BOOK
REVIEW
TITLE: THE PRESIDENT IS MISSING - A NOVEL
AUTHORS:
BILL CLINTON & JAMES PATTERSON
PUBLISHER:
CENTURY-PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE UK, 2018
PRICE: 13.99 POUNDS STERLING IN FLEXIBACK
A
THRILLING AND PACY SAGA OF CYBER WARFARE
This is a first novel from the former two-term
President of the United States Bill Clinton, in collaboration with James
Patterson, who holds the Guinness Book record for the most no.1 New York Times
bestsellers. Patterson has sold over 375 million books worldwide.
Why has the former POTUS co-authored this
novel? One, because of his obvious drawing power, and second, because he knows
first-hand the intricacies of how the US government and White House works. It
lends the novel considerable plausibility of course, even if it has been imbued
with a preachy- let’s build a better world quality- that more morally
ambivalent thrillers might have excluded.
But it is highly relevant to our times, because
its subject matter is echoed by an increasing number of alleged cyber-warfare
news reports from all over the world. In
reality, bank accounts have been emptied. Aeroplanes have mysteriously crashed.
Identities have been altered. Vital defence software has been compromised or
stolen. National elections, most recently, the election of President Donald
Trump has been allegedly influenced by Russia.
Russia and China are indeed rumored to be the
aces at this form of 21st century warfare via the internet of things(IoT),
and the “dark web” even as America and
others scramble to catch up. Without an effective counter to this breach of
systems, the helpless vulnerability of the electronic universe is starkly
exposed. Of course, each level of threat is superceded by fresh challenges
further down the pike, but as a problem it is here to stay, and this novel
highlights this fact.
This even as the over simplification of the
cyberthreat in this case is often reminiscent of a popular quiz programme, with
its young techies and search for a clue dynamics.
Patterson keeps the narrative gripping with
consummate skill throughout, and the book is certainly a page-turner.
The main proposition is that a deadly virus,
developed by Islamic terrorists, The Sons of Jihad, could bring every
internet-based system in the US and everything elsewhere linked with it, to a
standstill. That means all financial records and backups, the electrical grid
and transmission disabled, ditto the water purification systems, dead
cellphones, defence and nuclear weaponised equipment beyond the reach of its prompts and commands
and so on.
All the software could be deleted, rendering all computer systems,
cloud storage and back-up systems lobotomized and turned into vapour and
plastic shells.
The thriller in the book is in how can it, code-named
“Dark Ages” by the protagonist and his core investigative team, be stopped, or
fooled? The principal protagonist is the fictional President Duncan, who sets
about personally thwarting the plot, playing hero to the Jihadi villains led by
a shadowy Suliman Cindoruk, his name anglicized to a T.
And of course, there is a high profile mole or
two in the US government. When they are outed, can they be punished, or will
the political fallout be far too great? Are there echoes of this democratic
dilemma here in our own country when it comes to bringing high-profile
political figures down to custody on criminal charges? There is however, no
point ruining the reader’s delight with any more detailed revelations on the
plot.
There is cyberterrorism centre-stage, but also
old fashioned assassins to shut the mouths of those in the know of the
string-pullers behind the scenes. As well as Secret Service operatives and Commando
to stymie and remedy their doings. All this, accompanied by the plethora of
resources such as surveillance cameras, helicopters, drones and Hellfire
missiles, that any militarily mighty US administration can bring into play.
There are the German and Israeli heads of government appearances in conference,
top-level stoic Russian denials of skullduggery.
The Russians are not only the usual suspects
with their Iron Curtain era dreams of bringing down the United States, but in
the end, the novel stars the amazing Poirot-like detective skills of the
storybook President himself. Also, the amount of intelligence the fictional
President can ingest on the move is formidable. Not only is he in Bruce Willis
style Die Hard action continuously, but his brain is ticking over making sense
of the puzzle and providing accurate and effective leadership.
This with an
armed forces background and heroic combat action in early life. But now, a debilitating
disease, kept under wraps from the public, has ruined the President’s
platelet count. It renders him fuzzy and dizzy even as he solves problems
through his mental fog like an Einstein.
He is however running on fistfuls of steroids, and that may be the secret of
his being able to stay on the job.
However, all the detective work President
Duncan of the book puts in, is not all that convincing. Presidents of the
United States have to be finely-tuned political animals to reach up to the
pinnacle, yes. There is little room for much else, even from their previous
lives before politics took a hold. For them to be Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple simultaneously is decidedly
far-fetched. Still, winning the cyberwar,
not single-handedly, but certainly as the captain in the captain’s chair,
shoots the fictional President’s popularity ratings from 30% up into the
eighties.
Is this then, a true top-drawer thriller? Who financed the Jihadis? Was it a disgruntled
faction of the tentacular Saudi royal family? What did it hope to achieve-
again a rather naïve notion that “destroying” America was destroying Israel in
the West Asian theatre too, as if it was a two-for-one McDonald’s combo. And
who hired the assassins? Would it be the diabolical Russians after all?
There is a widowed father as President and an
only daughter for the emotional quotient, some bad judgements and betrayal of
trust added v in to keep things real and prevent the fictional President from
tipping into paragon of virtue territory.
Last word- the cyberterrorism theme is timely
in this readable book, so why quibble about the implausibilities of the plot?
For
The Sunday Pioneer AGENDA BOOKS
(983
words)
July
8, 2018
Gautam
Mukherjee
No comments:
Post a Comment