System Crash (Tethys Prequel #1)
At the dawn of the interstellar age…
In the late 2050s century interstellar exploration has suddenly and unexpectedly become a reality.
On Earth, InfoGen's TransNet has become a communication spider's web that threatens to choke freedom and human development.
Carl Ilkwood, ruler of this behemoth of power and influence, recalls Jim Corwin, his former security chief, to protect his daughter Sam from a series of attacks attributed to the Listerites, a group of cyber terrorists, who appear intent on bringing TransNet and InfoGen to their knees.
But when Jim returns, he finds that few things are what they appear to be and that the true danger to his protégé lies deep within InfoGen itself.
Note 1: This novel originally was not meant to be connected with the Tethys series novels. However, eventually it became clear to me that it could become the first part of a chronology of the history that eventually led to the discovery of Tethys. It also starts off the history of the Corwin family, whose latest descendant, Mac, is one of the protagonists of Fontaine and Tethys.
Note 2: Since its first publication, System Crash has had several revisions, most of which attempt to make the context in which the story is set into a not-too-unbelievable projection of the grim future faced by humanity in the 21st century; as well as the grim solutions we may have to resort to, to deal with those who would turn—actually already have turned—technology into a super-effective instrument of suppression of human freedom and development.
Note 3: This novel contains love scenes with mildly explicit sexual elements.