The Manuscript

De: Michael Stephen Fuchs

Narrado por: Matthew Crow

Duración: 11 h y 2 m

Resumen del Editor

Two million dollars in a black bag.

The meaning of life hidden on a deviously encrypted website.

And several dozen heavily armed guys with serious existential issues.

The hunt is on for the Manuscript.

The Manuscript is a philosophical cyber-thriller - a novel of huge ideas disguised as a blow-your-hair-back thrill ride. Its cast of unforgettable characters includes a gun-toting urban professional with a tragic weakness for internet discussion groups; a former chemistry student and hacker turned wildly successful online narcotics dealer; a pair of slacker post-grads with big questions and rapidly escalating problems; a demonstrably unstoppable hit man; a dodgy federal agent with his hands in the cookie jar up to both elbows; a nameless cadre of menacing and well-armed mercenaries (possibly in the employ of one of the world's major religions); and an entire gang of Angry Young Taoists, serenely blasting hell out of all and sundry.

What could bring a group like this together? Nothing less than the meaning of life - discovered in the remote highlands of South America by an infamous 19th-century explorer and now said to be hidden in the vast out-of-bounds spaces at the far edge of a shadow internet. This is the Manuscript.

Caught up in a perilous race to recover and control it are a group of young people so beset by existential unease that they are willing to risk death to know the truth; and others, backed by powerful interests, who have little compunction about killing to keep it hidden.

Get ready for an ungentle ride where a number of people will get enlightened, a few will get rich, and all too many will get dead. Along the way, be prepared for some uncommon commentary on the eternal verities, computer security, rules for gunfights, post-millennial information soot, and the possibility of human connection for a generation that believes in nothing - save what they read on the net.

©2006 Michael Stephen Fuchs (P)2021 Complete & Total Asskicking Books

What a wild ride!!! Listen to this book!

This book started with fast action and never stopped.

The computer information could be confusing but my husband is a Computer Architect and I got through it!!

The characters were terrific and realistic.

There was only one question in my head that went unanswered no spoilers here.

Matthew Crow has once again surpassed all expectations as a Storyteller and brought this to life!!!

Great story

I really enjoyed geeking out to all the nerdy computer and internet references in the book. Lots of fun twists and turns with a dash of dark humor here and there for good measure. I'm actually kind of shocked it doesn't have 5 stars. I guess maybe being someone who made the transition from paratrooper to civilian programmer in the 1990s, gave me a unique perspective. I was thoroughly entertained. What more could you ask for?

Loved it!

There is no lack of action here! The story line and characters were on point! All the different points of views made for an excellent book. The narrator was perfect for this book. He has great voice range. 5 stars all around!

Top Shelf Thriller

Whoa! What an awesome book. This was my first read/listen by this author and I am impressed. The characters are very realistic, and a couple of them are quite evil! You can’t help but keep turning the pages. Couldn't put it down, can't wait for the next one. The narrating by Matthew Crow was spot on as usual for him...I received this free audiobook in a promotion and I am giving my voluntary review.

Guns Blazing All the Way to Enlightenment

I dove into this book because the Arisen series is a masterpiece and it’s fun for me to experience the many facets of my favorite authors. Fuchs’ writing style was indeed different here, focused on special activities like computer and weapons skills. But you can still see this novel as a precursor for his perfect mix of complex, talented characters involved in deadly serious situations with ridiculously funny coincidences and witty banter. While the humor was muted under the fast-paced action, I did burst out with a laugh when I got to the line, “Cool. Just don’t shoot me in the ass,” reminding me of the title to another of his other works.

Matthew Crow did a nice job narrating with his hot-shot news anchor baritone. I kept imaging Larry Potash from WGN’s Backstory as the man behind the microphone. There was a consistent separation of characters, and the speed of the read was perfect.

I think Dan Brown fans would enjoy this one for sure, although there’s a lot more guns than Brown usually includes and less religion, but similar in that there are geniuses running for their lives while solving one of the world’s greatest mysteries. The gun knowledge is evident and obviously continues to be a huge part of his writing today. It was a little funny to keep jumping from one urban gun fight to the next. “And that’s when the shooting started,” was a repeated line and rightly so. I loved the action in this book.

As far as characters go, I liked FreeBSD as the under-stimulated student turned drug dealer, Celeste as the independent, smart spy, The Cleaner for his simple rules of who to kill or not kill, the undercover cop with excellent intuition and the whole crew of the Angry Young Taoists with their VR games and goals of only stealing from bad corporations. Miles was cool for his computer skills, too. Overall, a fun, motley gang of interesting action story characters.

The mysticism of The Manuscript plays an important role as the driving force to motivate the characters and keep the storyline flowing. However, there’s surprisingly little detail, only a few specific allusions to what these South American secrets of life really are, as recorded in the infamous manuscript by Sir Richard Burton. A couple of these tidbits immediately reminded me of Graham Hancock’s theories on the history of human civilization, and I loved that. For those of us who find so much wrong with the institution of religion, you’re left with a satisfied feeling of accepting the simplicity of infinite existence and knowing that you ultimately must get there on your own. I’ve also started researching Burton and plan to do some reading on his fascinating life. I love it when good authors send my down rabbit holes, and it always happens with Fuchs.

I’m really glad to have recently listened to Ghost in the Wires because I felt Kevin Mitnick’s influence throughout The Manuscript, from the detailed technical jargon to the mention of social engineering and the importance of hacking skills in the book, and even to the online communications play-by-play. Those sections would have been better to read in a physical copy of the novel as it did get a little annoying to hear the senders and subject lines repeated in the narration. Either way, reading these two books now in 2024, put me on an interesting tour of our IT timeline. It was actually kind of fun to reflect on how modern communication has developed. Like I said, rabbit holes from talented writers.

TOO MUCH TECHNO-BABBLE, TOO LITTLE STORY

If you are a computer nerd, a techno-geek - a person who takes delight in flaunting your expensive education by debating the question of 'What is Life', you'll probably love this book. If you love listening to the reading of a Google search - line by boring line - this book is for you. If you want an interesting read about interesting people doing interesting things - look elsewhere. I'm several hours into this 'book', and can't relate to anyone or anything in it. The main character is a self-proclaimed techy wizard who is lacking in socialization skills, it would seem, from his near isolation in an academic world of high-flung phrases and philosophic arguments. Does ANYONE outside of the academic world really talk like this - even dangling the 'unanswerable question' as a pickup line? I don't know about you, but when I'm reading FICTION, I want to be enticed to read more - able to see the characters in my mind - wondering what will happen in the next chapter. So far, I don't even want to read the next PARAGRAPH - much less the next chapter. But, I have slogged on -- hoping that there will be a major 'light bulb moment' when the author relents and begins to write a story with a plot, 'real' people as characters, and puppeteers all these things in a world that doesn't resemble the matrix with a constant stream of data overlying it.

The 'female lead' is not quite as bad - but runs a close second, with at least a little 'female think' to make her more a part of the 'real world'. Both characters are involved in a quest for a copy of a manuscript that was written many years ago, then believed to have been destroyed. It's content is thought to be 'earth shaking' - with answers to all the questions that mere mortals have been unable to discover. An interesting premise - that I bought in to...but I'm several chapters into this ?fictional? work, and can't shake the feeling that I am actually reading a manual on "How To Search the Internet For Artfully Hidden Things".

Don't misunderstand. I'm college educated and not 'afraid of a few big words'. But exchanging techno-babble for a good plot is not a reason for me to keep on 'reading'. Maybe that's the basic problem with this 'book': 0101010101010 will always remain undecipherable to we 'deplorables' that don't write software code for a living. We need a few 'action verbs' and real emotions to get sucked into a REAL WORK OF FICTION. The editor must have been on vacation when this 'book manuscript' turned up - or she/he would surely have cut all the boring line-by-line search engine recitations, and gone immediately to the action - and believability. It may be that, midway somewhere, the writing becomes humanized enough to be mesmerizing. But I won't commit any more time to listening, waiting, and hoping. Thank heaven that Audible allows 'returns'!