Breakpoint
Against All Enemies warned about how we were conducting the war against terror. The Scorpion's Gate demonstrated what could happen. And now America's preeminent counterterrorism expert and #1 bestselling author shows us all . . .hat might come next.

The global village-an intricately intertwined network of technology that binds together the world's economies, governments, and communication systems. So large, so vital-and so fragile. Now a sophisticated group is seeking to "disconnect the globe"-destroying computer grids, communications satellites, Internet cable centers, biotech firms. Hard to do? If only that were so.

Quickly, a dedicated team of men and women assembles to try to track the group down, searching through right-wing militias and Russian organized crime, Jihadist terrorists and enemy nation-states. But the attacks are coming more swiftly now, and growing in destructiveness. Soon, they will reach the breakpoint- and then there may be nothing anybody can do.

Reviewers everywhere praised the suspense and pace of The Scorpion's Gate, the vivid depictions of war, espionage, and bureaucracy, but most of all they hailed its authenticity. "Unlike most novelists, the man has been there and done that," said The New York Times Book Review. "Some of us," added The Washington Post, "have learned to listen when Richard A. Clarke has something to say." And we'd better hope they're listening now.
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Breakpoint
Against All Enemies warned about how we were conducting the war against terror. The Scorpion's Gate demonstrated what could happen. And now America's preeminent counterterrorism expert and #1 bestselling author shows us all . . .hat might come next.

The global village-an intricately intertwined network of technology that binds together the world's economies, governments, and communication systems. So large, so vital-and so fragile. Now a sophisticated group is seeking to "disconnect the globe"-destroying computer grids, communications satellites, Internet cable centers, biotech firms. Hard to do? If only that were so.

Quickly, a dedicated team of men and women assembles to try to track the group down, searching through right-wing militias and Russian organized crime, Jihadist terrorists and enemy nation-states. But the attacks are coming more swiftly now, and growing in destructiveness. Soon, they will reach the breakpoint- and then there may be nothing anybody can do.

Reviewers everywhere praised the suspense and pace of The Scorpion's Gate, the vivid depictions of war, espionage, and bureaucracy, but most of all they hailed its authenticity. "Unlike most novelists, the man has been there and done that," said The New York Times Book Review. "Some of us," added The Washington Post, "have learned to listen when Richard A. Clarke has something to say." And we'd better hope they're listening now.
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Breakpoint

Breakpoint

by Richard A. Clarke

Narrated by Robertson Dean

Unabridged — 8 hours, 20 minutes

Breakpoint

Breakpoint

by Richard A. Clarke

Narrated by Robertson Dean

Unabridged — 8 hours, 20 minutes

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Overview

Against All Enemies warned about how we were conducting the war against terror. The Scorpion's Gate demonstrated what could happen. And now America's preeminent counterterrorism expert and #1 bestselling author shows us all . . .hat might come next.

The global village-an intricately intertwined network of technology that binds together the world's economies, governments, and communication systems. So large, so vital-and so fragile. Now a sophisticated group is seeking to "disconnect the globe"-destroying computer grids, communications satellites, Internet cable centers, biotech firms. Hard to do? If only that were so.

Quickly, a dedicated team of men and women assembles to try to track the group down, searching through right-wing militias and Russian organized crime, Jihadist terrorists and enemy nation-states. But the attacks are coming more swiftly now, and growing in destructiveness. Soon, they will reach the breakpoint- and then there may be nothing anybody can do.

Reviewers everywhere praised the suspense and pace of The Scorpion's Gate, the vivid depictions of war, espionage, and bureaucracy, but most of all they hailed its authenticity. "Unlike most novelists, the man has been there and done that," said The New York Times Book Review. "Some of us," added The Washington Post, "have learned to listen when Richard A. Clarke has something to say." And we'd better hope they're listening now.

Editorial Reviews

Yes, that Richard A. Clarke: the former counterterrorism chief who wrote Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror. His second novel, Breakpoint, is even better than The Scorpion's Gate, his debut fiction effort. Set in 2012, this futuristic technothriller pits a clandestine trio of U.S. government investigators against an elusive crew of cyberspace terrorists. As in his previous novel, Clarke peppers the action with realistic modules of cutting-edge expertise. An escapist read with real-world relevance.

William Stevenson

The skeptical reader will be seduced by the action. Clarke whizzes from aerial laser-gun dogfights between China and Taiwan to the Bahamas, where Susan tries to rescue the extra-chromosome children of wealthy clients at a baby clinic with a secret agenda. Drawing upon stacks of current scientific research, all carefully sourced, Clarke dangles the carrot of speculation about the enemy's identity until the very end. In a final author's note, he reviews current technologies that could be used for good or for ill. As he sees it, "sometimes you can tell more truth through fiction," which may lead the reader to the uneasy conclusion that the real enemy is us.
— The Washington Post

Vanity Fair

Yikes! Richard A. Clarke's nail-biter suspense novel (Putnam) irrefutably proves that there is nothing like being America's pre-eminent counterterrorism expert to goose up your book with real terror.

Kirkus Reviews

Former presidential adviser and terrorist specialist Clarke (The Scorpion's Gate, 2005, etc.) offers a lights-and-sirens futuristic techno-fantasy. Massive simultaneous beachhead and underwater explosions on Sunday, March 8, years in the future, cripple American telecommunications systems (including satellites), effectively reducing the overseas armed forces' ability to carry potential wartime missions. The Pentagon and Homeland Security take up the alarm, dispatching two seemingly mismatched professionals to get to the bottom of this obvious terrorist strike. Jimmy Foley, an NYPD detective newly arrived in Washington, on loan to the Intelligence Analysis Center, and Susan Connor, head of IAC's Special Projects unit, are assigned to investigate what the government believes is China's retaliation for America's support of Taiwan's independence. The duo's mission is to find out who organized the bombings of key technological systems and what they plan to strike next. The novel's intricate narrative introduces a dizzying array of programs designed to trace international telecommunications, culminating in the supposedly flawless uber-program Living Software, which would put all hackers out of business. Foley and Connor infiltrate pods of Harvard academics and Silicon Valley computer evangelists, entering a brave new world of genomics and reverse-engineering of the brain that "runs a risk of blurring what it means to be human," Susan observes. All of this points to a creepy movement called Transhumanism, which advocates the improvement of humanity through genetic engineering. (It's a real movement that holds regular meetings, states the Author's Note.) Clarke has certainly done his homework,tossing off asides on the organic evolution of technological trends from robotics and nanotechnology. Some may be confounded by this international cyber-maze, which reads more like a textbook than a novel.

JUN/JUL 07 - AudioFile

Richard Clarke, famous for his 9/11 Commission testimony, turns out to be a competent novelist. His story is set in 2012, in a somewhat unsettling world in which humans, technology, and various networks are merging. So who's destroying key pieces of this "progress"? Clarke provides an excellent blend of real-world and fictional scenarios, and an end chapter spells out which technologies and trends are currently real, or on the verge of real, and which are pure fiction. Robertson Dean matches his voicing and pacing to the novel's characters and plot. Dean delivers Clarke’s version of the future with flair. T.F. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID: 2940169436013
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Publication date: 01/16/2007
Edition description: Unabridged
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