Picks and Shovels
A Martin Hench Novel
- Publisher
- Tor/Forge
- Initial publish date
- Feb 2025
- Category
- High Tech, Technological, Crime & Mystery
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781250865908
- Publish Date
- Feb 2025
- List Price
- $38.99
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Description
New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow returns to the world of Red Team Blues to bring us the origin story of Martin Hench and the most powerful new tool for crime ever invented: the personal computer.
The year is 1986. The city is San Francisco. Here, Martin Hench will invent the forensic accountant--what a bounty hunter is to people, he is to money--but for now he's an MIT dropout odd-jobbing his way around a city still reeling from the invention of a revolutionary new technology that will change everything about crime forever, one we now take completely for granted.
When Marty finds himself hired by Silicon Valley PC startup Fidelity Computing to investigate a group of disgruntled ex-employees who've founded a competitor startup, he quickly realizes he's on the wrong side. Marty ditches the greasy old guys running Fidelity Computing without a second thought, utterly infatuated with the electric atmosphere of Computing Freedom. Located in the heart of the Mission, this group of brilliant young women found themselves exhausted by the predatory business practices of Fidelity Computing and set out to beat them at their own game, making better computers and driving Fidelity Computing out of business. But this optimistic startup, fueled by young love and California-style burritos, has no idea the depth of the evil they're seeking to unroot or the risks they run.
In this company-eat-company city, Martin and his friends will be lucky to escape with their lives.
About the author
Cory Doctorow is a multi-award-winning science fiction author, technologist, activist and speaker. His novels include Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Eastern Standard Tribe and the recently released contemporary fantasy, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town.
Editorial Reviews
"Righteously satisfying...A fascinating tale of financial skullduggery, long cons, and the delivery of ice-cold revenge." - Booklist on The Bezzle
"Cory Doctorow is one of our most important science fiction authors." - Kim Stanley Robinson
"Cory Doctorow doesn't just write about the future--I think he lives there!" - Kelly Link
"Another winner from an sf wizard." - Booklist on Red Team Blues
"Absorbing and ruthless." - Library Journal on Red Team Blues
"A cleareyed warning...With unconventional gumshoe Martin at the helm, fans can expect good things from the series to come." - Publishers Weekly on Red Team Blues
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