Analog by Antony Wyatt

Analog by Antony Wyatt 
So here is the first.  A new exciting world has opened up & this is the first excursion into e-books on the Kindle application for Macs.  It is also a first for a more personal review since the book I am reviewing has been written by my old collage friend and the opportunity for criticism of him in print will not be passed off lightly, certainly not missed.  It also puts me in a perfect New Historist position of judging his work because of his conditions and materials I have intimate knowledge. 

 

Although kindle has democratised the publishing of e-books it will unleash the problem of giving credit to a legion of anti-talent.  As Flannery O’Connor knows creative writing courses do not do enough to discourage & neither will Amazon.  Not to say that there won’t be good pieces on offer but it might be harder for writers to get the necessary advice for writing at a decent quality.

The story is about both the disappearance of an unwanted child and the presence of a crisis occurring in ‘the most powerful surveillance and intelligence system’ named ANALOG.  Detective Brookes is trying to track down the missing child while senior analyst Philip Chate wonders what should be done with a crime processing supercomputer that keeps throwing up messages of genocide.         

If there is one consistent fundamental characteristic that is damaging to this book I would describe it as a rushed quality.  The characters are never given enough time to develop and they proceed in action like a cartoon (the anime influence is duly noted) that prevents it from being credible.  Actual knowledge of computers also hampers the suspension revealing the fact a little to much that this has been written by a forensic scientist not a computer scientist.  The chapters divisions have been given a vigilante joy-ride popping up giving the reader a drive-by every four pages.  Considering the easily read prose they make it surprisingly stop-start for such a short journey.     

High standards of proofreading are still necessary.  Despite the fact the Antony does have a powerful dyslexia the before and after spellchecking (credited by another friend Julian Flack) process has done wonders to shape his words and to clear his meanings but some mistakes (notably when Claire is talking to the detective about her baby she says “I gave her up for abortion the moment I had her” my italics)  are inexcusable, if hilarious. 

Despite all that it has been a fun light-weight read.  A contender for the good-bad book or guilty pleasures.  Keep working at it my friend, for some potential is there, but let me repeat to you- please don’t call your next book ‘Diary of a Zombie’