Friday, May 3, 2013

Amped

About time I finally write a blog post!

Amped is a wonderful book written by Daniel H Wilson. I must say I was quite impressed to read in his author bio that he has a PhD in Robotics. I didn't know that was a thing, but I approve.

I have to start off by saying that I wasn't sure what to expect with this story. Amped takes you on a journey through the lives of those with medical implants that completely alter the brain. The main character, Owen, is an Amp. Owen has epilepsy but the implant prevents him from having seizures. Have a kid with ADD? No problem! Give them an implant and they will have improved m
ental focus. The implant can make you smarter, faster, and most of all, an apparent threat to the unaltered people of the world.

I was immediately hooked into this technology thriller. I couldn't wait to find out what happened to Owen. It took me a while to even figure out the main character and his personality which would usually turn me off from a story but this was so intriguing I couldn't wait to get on with the story.

The view we see from Owen's life begins when the Supreme Court has begun to pass laws that basically state that amps don't count as people. The "normal" community can't enter in contracts with the amps, which basically means they are left homeless, jobless and in a whole new class of undesirable status. Why would anyone want to do that? We all know that is going to be a bad idea. Who let them vote that in?!

Joseph Vaughn (the nemesis of the amp communities) and fear let them vote that in. That is the scariest part of this story. I could actually see something awful happening in the book that could be real. Fear and lack of understanding create a lot of the problems we currently have in our world and sometimes it seems as though technology is only hurting us. I love technology but that doesn't mean I don't worry about it running our lives. Hell, it kind of does already.

I can't wait to read others by this author. His writing is fast paced and so refreshingly honest. I loved this.
 

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