Bandwidth

Bandwidth takes place in the near future at a time when the Internet has become even more integrated into the lives of all humans, and as a result, the corporations that control the digital feed control much of the world. Commonwealth is the company that has become the dominate provider of the feed and as a result has become the most powerful of companies. The company guarantees it’s feed to be totally secure. In order to maintain order as Commonwealth sees fit, they hired Apex which is the premier Washington lobbying firm. Apex sells it’s nearly always successful lobbying activities to the highest bidder, and their best agent is Dag Calhoun, a talented, athletic, charismatic man who has a combination of talents akin to such characters as James Bond, Dirk Pitt, Harry Bosch, and perhaps Jack Taylor.

In the course of doing his work for Apex, Calhoun has assisted powerful corporations to achieve their own selfish profit-motivated goals even if it is clearly to the detriment of the environment where severe weather conditions have dramatically increased. And what if the “feed” is not really so secure, so that the information that is provided to individuals is really manipulated by people with hidden agendas. So, there is a clear dystopian quality to this story – there are very clear good guys and bad guys, and I think you’ll enjoy the resolution.

Mostly, I want to comment about the quality of Peper’s writing – which is brilliant. Emily Kim was the character who challenged Dag to consider the negative impact his work was having on the world, and in a conversation with Emily, Dag says, “’Everything we do, everything we believe, everything we are, we think it’s ours to choose.’ His voice quickened, words rushing to get out. ‘But even something as inconsequential as wanting a lawn in front of our homes isn’t a true choice. It’s the product of a never-ending series of historical accidents. We take the world we’re bon into for granted. We imagine that we control our thoughts and dreams. We think we’re free to be who we want to be. But there’s this vast hidden architecture that shapes us, and we don’t even know it. It’s like we’re actors in a play who don’t realize we’re working off a script.’”

I don’t know anyone else who writes like this. Peper fills out his story with a great cast of characters who are believable. This is an intense and captivating story. Eliot Peper is my newest favorite author, so I invite you to check out his other five novels, a well as Bandwidth.