The Fear Index

By: Robert Harris

Narrated by: Christian Rodska

Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

At the nexus of high finance and sophisticated computer programming, a terrifying future may be unfolding even now.

Dr. Alex Hoffmann’s name is carefully guarded from the general public, but within the secretive inner circles of the ultrarich, he is a legend. He has developed a revolutionary form of artificial intelligence that predicts movements in the financial markets with uncanny accuracy. His hedge fund, based in Geneva, makes billions. But one morning before dawn, a sinister intruder breaches the elaborate security of his lakeside mansion, and so begins a waking nightmare of paranoia and violence as Hoffmann attempts, with increasing desperation, to discover who is trying to destroy him.

Fiendishly smart and suspenseful, The Fear Index gives us a searing glimpse into an all-too-recognizable world of greed and panic. It is a novel that forces us to confront the question of what it means to be human—and it is Robert Harris’s most spellbinding and audacious novel to date.

©2012 Robert Harris (P)2012 Random House

Critic reviews

"Unputdownable.... Harris has achieved the impossible, or at least the improbable: an explanation of the extravagantly esoteric nature of hedge funds, which normal people can understand.... I gorged myself, devouring his dystopian vision of free markets enslaved by a sinister artificial intelligence in one breakneck sitting.” ( The Daily Telegraph)

“Reminiscent of everyone from Michael Crichton to Ian Fleming, Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock.” ( Financial Times)

“A virtuoso specimen.... Inventively exploiting current anxieties about algorithmic trading to update the Frankenstein story, The Fear Index is both cutting edge and keenly conscious of its literary predecessors.... A tour de force.” ( The Sunday Times, London)

"That's a bummer." - The Dude

That about sums up my reaction to my first (and probably last) Harris thriller. It had such potential to explore the ethics of “artificial intelligence” and the dichotomy of the main character in perusing it among other themes, but Harris didn’t come close to exploring any. Instead we get a huge info dump about hedge funds, algorithmic programs and the crossing of the scientific and financial streams. At one point he has someone say something like, I’m sure you’re all familiar with Moore’s Law and then proceeds to explain it! OMG is was torture listening to these passages, even with the delightful Christian Rodska narrating.

At least he didn’t give us a “HAL v. Dave” type scene between Alex and his creation. But neither did he really give the creation its own voice or much in the way of attention other than to explain its inner-workings. This makes the ending so ridiculous that I think I laughed. Quarry’s beatific eyeroll towards the spy camera over his head and his decision to let this money-making entity continue to do just that is ludicrous considering what came before. That is largely left up to the reader’s imagination though and it feels like a cop out and besides that, Harris pulls a lot of punches. At first I imagined that the application sent a tendril out to the airline’s own computers and caused the crash; that is truly horrific. Having it explained that the computer system only read a terrorist website and reacted to that was a let down, even considering (which I had to do on my own, Harris didn’t put this into the narrative at all) that the absence of Asimov’s Robot Laws kept it from warning and instead began acquiring short options.

Also left unexplored are the ramifications of Alex being set up by this computer system. We’re given the facts that he was ruthlessly set up and thoroughly destroyed by this entity, but not why. No one else in the story knows this, instead they choose to think Alex went nuts again. It’s left up to the reader to wonder if his first breakdown was a set up as well. It’s up to us to realize the horror of the computer’s ability to destroy others’ faith in him (and by extension, us). It’s up to us to fully understand how much we’re dependent on them and how easily a conscienceless intelligence can take over and render us helpless. We have to explore this alone. The entity doesn’t even speak, which granted, could have led straight to hokeyville, but it could have also given us a more tangible enemy to fear. As it was, a reader could have been also convinced that Alex was indeed crazy. Alex didn’t even have one ally he could talk to and commiserate with over the machine’s betrayal and single-minded purpose in “life”. What a lazy storyteller. He basically left it up to us to tell it and so I’d really like a royalty check out of this, Mr. Harris. Heh.

Boring and Predictable

The narration for the book was fine and well done; therefore, no comment on that.

The story, however, was poor to say the least. Having reading previous work by Harris, I had expected better. For anyone who has ready any science fiction, the premise was predictable. Even so, it could have been done better. Unfortunately, and this is the second point, Harris does a poor job of characterizing the finance world. I am surprised critics have lauded his ability to describe Hedge Funds to the ordinary masses. The description of Hedge Funds, algorithm-based investing, and behavioral finance are done through tedious monologues that read like Harris did little more than read a wikipedia article.

None of the characters are particularly sympathetic and you don't really care about any of them. More importantly, they just aren't very interesting.

Disappointment from Harris

After enjoying many previous works from Robert Harris, I was quite disappointed by this work. The ending was far too predictable.

More meh

HAL (of 2001 infamy) meets the 21st century financial markets. Takes over. Makes billions. Destroys lives. Kills people with elevators. Crashes planes and the stock market. All in 24 hours. Then the book ends.

A story that goes all over the place and nowhere at the same time...

I can’t believe the author of Fatherland, Enigma and so many other books which I have thoroughly enjoyed wrote this. While the premise of a rogue AI is nothing new, Harris was able to put a new spin on it. Unfortunately any spin was countered by a meandering storyline and throughly uninteresting characters. I stuck with it until the end thinking once the story picks up it will get going and lead somewhere. It never did.

inconsistent and full of lose ends

Would you try another book from Robert Harris and/or Christian Rodska?

Not very probable

Would you ever listen to anything by Robert Harris again?

Not likely

Any additional comments?

There was so much emphases on the machine thing that left the story around it inconsistent and full of lose ends, and the author never actually connected the dots