Richard Forthrast has lived an interesting life. Grew up in rural Iowa, ran to Canada to escape the draft, smuggled marijuana across the Idaho border, amassed enough money to eventually invest in an MMO (massively multiplayer online game). He did so not so much because it was cool (though it was), but because he wanted a way to transfer money from the online environment to IRL. It was wildly successful.
When his niece Zula visited him at his ski lodge in Canada, she brought her boyfriend, Peter, and that's where the twist happens that sets the book's plot. Peter, an IT security specialist, had decided to make a quick, one time foray into crime. He stole a bunch of credit card data and sold it to some Russians. He just wanted enough money to pay off his upside down mortgage. By a stroke of misfortune, the files containing the data were hijacked by a group of Chinese hackers using a virus called reamde that exploits Richard's MMO to launder money extorted to unlock the files.
From there the book gets all sorts of exciting. I swear, Stephenson must have written this one with the intent of having it made into a movie or something. I would love to see that. The story is incredible. the characters so good. This is a great book.
3 days ago
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