Book Review - John Smith: Las Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars

John Smith: Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars

By: Roland Hughes
Publisher: Logikal Solutions
Publication Date: March 2013
ISBN: 978-1-939732-00-2
Reviewed by: Amy Lignor
Review Date: November 25, 2013

The Jobs vs. Gates debate may be the spark that comes to your reader’s mind when you first glance at the title of this book. However, the particular realm of computers and the digital industry does take a backseat when it comes to this well-written, yet sometimes extremely haunting tale.

Here we have an interview of mammoth proportions. A young woman sits down to speak with our lead character. This woman’s mother is the mayor of a city, and her father runs the newspaper in said city ... on Earth. Her basic job throughout the book is to question and learn from John Smith. Smith is a man who will feel a lot like the people you know and see each and every day. Smith complains, reviles, applauds, honors and debates our past - the things humanity did wrong that led to our eventual demise that took place on November 13, 2013.

This reporter goes into the interview with only one basic question on her mind: Why was it called the Microsoft Wars? But her interviewee can not simply state the answer. After all, the actual end came about from a history of errors and misjudgments occurring in everything, from religion to technology to the handling of diseases and healthcare. Therefore, John Smith takes our interviewer back through the old days to explain the foundation of humanity and how it disintegrated.

He was only eleven-years-old when Earth turned into the Earth That Was. When this ‘ending’ happened, John Smith watched the world change and split into a twelve-continent globe. He watched as the history, information and all that we were, did and said over time was completely lost. The new generation - the new Earth - would never understand who we were and what we were about because that data was now long gone. So taking on the huge weight of explanation, John Smith delves into everything from nuclear power to our War on Terror, throwing in things like Atlantis and King Arthur references as well.

This novel remains in an interview format throughout, which can become a little slow at times without a change of scenery or movement. Yet the dialogue given by John Smith will have readers nodding their heads at times, smiling at others, and most definitely feeling a bit chilled, as if they’re leading up to a Stephen King-type closure.

John Smith is a regular, average-Joe. He is not a democrat nor a republican and does not wish to express the views of any certain ‘side.’ In fact, he remains just like the rest of us at his core. We are a people who wonder if we will be annihilated. Is there a nuclear war on the horizon that’s yet to be seen? Will terror, or climate change; finance, or the basic greediness of our culture destroy us? There is no answer to that question as of yet, but this character and his views will certainly have you thinking about the many wrong avenues we’re walking down long after the book has come to an end.

Quill says: Part historical, part sci-fi, this story is definitely realistic and covers all debatable subjects when it comes to our people and our planet.

For more information on John Smith: Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars, please visit the book's website at: www.johnsmith-book.com

Books in for Review

Here's a peek at some of the books that have just come in for review.  Check them out and then stop by in a few weeks to read the reviews.  Enjoy!

Headlong by Ron MacLean It's a hot Boston summer, and Nick Young, a washed-up journalist back in town to care for his dying father, is feeling the heat. Using his old skills to solve a mystery before the police do: to connect the dots between a major labor strike, a violent Occupy-style movement, and a murder that may involve his best friend's teen son. HEADLONG is a literary thriller about fathers, sons, eco-terrorism, murder, immaturity, anarchism, marriage, friendship and failure.

John Smith: Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars What if the Mayans got the start of the end correct because they had survived it once before? What if our written history was just as accurate as the old tale about three blind men describing an elephant? What if classic science fiction writing and television shows each got a piece of it correct, would you know which ones? If your eyes can only see a tiny portion of a collage do you know it is a collage?

Little Star by Anthony DeStefano Tonight a king will be born, and all the stars in heaven are competing to see who can shine the brightest for him. But when the stars see the poor family huddling in the shabby stable, they begin to think that this baby couldn't be a king after all! That is, all the stars except the smallest, loneliest star in the sky, Little Star. He recognizes the baby Jesus as the King of kings and understands His special message of love. Read on to discover the extraordinary way Little Star serves his King on that cold, dark night.

Light Riders and the Missouri Mud Murder by Ann Goldfarb Sixteen-year-old Ryn and his younger sister, Aeden, hadn't planned on using their knowledge of time travel to solve any more murders. But when the body of their friend's great-grandfather turns up encased in mud, they decide to tackle one more mystery. Unaware that solar flares would interfere with the time-space continuum, the siblings find themselves caught in a time loop between 1952 and the Ice Age and are forced to use survival skills they never thought they had. But worst of all, someone has traveled back in time with them, posing a greater threat than any of the prehistoric animals they face. "Light Riders" Ryn and Aeden must work frantically to unlock the clues, because the next jolt through time could be their last. And this time, Snell's Law of Refraction won't save them.

Behind the Smile: Sex, Humor, and Terror During the Glamour Years of Aviation by Bobbi Phelps Wolverton A memoir about international flying in the glamour years of aviation (1965-1973). Bobbi, a young adventurous woman, joins the airline industry and shares fascinating true tales, illustrating life behind the scenes while flying through bullets into Vietnam, having babies born in flight, sexual escapades, and harassment from violent passengers.

Swimming to the Moon: A Collection of Rhymes Without Reason by Jeff McMahonWords of wisdom, whimsy and wonder fill this collection of tall tales and silly stories. As you wander through the pages you just may come across a rare Giraffapotamus, or meet The Remarkable Hector McTwee, and maybe even take a ride on a Unicornicycle. There are Cannonballs and Cartwheelers, Tree Climbers and Trampolinists, Moon Swimmers and Moose Riders, and an amazing assortment of funny, strange, and unforgettable rhymes that will have you wondering just what's coming next. A timeless collection of poems and art keeping the tradition of hardcover books and bedtime reading alive. This is the first in a projected trilogy which will include the sequel Running To The Sun, to be followed by Sailing To The Stars.

Gourmet French Macarons: Over 75 Unique Flavors and Festive Shapes (CD Included) by Mindy Cone French macarons with a unique twist of color and shapes! Go beyond circles and basic flavors and give the popular classic a modern and whimsical makeover. Gourmet French Macarons is filled with tried and tested recipes, techniques, styling ideas, templates, and decorating tips. Impress everyone with over 75 flavors and shapes to fit each season, holiday, or life celebration.

Cherished Memories by Sylvia Rouss When nine-year-old Amy offers to help her grandmother recover her worn and stained dining room chairs, she is surprised to learn that her grandmother likes them just the way they are. Grandma's loving explanation is an amusing and delightful tapestry of Cherished Memories.

Interview with author Roland Hughes

Today we're excited to talk with Roland Hughes, author of Infinite Exposure.

FQ: With your background in VMS platforms and writing technical books for various computer technologies, how/why did you make the jump to writing a novel?

Blame it on an interview much like this one. Literally. About a year or two ago I was being interviewed and received the question "Where do you see IT in 5-10 years?" That's a standard question a lot of interviewers toss out when they are talking about technical things. I guess they weren't really prepared to receive the answer "The off-shoring of IT jobs will lead to the largest terrorist strike the free world has ever seen, and ultimately nuclear war."

The interviewer was quite stunned since they expected me to do like most IT vendors do and pitch some upcoming product. They didn't know that in my youth I used to do work which required clearance and still had quite a few friends working on systems requiring low-astronomical clearance levels. Even though I no longer do that kind of work, I still design systems which can survive having the primary location being taken out by either a nuclear strike or a 9/11 style plane crash, without missing a single transaction or slowing down for more than 10 minutes. Every publicly traded corporation should be required to have such a system, virtually none of them do, as 9/11, Katrina and a host of other disasters have shown.

Given my background, it was pretty easy to see where the off-shoring of IT jobs and data centers were going to take us. The real challenge was explaining it in a way Joe the Plumber could understand. The question isn't "if" something like this will happen, but when. Some of the follow up things talked about in my novel have already happened:

FBI Uncovers Worldwide $9M ATM Card Scam

FBI seeks 2 Chicago-area suspects in ATM scheme

RBS WorldPay Hacked; 1.5 Million Cardholders at Risk

FQ: Infinite Exposure deals with off-shore IT storage and how that practice could lead to a terrorist plot. Even with your technical background, did you have to research the various aspects of the plot?

No. No, my career requires that I know such things off the top of my head, much like a roofer can glance at your house and know how many square of shingles to order without ever getting out a tape measure.

When this story broke:

Gunfire heard at two Mumbai hotels

It wasn't a surprise to me that a terrorist attack happened in India, or that it seem quite well coordinated. Terrorists play a game of "follow the money". when their ability to get operatives into this country from Pakistan and the other "middle east" countries dried up, they followed the IT market to another country where there were extremists ripe for recruitment.

FQ: When reading Infinite Exposure I was first struck by the character of Nedim, a “good Muslim." I believe it was the first time I'd read about a possible terrorist from his point of view and it was quite interesting. Was there a specific reason why you wrote sections of the story from his point of view?

Yes. There has been too great of a tendency in the media to focus on "extremists" and "religious fanatics willing to die for their cause." The media focuses on them because what they do creates other headlines. Until the media understands that those people are nothing more than pawns in this game, we won't have an affective terrorism policy in this country or around the world. The really dangerous ones are the ones who aren't terrorists, just facilitators. Eliminate them and you eliminate 98% of all terrorism. Yes, there will still be extremists ready to die for a cause, but they won't have anyone to fund, teach or coordinate that death.

The character of Nedim was actually loosely based on a real life character. I'm sure some of those reading world news events had memories of a similar story.

FQ: Margaret, the First Global Bank employee was my favorite character. I enjoyed reading about a strong woman with a rather bumbling male boss. She's not the only strong female character in your book. Had you made a decision early on to have strong female characters?

Not really, or at least not consciously. While this may sound chauvinistic, I don't really respect or find interesting women that have as much backbone as a soap bubble. Men like that, on the other hand, are utterly hilarious. You know exactly how they are going to screw up a task before they are even assigned it. Sadly, most of them tend to hold MBAs and work in upper management.

Believe it or not, Margaret's boss was based (far less loosely than Nedim) on managers I've encountered in real life.

FQ: Using off-shore companies to store data seems to be a growing problem. What are your thoughts about the practice?

Like all really bad practices, it won't be stopped until there is a massive disaster. We have lived through the Clinton era bank deregulation which gave us (in large part) the current mortgage fiasco. Who could forget the DOT COM (DOT BOMB) Clinton era Ponzi scam unleashed during an election campaign? There have been dozens of other large scale debacles (the Carter grain embargo of Russia?) which were only dealt with after the fact.

We do not have a pro-active government, we have a fill-my-campaign-war-chest based government that doesn't bite the hand feeding it unless the body count gets really high. Take a good look at the credit card companies. They have been running amok for decades. When did the government finally take action? This week.

FQ: Do you see the events of Infinite Exposure as merely science fiction or a wake-up call?

I expect them to actually happen in less than five years. The actual location may not be India as several large financial institutions have moved their data centers to other countries with even lower paid workers, but everything is in play. Sadly, if the government would wind down most of the banks we've given TARP money to, the bulk of the off-shore data centers would be eliminated and the world would be shielded from this problem. I don't expect anyone from "The Fed" to read this book and making paying back of TARP contingent upon having all of their data centers located in a NATO country where security background checks can be accurately carried out.

To learn more about Infinite Exposure , please read the review at: Feathered Quill Book Reviews.