Shutdown

by R.J. Pineiro

Forge Books, 320 pp., $24.95

Writers, from the minute they first put pen to paper or finger to keyboard, are subjected to the hoary adage: Write what you know. R.J. Pineiro — author and computer engineer at Austin’s Advance Micro Devices — set out to do just that in Shutdown, a novel that once again exploits his background among Central Texas’ high-techies. This time around, he builds his techno-thriller on the premise that Japanese corporate and criminal elements have collaborated to sabotage entire model lines of American-made computer multiprocessors in the engineering stage. The defective chips fail, resulting in train crashes and plane crashes — described in horrific detail — intended to frighten computer manufacturers away from U.S. chips and vault Japanese tech firms back into world domination. Far-fetched? Sure, but not entirely out-of-bounds in a world where the Internet can be brought to its knees in a few hours by a couple Filipino pranksters.

By way of lending authenticity to the proceedings, Pineiro goes heavy on the silicon lingo (“If you notice, sir, this aluminum microtrace connects power to the logic of the reset circuit of the TI6500.” Well, of course, how could we fail to notice?). And he makes good use of his insider’s view of the manufactories that crank out tomorrow’s top-of-the-line computer chips in top-security environments.

Unfortunately, try though he might, he is considerably less sure-footed outside the technical realm. As the tale gets farther afield (Navy SEAL operations and serious spy stuff) he can’t seem to summon up the worldly air that international intrigue requires (despite the exotic Japanese and Pacific locales). And that’s where the wheels begin to come off this particular wagon. As skillfully as Pineiro handles the silicon ballyhoo, he is equally adrift dealing with the personality- and action-driven sequences. And what’s a thriller without credibly lovable rogues or impossibly deadly martial arts techniques?

Which is not to say that Pineiro doesn’t give it his best shot. Erika Conklin is a marvelous lead character. She’s original and gutsy — and likable. But she’s serving a kind of community service as punishment for hacking on the Internet, so she’s made a temporary FBI agent (!) and assigned to the most important anti-terrorism case on the planet. The alternative was, perhaps, picking up highway litter. And, another small example, this grown adult woman (an oenophile no less) drinks two glasses of wine in a restaurant and she’s slurring and spilling drinks. Like much of the action and interaction, it just doesn’t ring true.

Pineiro is surprisingly prolific — Shutdown is the fourth book published under his name since 1998. And he’s not without writing chops — Shutdown can tie your stomach in knots from time to time. And though his writing tightens from book to book, he hasn’t written the novel that will separate him from the pack. But he’s established a niche and shown that he can work variations within his theme. If he can find it in him to invest the extra time, effort, and imagination to buff his next manuscript to a higher sheen he could find himself in blockbuster territory — if that’s where he has set his sights. Multimedia

This article appears in June 2 • 2000.

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