching the second act of a CBS drama that never went to commercial break.
Marty Hench himself is a bland blob of a man who has bajillions of dollars at his disposal (and never thinks to use it for bodyguards or a plane ticket to Aruba to solve literally all of his problems) but keeps penny pinching on everything he sees to make some point about homelessness in Palo Alto or something. All I know about him is he USED TO decipher deep economic tech crimes, likes to cook, and has a Batman-Belt of a phone with an app for every occasion to assure the reader there's never even a tiny bit of action.
There's no villain either. Marty has some different mob elements chasing him but they're just window dressing and are never seen or do anything active to Marty.
Finally, there's just enough political pot shots and emotional grand standing to illicit a hearty eye roll every 18 pages or so.
I wanted to like this, and I still support Cory's work outside of fiction, but this is the fourth book I've read by him and it's not my style.
March 27, 2024
This novel gave me the strange (indeed, unique) experience of being both very readable and yet very tedious at the same time. It took me a good hundred pages before I figured out why: Doctorow is an accomplished writer, who knows well how to construct a sentence, a paragraph, a chapter, from a technical perspective. But the actual content of the narrative – the characters, the plot, dialogue – is dull, or unrealistic, or cliched.
He has very clever ways of explaining the complexities of crypto and tech and finance (at one point he describes cryptocurrency as ‘distributed sudoku puzzles’), and this why I enjoy listening to his interviews. In fact I decided to read Red Team Blues because I wanted an insight into the underbelly of Silicon Valley, and Doctorow seemed the best person for the job. In an essay or interview, perhaps he is. Not in fiction.
He really struggles to portray actual human beings. His dialogue is well-written, for example, while being laughably unrealistic. Everyone speaks in long, mannered, perfect paragraphs, and everyone sounds the same. As it happens, they all sound an awful lot like Cory Doctorow.
Perhaps his worst crime is expressing an utterly bland, mainstream American political viewpoint (yes, I know he’s Canadian; the point stands). I thought at the least there would be something punk in the novel, given Doctorow’s public image as a radical thinker. Rather I found it earnest and milquetoast, and couldn’t help but observe that the author seems to really love the trappings of wealth. Sure – he hates crypto bros, we all do – but boy does he love fine dining and luxury living and boutique hotels.
Underwhelming.
He has very clever ways of explaining the complexities of crypto and tech and finance (at one point he describes cryptocurrency as ‘distributed sudoku puzzles’), and this why I enjoy listening to his interviews. In fact I decided to read Red Team Blues because I wanted an insight into the underbelly of Silicon Valley, and Doctorow seemed the best person for the job. In an essay or interview, perhaps he is. Not in fiction.
He really struggles to portray actual human beings. His dialogue is well-written, for example, while being laughably unrealistic. Everyone speaks in long, mannered, perfect paragraphs, and everyone sounds the same. As it happens, they all sound an awful lot like Cory Doctorow.
Perhaps his worst crime is expressing an utterly bland, mainstream American political viewpoint (yes, I know he’s Canadian; the point stands). I thought at the least there would be something punk in the novel, given Doctorow’s public image as a radical thinker. Rather I found it earnest and milquetoast, and couldn’t help but observe that the author seems to really love the trappings of wealth. Sure – he hates crypto bros, we all do – but boy does he love fine dining and luxury living and boutique hotels.
Underwhelming.
March 24, 2024
Das erste, was man an Cory Doctorows neuen Roman anmerken müsste, ist dass er nach den meisten Hardcore -Definitionen nicht als SF anzusehen ist. Er findet etwa ca. 20 Stunden in der Zukunft statt, die keine neuen Technologien oder gesellschaftspolitischen Trends beinhalten. Er könnte am besten als High-Tech-Thriller (oder als Cyberthriller, wie er in der Heyne-Ausgabe bezeichnet wird) in einer Liga mit Neal Stephensons „Error“ angesehen werden, ein Buch, dessen Aromen hier etwas wiedergegeben werden.
Der Held dieser Geschichte ist der 67-jährige „Finanzforensiker“ namens Martin „Marty“ Hench. Er erzählt seine Geschichte aus seiner eigenen Perspektive, und es ist eine umgängliche, unverwechselbare Stimme, die von einem in sich ruhenden Menschen ausgeht, der den Leser fesselt und den Inhalt überzeugend und glaubhaft zu einem Pageturner macht.
Der 67-jährige Cyber-Ermittler, der eigentlich schon sein Rentnerdasein genießt, gilt als Veteran im Kosmos der Start-ups, der Offshore-Konten, der Kryptowährungen und der Sicherheitsschlüssel, egal ob Hardware oder Software. Dabei hat der Pionier digitaler Finanzermittlungen all die Jahre im Game zwischen Big Data und Big Money, Technik- und Geldfreaks ausnahmslos für das Rote Team gespielt und somit stets angegriffen und überführt, und nicht wie das Blaue Team versteckt, gesichert und verteidigt.
In „red team blues“ hilft er einem reichen alten Freund aus dem Silicon Valley. Dem wurde eben ein super-wertvoller, super-gefährlicher Security-Key gestohlen, was nicht nur sein riesiges Blockchain-Imperium gefährdet, sondern die Sicherheit vieler ahnungsloser User, die sich auf die größten Firmen und Anbieter und deren Schlüssel in den Systemtiefen verlassen. Marty soll den Schaden eingrenzen, falls das noch möglich ist, und forscht nach, was den Einbruch, den Diebstahl, die Dimension des Problems und des Verlusts angeht. Dann stolpert er über ein paar Leichen, und das bringt Martys Ruhestandspläne ganz schön durcheinander. Denn in der labyrinthischen digitalen Finanzwelt sind finstere Typen und ruchlose Kriminelle unterwegs, und alle haben eine Menge zu verlieren. Plötzlich muss Martin, Ikone des attackierenden, Schwachstellen und Fehler findenden, Jagd machenden Roten Teams, in die Defensive – und erkennen, dass er auf einmal zum abwehrenden, gejagten Blauen Team gehört …
Neben den Spannungselementen, die diese Thrillergeschichte bietet, glänzt der Roman in meinen Augen durch das immense Vermanschen von Armut und Reichtum, das in San Francisco stattfindet. Tech Geld überall, direkt neben Menschen, die buchstäblich nirgendwo einen Platz zum Schlafen haben. Ich selbst hatte bei meinem letzten Besuch in der Bay Area so etwas noch nie gesehen und es ist absolut beschämend. Doctorows Roman greift diese Tatsache unmissverständlich auf und stellt Szenen von Luxus-hotels und -Wohnhäusern, Kochtischen und anderen Beispielen aus den Milliardärsleben neben Szenen von Obdachlosen, die in Ruinen oder Parks ihre Pappkartons als Schlafräume nutzen, und in Plastikflaschen ihre Notdurft verrichten.
Es gibt viele Dialoge, die einem zeigen, inwieweit die Techwelt des Silicon Valleys inzwischen entartet ist, wie z.B. wenn 2 Charaktere, so etwas sagen wie: "Ohne Leute wie wir, die das Geld von Kriminellen verwalten, hätten Sie keinen Job."
Abschließend kann ich sagen dass ich neben einem spannenden Thriller-Roman viel über Kryptowährungskriminalität gelernt habe. Auch einige interessante Fakten über Blockchain und Hacking. Einige gut gedrehte Sätze und neue Techno-Hip-Vokabeln….
Cory Doctorow ist halt immer für gute Unterhaltung als auch mit interessanten und wichtigen Einsichten in eine fremde Welt gut !
Der Held dieser Geschichte ist der 67-jährige „Finanzforensiker“ namens Martin „Marty“ Hench. Er erzählt seine Geschichte aus seiner eigenen Perspektive, und es ist eine umgängliche, unverwechselbare Stimme, die von einem in sich ruhenden Menschen ausgeht, der den Leser fesselt und den Inhalt überzeugend und glaubhaft zu einem Pageturner macht.
Der 67-jährige Cyber-Ermittler, der eigentlich schon sein Rentnerdasein genießt, gilt als Veteran im Kosmos der Start-ups, der Offshore-Konten, der Kryptowährungen und der Sicherheitsschlüssel, egal ob Hardware oder Software. Dabei hat der Pionier digitaler Finanzermittlungen all die Jahre im Game zwischen Big Data und Big Money, Technik- und Geldfreaks ausnahmslos für das Rote Team gespielt und somit stets angegriffen und überführt, und nicht wie das Blaue Team versteckt, gesichert und verteidigt.
In „red team blues“ hilft er einem reichen alten Freund aus dem Silicon Valley. Dem wurde eben ein super-wertvoller, super-gefährlicher Security-Key gestohlen, was nicht nur sein riesiges Blockchain-Imperium gefährdet, sondern die Sicherheit vieler ahnungsloser User, die sich auf die größten Firmen und Anbieter und deren Schlüssel in den Systemtiefen verlassen. Marty soll den Schaden eingrenzen, falls das noch möglich ist, und forscht nach, was den Einbruch, den Diebstahl, die Dimension des Problems und des Verlusts angeht. Dann stolpert er über ein paar Leichen, und das bringt Martys Ruhestandspläne ganz schön durcheinander. Denn in der labyrinthischen digitalen Finanzwelt sind finstere Typen und ruchlose Kriminelle unterwegs, und alle haben eine Menge zu verlieren. Plötzlich muss Martin, Ikone des attackierenden, Schwachstellen und Fehler findenden, Jagd machenden Roten Teams, in die Defensive – und erkennen, dass er auf einmal zum abwehrenden, gejagten Blauen Team gehört …
Neben den Spannungselementen, die diese Thrillergeschichte bietet, glänzt der Roman in meinen Augen durch das immense Vermanschen von Armut und Reichtum, das in San Francisco stattfindet. Tech Geld überall, direkt neben Menschen, die buchstäblich nirgendwo einen Platz zum Schlafen haben. Ich selbst hatte bei meinem letzten Besuch in der Bay Area so etwas noch nie gesehen und es ist absolut beschämend. Doctorows Roman greift diese Tatsache unmissverständlich auf und stellt Szenen von Luxus-hotels und -Wohnhäusern, Kochtischen und anderen Beispielen aus den Milliardärsleben neben Szenen von Obdachlosen, die in Ruinen oder Parks ihre Pappkartons als Schlafräume nutzen, und in Plastikflaschen ihre Notdurft verrichten.
Es gibt viele Dialoge, die einem zeigen, inwieweit die Techwelt des Silicon Valleys inzwischen entartet ist, wie z.B. wenn 2 Charaktere, so etwas sagen wie: "Ohne Leute wie wir, die das Geld von Kriminellen verwalten, hätten Sie keinen Job."
Abschließend kann ich sagen dass ich neben einem spannenden Thriller-Roman viel über Kryptowährungskriminalität gelernt habe. Auch einige interessante Fakten über Blockchain und Hacking. Einige gut gedrehte Sätze und neue Techno-Hip-Vokabeln….
Cory Doctorow ist halt immer für gute Unterhaltung als auch mit interessanten und wichtigen Einsichten in eine fremde Welt gut !
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