Influx

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A tale set in a world in which technological advances have been suppressed finds particle physicist Jon Grady helping to innovate a device capable of reflecting gravity only to be targeted by a shadowy organization from the future.

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Lame characters but great fun anyways. submitted by eknapp on May 19, 2014, 8:28am In 2016, cancer has been cured, energy is cheap and abundant due to the harnessing of nuclear fusion, life can be extended indefinitely, and targeted AIs work miracles...but the world is unaware of any of this thanks to a rogue advancement-impeding government agency called the Bureau of Technology Control. Believing that ungoverned technological progress must result in global catastrophe (eg, curing cancer would cause mass extinction due to population explosion), they kidnap any modern Einsten/Da Vinci/Tesla who makes a great leap forward and erase record of his or her works. Having harvested and researched all these advancements since the Cold War began, the BTC now has godlike power and all the corruption and megalomania that comes with it. Influx is about a scientist--inventor of the freaking-awesome gravity mirror--who escapes and tries to out the BTC's existence to the unsuspecting public.

I enjoyed Influx enough that I ALMOST gave it a 5 but I just don't respect it enough to go all the way.

On one hand the science was really cool, very convincing, not generally obvious yet not contrived. Suarez doesn't talk down to the reader; I had to access parts of my brain that I haven't used since college physics to keep up sometimes. It was a lot of fun.

The author just sucked at writing people though. Characters facing imminent death go through the motions like they're reading from a bad script. Motivations often didn't make sense.

But what the hell, you probably don't read a technothriller for its insights into human nature. Influx was good times.