Synopsis
An unstoppable computer virus opens the door to an ancient Mayan prophecy as the clock ticks down to 2000.
At 1:01 A.M. Greenwich Mean Time on December 11th 1999, computer systems all around the globe freeze for twenty seconds, then return to normal. Susan Garnett, a senior analyst at the FBI's high-tech crime unit, scours the nation's networks for a virus that could have triggered the synchronized event. But her search yields only indecipherable code. The next day, nineteen days before the end of the millennium, at the exact same time, the freeze happens again--for nineteen seconds. The virus is counting down to the beginning of the new millennium, when the world's computers will be at their most vulnerable point in history.
Susan traces the virus's signal to its point of origin, an area near Tikal, the site of one of the largest and most advanced cities of the ancient Maya. How can such an advanced virus originate from a primitive region of the world? What type of global event will the virus trigger at the turn of the millennium?
Certain that the answers are hidden in the densely packed jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula, Susan convinces the US government to allow her and Cameron Slater, an anthropologist who has studied the Maya extensively, to travel to this remote region in a last-ditch effort to stop the countdown.
As 01-01-00 approaches, Susan and Cameron must draw on their combined knowledge of ancient glyphs and modern algorithms in order to crack a code hidden in the virus. Failure to solve the riddles, both ancient and new, before the turn of the new millennium, may unleash a global event of apocalyptic proportions.
Reviews
Twenty days remain until the year 2000 and the activation of the infamous Y2K bug. Suddenly, an incredibly complex, global computer virus begins a countdown to the millennium, shutting down machines for the number of seconds equal to the number of days left until January 1, 2000. Add a mix of torturing terrorists and ancient prophesies, and what you get is Pineiro's (Breakthrough) enticing new novel, almost guaranteed to add more paranoia to the lives of the paranoid, yet, finally, to offer hope as well. Susan Garnett, chief of the FBI's high-tech crimes unit, whose family was recently killed in a hacker-induced car accident, is about to commit suicide. She is yanked back into the thick of life by the virus, which turns out to be linked to an extraterrestrial/Mayan mystery. Taking a cosmic approach to setting, the novel's omniscient narrator puts the Y2K countdown in perspective before zooming in on Susan, the expert Mayan archeologist who helps her, a SETI team whose search for alien life may be over and the terrorists who want to control the virus for their own ends. There is little chance of readers getting lost in the science of the book, as every aspect of it is explained, often using one character's ignorance to allow another to explain something. Paced at a steady rhythm, the narrative oscillates between the technical and the poetic. The proximity of the future predicted may shorten the shelf life of this work, but the paranoia and superstition surrounding the advent of Y2K should give it a vigorous, if brief, run. Agent, Matt Bialer at William Morris. (June) FYI: The marketing campaign for Pineiro's novel will tie in with the licensing program for Ken Walker's trademarked "01-01-00."
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A computer thriller with a mystical climax not so far from Jodie Foster's mind-altering trip in Contact. Two years ago, a hacker in D.C., ballistic after being fired from the city's traffic control division, worked out a virus for freezing the traffic lights throughout the capital. One frozen light led to the death of computer scientist Susan Garnett's husband and infant daughter. Time now leaps to December 11, 1999, with Susan in her tub and her late FBI husband's pistol under her chin. Then the phone rings. Her boss needs her fast: all the computers on the globe froze for 20 seconds at 8:00 this evening. A new virus! Hacker-catcher Susan goes back to work. It's seems impossible that every computer worldwide could freeze simultaneously for 20 seconds. But next day they freeze for 19 seconds, and the next after that for 18 seconds, clearly working toward the millennial countdown 01-01-00. Susan's work leads her to archaeologist Cameron Slater and buried temples in the Central American jungle, where the Mayans were touched 1,200 years ago by a galactic understanding that they then encoded in numbers. Incredibly, the computers on Susan's team that break down the Mayan code abruptly find themselves looking at . . . well, we're not going to say. Pineiro (Breakthrough, 1997, etc.) takes us on a fancy head-trip with plenty of computer fun and thrills along the way. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
A couple of things distinguish this Y2K thriller from its competitors. First: the novel is being merchandised with a copyrighted millennium logo on the title page, opening various cross-marketing possibilities (a frightening trend for the next century). The second difference between this novel and many other turn-of-the-millennium thrillers--of which there are already plenty--is its clever construction. What begins as a "computer thriller" --an FBI computer expert races to figure out who's been causing computers around the world to shut down for a certain length of time each day--turns, rather abruptly, into a sort of Indiana Jones meets Chariots of the Gods adventure, as our heroes find themselves tramping through a South American jungle in pursuit, or so it seems, of some ancient Mayans. It's all quite smart, well executed, and colorful, with engaging characters and (mostly) vivid dialogue. While most writers are cobbling together Y2K thrillers out of prefabricated bits and pieces, Pineiro has created something genuinely original and thoroughly entertaining. David Pitt
A computer virus points to an ancient Mayan prophecy that may come true in the year 2000. There will be a tie-in with a huge merchandising campaign for numerous products featuring the trademarked 01-01-00.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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