"Nothing is more valuable than personal privacy in today's world."
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Privacy Wars by John Trudel Trudel Group
book review by Dylan Ward
In a world where privacy is increasingly becoming a rare thing, John Trudel's, Privacy Wars is stark reminder of what we all have to lose. Cybertech, a high technology company that specializes in developing encryption products that are so good even the Japanese cannot crack their codes, leaves its competitors hungry for the competition and governments desperate to get its hands on them. The novel opens with a particularly tense meeting between John Giles, the CEO of Cybertech, and potential Japanese investors. While the Japanese believe it is a meeting about investing in the company, John turns the tables (with a little convincing from an armed bodyguard) to gain the upper hand with the businessmen and secure the future success and viability of Cybertech.
Three years later, Will Giles is CEO after his father's mysterious disappearance, now presumed dead by the FBI, and Will is determined to protect his father's company as he faces mounting legal threats and security infringement by competitors. To evade the situation, Will goes incognito deep into the Cascade Wilderness. This sets in motion a chain of events where Cybertech's enemies begin a hostile takeover. Even in the wilderness, Will discovers he is not alone when a former student, the beautiful, blue eyed Rebecca Rider, finds and warns him that he is being watched and targeted by the Japanese and United Nation's Peace Enforcers. Her sole mission is to keep him safe and help him secure the safety of Cybertech's technology.
As Will and Rebecca escape deeper into the mountains, they encounter more dangers and Will makes a drastic decision to return to the United States to save Cybertech. There he faces the torturous, Akai Tanaka, captain of the Peace Enforcers, a dangerous samurai who proceeds to carry out his approved mission with chilling determination. The explosive showdown leaves in its wake serious casualties and myriad of questions that reaches the highest levels of government. Then the pressure truly increases from all sides to either help Will and Cybertech or to stop them once and for all.
A finalist for the USA Best Book Awards, Trudel relies heavily on his own background and experience with technology and intelligence systems, giving us a technical thriller that offers intrigue and adventure with a plausible plot that is reminiscent of a Tom Clancy or Michael Crichton novel. His pacing is taut and his characters are flawed and real on the page and he doesn't waste a moment in the story. Every character only serves to heighten the story to the fullest, completing a distinct cast of allies and villains. Their encounters with each other always propel and escalate the mounting tension that Trudel successfully builds in his narrative. And with hints of 1984, the novel deeply explores issues of freedom and the annihilation of technology in a complex and rapidly advanced technological world. Here, both Cybertech and Will Giles give symbolic meaning to what is most desired: the ability to keep our own privacy secure.
This is a timely novel that is sure to both entertain and make you think, while it reminds us that true privacy is a very precious thing that is quickly disappearing. Trudel reaches across the divide of history and science, and by the novel's end, he leaves the reader with a glimmer of hope that there are still individuals out there who care enough to fight for and protect our freedom. Privacy Wars does not disappoint. This a rising author at work from who we can expect equally thrilling novels to come.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review