Subject: INTERFACE by Stephen Bury

From: [email-masked] ()
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 1994 23:48:56 GMT

INTERFACE by Stephen Bury
         Bantam Spectra, ISBN 0-553-37230-0, 1994, 592pp, US$12.95.
                     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		      Copyright 1994 Evelyn C. Leeper

     Stephen Bury is a pen name for the writing team of Neal Stephenson
(SNOW CRASH) and J. Frederick George.  (Someone on the Net claimed that
George is Stephenson's father; I have no further evidence of that.)  And
INTERFACE is a high-tech political thriller about a politician who suffers a
stroke and undergoes a radically new treatment--with some startling side
effects.

     In many ways this was reminiscent of Stephen King's DEAD ZONE--there's
a political campaign, complete with fascists, seedy politicians, and schemes
and plots galore.  There are some everyday sorts of characters who find
themselves caught up in the sweep of events.  The plot device may be
different (though both deal with extraordinary mental powers), but a lot of
what surrounds it is the same.  It's true that Bury uses his humor slightly
differently from King.  King uses a slapstick approach, while Bury has a
more intellectual tack: "Brain cells didn't grow.  But the connections
between them did.  The network of linkages was constantly shifting and
reconnecting itself in a process that was usually described as 'learning.'
Dr. Radhakrisnan did not really care for this terminology because it
contained a value judgment.  It implied that every time new synapses were
formed inside a person's head it was because they were memorizing
Shakespeare or being taught how to integrate transcendental functions.  Of
course, in reality most of the internal rewiring that went on in people's
brains took place in response to watching game shows on television, being
beaten up by family members, figuring out the cheapest place to buy
cigarettes, and being conditioned not to mix plaids with stripes."

     Unfortunately, the careful plotting slips up in a couple of spots.  On
page 10 it is established that Clinton is no longer President, yet on page
356 a televised debate is running the theme of "Campaign '96."  (Yes,there
could have been an impeachment, but the story seems to rule this out.)
Later, someone seems to think a Presidential term runs eight years.  And
would a whiz-bang political campaign manager really hire someone from STAR
TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION as someone he was trying to pass off as a news
anchorman?

     If the science-fictional device is not entirely convincing, well, I'm
willing suspend my disbelief given that most of the rest of the story is
believable.  The book moves along briskly (I read it in five hours of plane
flights) and keeps the reader's interest.  But it's more a political
thriller than hard science fiction.  Readers who enjoyed SNOW CRASH may also
miss the philosophical underpinnings that were present in that earlier work.
Of course, this may be one reason why Stephenson's name does not appear on
this volume.

%T      Interface
%A      Stephen Bury
%C      New York
%D      April 15, 1994
%I      Bantam Spectra
%O      trade paperback, US$12.95
%G      ISBN 0-553-37230-0
%P      592pp

-- 
Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | [email-masked]
"The Internet is already an information superhighway, except that ...  it is
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