Phil in SF reviewed Man Who Saw Seconds by Alexander Boldizar
Fun but not very interesting
4 stars
Preble Jefferson can see into the future, about 5 seconds. What happens when governments figure out what he can do? And what can such a person do against world superpowers? To illustrate his power, two of the few ways to defeat him are to get him in an elevator where the trip takes longer than 5 seconds, or to carpet bomb enough area that he can't escape and he can't see it coming until it's too late.
There's a few scenes of Preble Jefferson doing his thing. There's a middle section where Preble Jefferson and his friend & lawyer Fish, a paranoid anarchist, discuss ways to structure government power to protect against institutional despotism. That section is disconnected, slow, and ultimately not germane to the story. And a final section where Preble Jefferson becomes all right with being a monster in defense of his family and takes on everything …
Preble Jefferson can see into the future, about 5 seconds. What happens when governments figure out what he can do? And what can such a person do against world superpowers? To illustrate his power, two of the few ways to defeat him are to get him in an elevator where the trip takes longer than 5 seconds, or to carpet bomb enough area that he can't escape and he can't see it coming until it's too late.
There's a few scenes of Preble Jefferson doing his thing. There's a middle section where Preble Jefferson and his friend & lawyer Fish, a paranoid anarchist, discuss ways to structure government power to protect against institutional despotism. That section is disconnected, slow, and ultimately not germane to the story. And a final section where Preble Jefferson becomes all right with being a monster in defense of his family and takes on everything and everybody.
There's a lot of game theory in the story that feels very amateur. Luckily Boldizar doesn't dwell long enough on any one instance where I wanted to stop and think about it.
