Could It Really Happen: "Reamde" by Neil Stephenson
Rick Howard | Nov 18, 2011I like good novels that explain real and believable hacking, and I’d say “Reamde” by Neil Stephenson definitely presents a unique and totally possible way for hackers to exploit cyber space in a couple of years.
Before you get into this, you have to know that I am a Neil Stephenson fan boy. He started writing right at the cusp of the cyberpunk genre back in the early 1990s and was largely responsible for making the cyberpunk genre explode. I just happened to be getting into the cyber security business right at the same time. Consequently, he is a god in my book when it comes to fleshing out ideas about hackers and cyberspace and what it all might look like in a few decades.
For those that don’t know about him, he really hit the scene with his third book called “Snow Crash.” In that book, he popularized the term “avatar,” coined the term “Metaverse” and practically designed the first MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) years before real games like “World of Warcraft” became popular.
But this review is not about “Snow Crash.” It is about “Reamde,” and I have to say, this book touches on all the things that I like in a cyber punk novel:
Read more
