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Destroying Angel
A VERY old hacker named BJ meets a computer genius who calls herself Black Madonna and who speaks only in palindromes—sentences that read the same backward as they do forward. Black Madonna has created an A. I. (Artificial Intelligence) entity called Black Dragon, and BJ must protect the enigmatic Jonathan and the nucleus of savant women unleashed by Jonathan's special gift from the diabolical Father Love, who is trying to control Black Madonna and her Black Dragon. Over a six-day period, BJ learns that he's been groomed lo these many years to become…The Destroying Angel.
Science fiction author Jerry Pournelle calls Destroying Angel a "tour de force." The late Frank Herbert (author of Dune) convinced author Rick Bennett to run for Congress in 1978. "Luckily I lost," says Bennett, who then went into guerrilla warfare advertising. His one-man ad agency took Larry Ellison and Oracle from $15 million to over $1 billion in sales. Bennett also did the pre-IPO assault on Siebel for Marc Benioff's Salesforce.com. Destroying Angel is guerrilla warfare of another sort.
Bennett, who is a mathematician and inventor of the Hagoth Voice Stress Analyzer, has appeared everywhere from Business Week to The Wall Street Journal, and as a guest on ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's Today and Tomorrow With Tom Snyder, and PBS's McNeil-Lehrer Report. During his work for numerous high-tech companies, he created The 22 Principles for the Perfect Virus. Destroying Angel is a deep dive into Principle #7, Black Box Portability.
Black Box Portabiity allows a virus to infect any device or non-vonNeumann intelligence, even though the virus has no experience, data, or road map for its target. Black Box Portability is "the Holy Grail" of the 22 principles for creating the perfect virus. And since we're virtually in a full-blown cyberwar, Destroying Angel is a timely romp.
Bennett hired Alan Rinzler—who edited for Robert Ludlum, Clive Cussler and Hunter S. Thompson—to edit an early draft of Destroying Angel. Rinzler wrote back: "…wonderful fun to read, from start to finish…convincing and compelling for even a skeptic like me…a winner here…thoroughly credible…a wonderful vision…a splendid conception, brilliantly excuted…deep, spiritual piece of work…"
Destroying Angel is Rick Bennett's first novel.
Science fiction author Jerry Pournelle calls Destroying Angel a "tour de force." The late Frank Herbert (author of Dune) convinced author Rick Bennett to run for Congress in 1978. "Luckily I lost," says Bennett, who then went into guerrilla warfare advertising. His one-man ad agency took Larry Ellison and Oracle from $15 million to over $1 billion in sales. Bennett also did the pre-IPO assault on Siebel for Marc Benioff's Salesforce.com. Destroying Angel is guerrilla warfare of another sort.
Bennett, who is a mathematician and inventor of the Hagoth Voice Stress Analyzer, has appeared everywhere from Business Week to The Wall Street Journal, and as a guest on ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's Today and Tomorrow With Tom Snyder, and PBS's McNeil-Lehrer Report. During his work for numerous high-tech companies, he created The 22 Principles for the Perfect Virus. Destroying Angel is a deep dive into Principle #7, Black Box Portability.
Black Box Portabiity allows a virus to infect any device or non-vonNeumann intelligence, even though the virus has no experience, data, or road map for its target. Black Box Portability is "the Holy Grail" of the 22 principles for creating the perfect virus. And since we're virtually in a full-blown cyberwar, Destroying Angel is a timely romp.
Bennett hired Alan Rinzler—who edited for Robert Ludlum, Clive Cussler and Hunter S. Thompson—to edit an early draft of Destroying Angel. Rinzler wrote back: "…wonderful fun to read, from start to finish…convincing and compelling for even a skeptic like me…a winner here…thoroughly credible…a wonderful vision…a splendid conception, brilliantly excuted…deep, spiritual piece of work…"
Destroying Angel is Rick Bennett's first novel.
- GenresScience Fiction
657 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 22, 2000
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67 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 19, 2017
If you're innocent, you'll be fine. If you're guilty, well...
Rick Bennett delivers a tale immersed in historical references and cutting-edge techno-jargon. He takes the reader on an epic adventure from the ancient Jerusalem to modern San Francisco of a man called to turn the world on its ear, ass and several other body parts.
BJ, known only to few as Barabbas ben Jonas, has a mission from God Himself: to be the hand of vengeance upon the wicked. On the side, he's mentored conquerors and kings, musician's and maiden's over the course of his extensive life.
His current charge, Jonathan (son of John the Revelator) uses his unique "way with women" to help them find peace in an insane world until Father Love (an equally enigmatic leader) catches wind of BJ and his singular way of getting into and out of deadly trouble.
With the experience that only comes from witnessing every technological invention since the birth of Christ, BJ's technical prowess comes into play when an AI becomes self-aware and seems determined to protect its creator at all costs.
Ride along with BJ in his cherished 1979 Eldorado and throw down with gangs, cults and the twin harems of good and evil.
What I liked:
Fun characters and engaging historical references.
What I didn't like:
I wasn't a fan of the 3rd person omniscient narrative. There was a lot of "head-hopping", but I accepted that as the author's style and just went with it.
I give Destroying Angel Four Stars for creatively intertwining multiple historical references into a single storyline and creating characters that I loved or hated.
I'm not only a fan of Rick Bennett, but I'm grateful to consider myself a friend and mentee.
Rick Bennett delivers a tale immersed in historical references and cutting-edge techno-jargon. He takes the reader on an epic adventure from the ancient Jerusalem to modern San Francisco of a man called to turn the world on its ear, ass and several other body parts.
BJ, known only to few as Barabbas ben Jonas, has a mission from God Himself: to be the hand of vengeance upon the wicked. On the side, he's mentored conquerors and kings, musician's and maiden's over the course of his extensive life.
His current charge, Jonathan (son of John the Revelator) uses his unique "way with women" to help them find peace in an insane world until Father Love (an equally enigmatic leader) catches wind of BJ and his singular way of getting into and out of deadly trouble.
With the experience that only comes from witnessing every technological invention since the birth of Christ, BJ's technical prowess comes into play when an AI becomes self-aware and seems determined to protect its creator at all costs.
Ride along with BJ in his cherished 1979 Eldorado and throw down with gangs, cults and the twin harems of good and evil.
What I liked:
Fun characters and engaging historical references.
What I didn't like:
I wasn't a fan of the 3rd person omniscient narrative. There was a lot of "head-hopping", but I accepted that as the author's style and just went with it.
I give Destroying Angel Four Stars for creatively intertwining multiple historical references into a single storyline and creating characters that I loved or hated.
I'm not only a fan of Rick Bennett, but I'm grateful to consider myself a friend and mentee.
Displaying 1 of 1 review