I’ve blogged elsewhere about the pleasures of reading an out-of-date techno-thriller like this. Gridiron was published in 1996, back when a 486 was the pinnacle of home computing and Apple were in the throes of switching from the 60×80 architecture to the PowerPC. Floppy disks were still standard for storage and CD-ROM drives were being hailed as the future. (This novel has had a name change from The Grid to Gridiron, or is it the other way around? Anyway, there are examples of both available on the second-hand listings.)
This is a Crichton-like techno-thriller set in and around a new-build “smart” office block, architect-designed for the Chinese Yu corporation in Los Angeles and pejoratively nicknamed The Gridiron. The ultra-modern tower features an enormous tree in its sky-high atrium, and much tech wizardry, all controlled by the building’s brain, an artificial intelligence called Abraham. Running counter to all this technology is the superstitious mumbo-jumbo of Feng Shui, and a warning from the architect’s Feng Shui consultant that surrounding the tree with a square koi carp pond (among other Feng faux pas) is inauspicious.
You can see it coming a mile off, of course: what, a building whose lifts, heating and ventilation, doors, toilets, and security systems are controlled by a self-programming, self-replicating artificial intelligence? What could possibly go wrong?
The pleasure in the narrative revolves around the many creative ways the (mostly venal, arrogant, and unsympathetic) human characters are dispatched by the smart building, some of which are supposed to be funny/ironic, though I didn’t exactly find this to be a barrel of laughs. The theme of the book is an interesting one, though: that people will on the one hand dismiss Feng Shui for the superstition it is, while putting absolute faith in a technology (the neural network of the artificial intelligence) they barely understand.
Certainly recommended if you feel like you can’t wait for the next Crichton, and available for very little money second-hand.
The new cheesgrater building (which will be very close to the Ghaerkin) in the city has a striking resemblance to the one on the cover of this book. The site currently hold a half demolished older building and it may be another year plus before the cheesegrater rises. A Dan Dare moment.
Here’s a link. Natch rashbre central featured the old building a couple of times…
That is indeed strikingly similar, even down to the trees in the lobby. Just needs the slightly insane artificial intelligence to run it!