Review of 'The Knucklehead of Silicon Valley'

Synopsis

Comedic-spy thriller examines Silicon Valley's unbridled innovation culture.

Ralph Gibsen isn’t your typical spy. In fact, he may not be a spy at all. He's lumpy, blundering and abysmal at chatting up the fairer sex. Yet, he is attracting a significant amount of attention from the intelligence community. After all, as a 30-year Silicon Valley mainstay, he can phish your passwords, bust firewalls, and has developed software used by millions to circumvent government censorship. And now, he thinks he has stumbled upon a cabal who is pushing to misuse his own technology for world domination.

Ralph helps create an educational Tool that maps a learner’s neurological processes and pinpoints the exact moment a student learns. But the Tool can also manipulate people’s beliefs. At least, that what several influential people think. Soon, Ralph finds himself the target of increasingly complex attacks on his businesses, reputation, freedom, and life.

Ralph enlists an eclectic group of ‘frenemies’ to thwart this nefarious plot. McKenna may or may not still work for the CIA. Beautiful Eva may work for the Chinese government, who wants the Tool for themselves. Even Ralph’s lovely wife Jen could be involved... Ralph simply isn’t equipped to figure it out. And the world is closing in.

Review

Hate to say it, but I think The Knucklehead of Silicon Valley was simply not my cup of tea.

Now, just because it was not my cup of tea does not mean I hated it. I did not, but I did not love it either. Honestly, I found this novel rather dull in the end. That is my problem with the novel; it just bored me.

Non-Linear Storytelling

The premise is interesting, but part of what hindered my enjoyment of the novel was the jumping back and forth between timelines. The novel spans from 1974 to 2016 and everywhere in between. It was hard to keep track of where I was while reading this. In my opinion, it lacked cohesion.

Jumping back and forth with small indistinct ties and markers to keep the reader locked in the story simply did not work. Honestly, I think the novel would have worked better if it just went back and forth between two periods and moving linearly from those two points instead of jumping around the past a lot. I was lost at times, lost in Ralph’s age, and what each segment was about, and lost in the technobabble that was somewhat unnecessary to the storytelling.

That was another thing that probably led to my lack of enjoyment of the novel, the exposition. Vachon does much telling about technology. He goes into detail about how things work. It does not come off as necessary and slows down the plot of the novel. At times, I found myself just skimming over these parts because, quite honestly, I did not care how things worked; I just wanted to follow the story along.

Then there is Ralph. With all the time jumping, I honestly forgot how old he was. There were times he sounded younger than he was and times he sounded older. It was just another thing I was unable to keep track of.

And, of course, the spy element of the story. Ralph may or may not be a spy. He does not think he is one but everyone else thinks he is one. It does bring a nice comedic feel to the novel, but it takes too long to get there. I wish this aspect of the novel had been given more attention earlier on in the novel because once it was given attention later on in the novel, I found myself enjoying the novel much more.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, as I said, I did not hate it, but I did not love it either. I simply think that this novel was not my cup of tea.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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About the Author

Cynthia Bujnicki graduated from Emerson College with a BA in Writing, Literature and Publishing. She has always loved to read since she was a child. A contributing writer for YA Fantasy Addicts, she is also the Editor-in-Chief for Cyn's Workshop. She lives in sunny South Florida with her husband and son and their two cats, Mr. J the Kitten and Nyx.