Brain Jack

Brain Jack
by Brian Falkner
Random House, 2010. 349 pgs. Young Adult.

In a not too distant future, Las Vegas has been nuked off the planet, Black Hawk helicopters keep constant vigil over New York City, and computer commands are now executed by means of neuro-headsets, directly from your brain to the machinery. Trouble is, the electrical impulses go both ways, as Sam Wilson and friends discover, nearly too late. Recruited by the government in a kind of roundabout trip through a Juvenile Detention center way, Sam becomes part of an elite squad of counter-terror hackers protecting the United States against cyber-invaders. But when the "enemy" begins wiping brains along with hard drives, Sam and his friends have to go underground and on the lam to try save not just the planet, but the world. A kind of 2001: a Space Odyssey ending with firm but benevolent Oversoul implications brings this breakneck thriller to an odd close, but on the whole, a rip-snorting read for advanced sixth-graders and up, and especially fine for computer whiz kid types who may think they don't like to read.

LW