Banking at the Speed of Light
Aug. 18th, 2011 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtvesselMar 2011
Trading Futures - Jessica James and Ken Zetie - Lulu.com, 2011
First off, I must declare an interest - this self-published novel is by two friends of mine and I read and commented on an early draft of the script. So this will be not so much a review as an introduction.
It is the year 2412 and humanity has spread throughout the solar system. Domes and satellites maintain pockets of life from the craters of Mars to the moons of Neptune, all connected by webs of laser light. And what does that light carry? Information. And who needs it? The banks.
Yes, stock markets have gone system-wide. And that brings a problem - or an opportunity. For financial data from the farthest reaches of the solar system will inevitably be time-lagged because of the limiting factor of the speed of light, providing rich pickings for trader quants who can reliably intuit stock market movements. But what if a bright physicist makes a discovery that points to a loophole in nature's inexorable laws? What would happen then?
This is the setting for a story that makes unlikely bedfellows of experimental physics and high finance. The former is represented mainly by Alric, a super-clever but socially awkward teenage mathematician from Mars who is working at Lunar University. On the banking side, the chief protagonists are Candace Goldstein, a top-shot trader who looks like a teenager but is several hundred years old, and her friend Tris, a man with a flamboyant dress-sense but dubious taste (in my opinion) in colour coordination. They live and work on the earth satellite Polaris for First Interplanetary Bank, where they are watched by the sinister chief of security Sorn and his boss Nate. Candace's friend Jamice represents the fourth estate; she works for an outfit called DataMax that is regarded as a trusted purveyor of information throughout the solar system (so unlike our own dear press). All of these characters' lives are affected when Alric's researches suggest new physics that could change commerce forever. A possibility to which certain parties react rather strongly.
The glittering setting of satellites and domes is great and the SF extrapolations are generally good. I particularly liked the idea that immortality is difficult and expensive to achieve. Most stories that deal with this subject assume a simple pill or process, but given the complexity of the aging process, this is highly unlikely - the long-term personalised gene therapy and molecular medicine described here seem much more realistic. Though I am not so sure that the long periods of swami-like meditation that are also part of the process would really be necessary.
The characters are strong if generally not very subtle. Candace is an interesting exception - we soon learn that she has extensive implants that augment her biological abilities, making her effectively a cyborg. It is surprisingly hard to think of books that have examined what the experience of neural and physical enhancement might be like from the inside, and Candace is an outstanding example. Alric is an engaging blend of intellectual arrogance and youthful uncertainty and Jamice makes for a likeable journalist. The only main character I didn't really get on with was Tris, whose charms failed to work for me.
I suppose I should be fair and give a few reasons why you might not like this book. If you cannot sympathise with clever and/or rich people, or like moral ambiguity that makes it hard to tell good guys from bad ones, then you will not get on with any of the main characters. Fans of detailed world-building may be irked by the absence of obvious politics, significant members of the lower social orders, or any indication of the historical events that led from the present to the story's setting. Some of the technological and social developments still feel rather twenty-first century given the 400 year gap (personally I would have blurred the date). And of course, being self-published, there are a few unweeded solecisms in the writing that can grate. But otherwise, this is a good read. The plot has moments of thriller-like intensity and a great ending. The subject matter is original and the characters are interesting, likeable or both. Unfortunately you will have to contact the authors to read it - I notice that it is no longer available on lulu - but it's worth looking them up.
Trading Futures - Jessica James and Ken Zetie - Lulu.com, 2011
First off, I must declare an interest - this self-published novel is by two friends of mine and I read and commented on an early draft of the script. So this will be not so much a review as an introduction.
It is the year 2412 and humanity has spread throughout the solar system. Domes and satellites maintain pockets of life from the craters of Mars to the moons of Neptune, all connected by webs of laser light. And what does that light carry? Information. And who needs it? The banks.
Yes, stock markets have gone system-wide. And that brings a problem - or an opportunity. For financial data from the farthest reaches of the solar system will inevitably be time-lagged because of the limiting factor of the speed of light, providing rich pickings for trader quants who can reliably intuit stock market movements. But what if a bright physicist makes a discovery that points to a loophole in nature's inexorable laws? What would happen then?
This is the setting for a story that makes unlikely bedfellows of experimental physics and high finance. The former is represented mainly by Alric, a super-clever but socially awkward teenage mathematician from Mars who is working at Lunar University. On the banking side, the chief protagonists are Candace Goldstein, a top-shot trader who looks like a teenager but is several hundred years old, and her friend Tris, a man with a flamboyant dress-sense but dubious taste (in my opinion) in colour coordination. They live and work on the earth satellite Polaris for First Interplanetary Bank, where they are watched by the sinister chief of security Sorn and his boss Nate. Candace's friend Jamice represents the fourth estate; she works for an outfit called DataMax that is regarded as a trusted purveyor of information throughout the solar system (so unlike our own dear press). All of these characters' lives are affected when Alric's researches suggest new physics that could change commerce forever. A possibility to which certain parties react rather strongly.
The glittering setting of satellites and domes is great and the SF extrapolations are generally good. I particularly liked the idea that immortality is difficult and expensive to achieve. Most stories that deal with this subject assume a simple pill or process, but given the complexity of the aging process, this is highly unlikely - the long-term personalised gene therapy and molecular medicine described here seem much more realistic. Though I am not so sure that the long periods of swami-like meditation that are also part of the process would really be necessary.
The characters are strong if generally not very subtle. Candace is an interesting exception - we soon learn that she has extensive implants that augment her biological abilities, making her effectively a cyborg. It is surprisingly hard to think of books that have examined what the experience of neural and physical enhancement might be like from the inside, and Candace is an outstanding example. Alric is an engaging blend of intellectual arrogance and youthful uncertainty and Jamice makes for a likeable journalist. The only main character I didn't really get on with was Tris, whose charms failed to work for me.
I suppose I should be fair and give a few reasons why you might not like this book. If you cannot sympathise with clever and/or rich people, or like moral ambiguity that makes it hard to tell good guys from bad ones, then you will not get on with any of the main characters. Fans of detailed world-building may be irked by the absence of obvious politics, significant members of the lower social orders, or any indication of the historical events that led from the present to the story's setting. Some of the technological and social developments still feel rather twenty-first century given the 400 year gap (personally I would have blurred the date). And of course, being self-published, there are a few unweeded solecisms in the writing that can grate. But otherwise, this is a good read. The plot has moments of thriller-like intensity and a great ending. The subject matter is original and the characters are interesting, likeable or both. Unfortunately you will have to contact the authors to read it - I notice that it is no longer available on lulu - but it's worth looking them up.