The Enigma Broker - Book Review

Charles V Breakfield and Roxanne E Burkey’s novel, The Enigma Broker, is an impressive feat of imagination that speaks to all kinds of significant themes—technology, identity, ethics, and specifically the fallibility of always believing data from “unquestionable reliable sources” even if the meaning of the extracted data defies all logic. Breakfield and Burkey focus on delivering novels with intricate plotting, diverse characters, and action-driven storytelling to immerse the reader in thought-provoking events and circumstances. Their work exposes the impact of cultural and technological themes on society in a number of current and futuristic settings.

The Enigma Broker takes place amidst a fascinating technological and nerd milieu. If you liked the supercomputer HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey; you will love ICABOD, which is also a supercomputer that listens to ambient conversations and joins in often with its own views and analysis derived from what it hears and knows from its monstrous data resources.  As a former programmer, the book was a nostalgic trip back into nerd culture steeped in technological jargon complete with a multitude of acronyms and discussions of algorithms. But Breakfield and Burkey also deliver riveting mysteries shrouded in technology. In fact, from the first word to the last I was gripped by the twisting, turning plot line and wonderful characters.
 

The novel begins by introducing a brilliant student who makes a minor mistake in his youth with the fall out from it, setting him on a path of revenge that he will extract decades later on the world and on his old school colleagues who he feels deserted him. It's the kind of book you simply have to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next. Breakfield and Burkey's characters are rich and fully three-dimensional; the storyline is fast-paced with more than enough mystery and intrigue to keep any reader happy. Perhaps even better though is the fact that this book is a part of a series and yet reads brilliantly as a stand-alone novel; a rare and tricky thing for any author to pull off.  The story is full of "tech talk" as its intrepid adventurers strive to save the financial foundation of corporations and nations from a total meltdown.

In The Enigma Broker, the characters struggle to make sense of why the information that dictates the health of the commodities market appears to be woefully in error.  The board of directors of ePETRO notice the obvious errors on the data and make an urgent call to Mike Patrick their CEO to get to the bottom of it. After a severe dressing down by Marge, his boss, he hires Jacob and Petra from the R-Group to try and figure out why the commodities numbers worldwide are so distorted from what they should be. Soon Jacob realizes that he is sparing with an overwhelming technological force which he fears will fight relentlessly to retain the upper hand in the cyber battle.  The book is also about characters struggling with their own identity and life issues as they face the inevitable digital deluge that they must master and manage; there is a wedding in the making, there is a couple of bad guys who are finally tiring of their risky life and want out. But with an arch villain who seems to know their every move and kills members of his own cadre and enemies with impunity, will he let these events happen?

Anyone who has been exposed to commodities knows that numbers can be manipulated by unscrupulous commodity players, like the Hunt brothers cornering the Silver Market, or  John Edmonds with his bogus precious metal orders causing prices to spike or fall. The situations in The Enigma Broker are plausible, and the characters believable.  This book offers a profound insight into what happens when erroneous information flows as easily into objects as electricity and is taken for granted.  
 

What an eye-opener to the potential issues of Super Artificial Intelligence and how it could totally disregard our values with the values of its programmed objectives.

The somewhat humorous and friendly ICABOD computer is at first unimaginable, but after thinking about it, if you had the "brain" power of a Super AI, it all seems eerily possible. I highly recommend The Enigma Broker, if you like mysteries, and technology with a complex, well developed and thought-provoking plot.

By the way, many doors are left open for what could happen in the next sequel.