Random Origins: Four Our Cyber World Stories

Our Cyber World #7

by Eduardo Suastegui

Find out how Our Cyber World got its random when you enter a world where secret government projects employ reluctant hackers to secure key national Cyber infrastructure, along the way co-opting drones and microwave ovens to do clever things. In this world you will meet Julian Rogers before he washed out of said projects, and you will come face to face with artificial intelligence technologies whose creators struggle to control. Together with Feral, my upcoming novel, the stories in Random Origins precede DEAD BEEF (Our Cyber World, book 1) and give insight into what happens in that full length novel. Come in and join a world of hacking while speeding along highways inside a semi trailer, of networked kamikaze drones, and a few other less than perfected tricks our protagonists tinker with. This collection includes four long short Semi, Cyber Radio, DroNET, and King's Sacrifice. What are these about? Semi: Julian Rogers thought he went there for another hack. Sure, his contact told him to meet at a Las Vegas truck stop. But Julian needed the money to keep his Las Vegas gambling spree rolling. Instead, he will find himself barreling down the highway inside a semi-trailer, doing the hack of his life. Julian likes to keep it random and keep it real, but this ride may prove too random, even for him. Cyber Radio: When Julian shows off how to control a microwave oven without touching it, everyone thinks it’s all in good fun and enjoys the popcorn he cooks. But what if the prank-hack holds the key to breaching air-gapped computer networks? What if that possibility brings out operatives who will do anything to get their hands on this Cyber technology? DroNET: Julian Rogers had a great network a bunch of drones, and use them to deliver a Cyber payload. But the concept went nowhere for lack of Federal funding. When terrorists unleash coordinated drone attacks on the US Capitol, Julian becomes the lead suspect. Did he, embittered and frustrated, spill his idea to the terrorists? Or maybe that’s all in his head. One way or the other he will show them he is the best man to thwart the rogue Dronet. Either that, or he’ll die trying. King's Sacrifice: They created an artificial intelligence with flawless predictive powers. For a year and a half, the Simulation and Emulation System (SES) has quietly predicted every major crisis and it has successfully recommended effective solutions and mitigation strategies. Now they must decide. Will they trust it when it recommends a constitutional crisis as the best course of action? Read more about Our Cyber

Genres: Thriller

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 24, 2015

About the author

Eduardo Suastegui has loved to daydream since he was a child. With formal education in math and science, affirmed through hands-on engineering experience in designing, building, and integrating gadgets of varying complexity, that daydreaming fed technological innovation. On the side, it also fueled artistic expression.

Of late that daydreaming has engendered stories about hackers, rogue AIs, and space travel, with more than a few stories about a dog trainer and her military K9s sprinkled in. Rumor has it he may even have a Western or two in him.

Eduardo loves to dive into fast-flowing, character-driven stories. With each of the books he reads or writes, he hopes to continue that adventure. For him, a great story is one that moves ahead, but which also moves you. More than anything, through his writing he hopes to connect with readers and so share a piece of himself with those who pick up all that daydreaming turned into written words.

Reviews

[Pat Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

The short stories in this collection tell the backstories of Julian and Bogdan, two characters that will appear in (chronologically) later novels in Suastegui's Our Cyber World series. Far more interesting to me, though, is the third "character," a style of coding that is either stochastic or programmatic.

Stochastic, or random, events are typical of nature, and Julian embraces the random style of the universe, as he observes it. His fatalistic acceptance of disaster or triumph as simply what happens—in other words, not under our control—is a direct forerunner of his actions in Dead Beef. Reading the prequel stories after that novel makes it a lot more obvious why Julian makes the choices he does in that later conflict.

Bogdan's approach is the opposite of fatalistic, so the complex programmatic clockworks of his code are perfectly understandable. Like Martin Spencer, whose code Julian would later stigmatize as "a calculator," Bogdan tries to tie down every possible outcome and its solution. Only his chess-master brilliance makes it remotely possible he might succeed.

These stories can be read either before or after their sequel, which is a hard feat to accomplish. Suastegui has done it, though. Bravo!

[Marva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked Suastegui's Jane books very much. I was also hesitant to jump into the Cyber World series because I come from a programming background and many books dealing with cyber information are laughable.

When I got a great deal (either free or 99 cents) on this book containing four longish short stories from the series, it gave me a chance to sample.

Eduardo Suastegui presents quite believable futuristic computer capabilities and the people who develop and use them. Now I can safely read some of the full novels without disappointment.

Good work. Very enjoyable read.

[Janeandjerry]

Four Our Cyber World Series

This was a great book from start to finish. There is actually about four stories combined in this book and each one makes the one before and after that much better

[Janeandjerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book from start to finish. There is actually about four stories combined in this book and each one makes the one before and after that much better