Chapter By Chapter> Tekwar chapter 13

Chapter By Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at a time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

Sorry for the day delay. Yesterday’s topic was worth getting out at the time. And now…our book

Our previous chapter should have been part of the chapter before it given how short it was. We also find another faction in the race to recover Kittridge. I wonder if Jake is questioning being let out of the freezer at this point?

This week’s chapter is a full-length chapter so I’m hoping for the story to get moved forward. I’m expecting more showing off how in The Future but at least the story has started moving. Not much else to say here so let’s read.

Jake goes to Jerry Sundell, a porn director gone legit because apparently the government not only cracked down on human porn but android porn. Okay. Interesting that they predicted legal marijuana considering how Sundell carries his cigarettes and cop or  not openly smokes them in front of Jake. His information is stuff we already guessed, that there were numerous factions vying for  Dr. Kittridge so the only point here seems to be laughing at the guy when his holographic house and sexy redhead android girlfriend are both repossessed. Seriously, what was the point of this scene? To say porn pays more than regular movies? They really stress the marijuana cigarettes and the naked sexy redhead in the former master bedroom. Sometimes you need to decide if something belongs in the final product and this really didn’t.

Jake’s next place to search for information is more useful. They also use the time Jake’s been away to establish that Patricia Wong is a tech writer and teacher since she’s changed, as she notes, the least of the people he knows. That puts her not as a friend of Kittridge or Denenberg (who apparently worked with as was smitten by Kittridge) but in a position to hear all the rumors. It looks like Bennett Sands is tied into all this as he was funding Kittridge’s anti-Tek project to sell to the government. Was he planning to stiff him by killing the doctor after he finished, or finished just enough that his company could finish the work and take all the money? Not even suggested but if he’s that greedy and not a nice person it’s possible. I wonder if that ties into Jake and his ex? Denenberg had her own place in Mexico and given how often that’s come up Mexico seems to be the place to be, but Jake isn’t going in with as many facts as possible.

In the final segment Jake brainstorms with Gomez about what might have happened. Sonny wants to protect his chips while wiping out the competition, the Kittridges wanting to bypass Sands and get rich on their own…nobody brings up the idea that they may be bypassing Sands to give it away for free and save the world on their own. Also not brought up? Imagine…to have a number let’s say 100,000 Tek heads so addicted to the stuff that they’re in seriously bad mental health but still mobile. Now imagine what happens if all the Tek chips they have are destroyed…especially damaging if they’re in use as that could cause a schizoid embolism like the Rekall memory implanter from Total Recall (my third Chapter By Chapter review, actually). Imagine that many people completely trapped in their fantasy, including the possibility they’ll act out that fantasy in real space and cause a whole lot of trouble. It sounds like a great plan until you really think about the after effects. This really is a nuclear option, only instead of radioactive fallout you get Tek zombies. The world should be prepared for that, or at least the governments should and be ready to help them out.

That ends this chapter. Join us next time as I’m assuming we’re actually on our way to Mexico.