Dangerous Data - Softcover

Lury.Gibson

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593047419 ISBN 13: 9780593047415

Publisher: Bantam Press, 2001

Synopsis

There is no longer a simple delete button. Nothing can ever be truly erased. The facts are always there, safe on a database. Someone's looking through it. Sifting. Data-mining. Discovering your secrets. Someone like Dogg: Data Detective.

About this title

Review:

Your privacy has expired, runs the strapline of Lury.Gibson's compulsive Dangerous Data--and the dot joining their names rather than an ampersand tells us that this is a hi-tech thriller, with the dissemination of personal data forming as much of a threat as physical violence, which makes this a salutary read. The duo's protagonist may be called Dogg, but he's a data detective rather than a gangsta rapper, and his speciality is the hidden strata of human lives. With just one fact , however bare, Dogg can fill in the details of a whole life. For a client called James, Dogg agrees to track down the mysterious, elusive Cynthia... and soon finds himself in a maelstrom of mystifying data. And Cynthia is slowly revealed as living a very strange life indeed.

What makes Dangerous Data so insidiously beguiling is its unique format: Set against Dogg's first-person narrative are the data sheets by which he peels away Cynthia's protective cover, and as the plot advances, we're never allowed to forget that everything he learns about her is just as applicable to us--most of us might now be electronically stripped bare in quite the same fashion:

I can even get into bed with our Cynthia. She's filled in one of those sex surveys, in a mag called Emmanuelle she gets on private subscription--membership stuff. But however private, the mag still has a database... so in the safety of a questionnaire, she feels her dark secret is being projected onto black walls. She runs her hands over the invisible words on the wall...how she feels about oral sex. Her favourite position. Her most complete sexual experience...

--Barry Forshaw

Review:

A compelling, gripping thriller with a highly successful gimmick... -- The Big Issue, 23 July 2001

A new breed of thriller...terrifying convincing...I doubt there will be a more important book published this year. -- The Guardian, 12 July 2001

Compelling reading for conspiracy theorists who might realise that this Dogg's bark is all about bytes. -- i-D

Frighteningly good...terrifying, not least because much of it is believable. -- Arena, July 2001

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0593047419
• ISBN 13: 9780593047415
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272