![]() ![]() So Viv breaks into a very important server room and uploads a virus. (And maybe crush her enemies just a little.) So she disappears and hatches a cunning plan to hack into and take control of all the computers in the world, which is apparently a thing she can do. At any moment Viv expects to be hauled off to a black site for torture. Her self-dealing charity has pissed off the vaguely defined near-future government. ![]() Yes, she got rich by designing Clearview-style surveillance software, but she gives her workers free housing (in “targeted congressional districts”) and gets relief workers (branded with “Liao Industries livery”) to hurricane victims before FEMA. It doesn’t appear to notice there are other parts it’s failed to question. Not that this novel is all “Yay tech billionaires!” It’s all about confronting Viv with the consequences of her own supervillain instincts, deconstructing part of the genius entrepreneur myth. Elon Musk is mentioned by name as a colleague and/or competitor. Vivian Liao, heroine of Max Gladstone’s space opera romp The Empress of Forever, is a tech billionaire. ![]()
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