Brian Van Norman

Mel Buckworth, dependable family man, loses his manufacturingjob through recession. Having lost his sense of purpose his pridesidelines him as he discerns his lack of digital skills so apparent inhis children’s generation. He is galled by his daughter Dani’suniversity friend, Stanley Best, who is about to achieve fame in thefields of nano technology and artificial intelligence. As Meldesperately attempts to find equilibrium he estranges his family,leaves his wife and enlists the help of a greedy grad student. WillBaker teaches Mel the skills he will need to wreak revenge on asystem seemingly discarding him. As his aptitudes grow he beginsto use the internet, the very thing he despised, a...

At war against Napoleon near bankrupt English mill-masters
experiment with a new factory system acquiring machines to replace
men. A young worker leads the Luddites attacking mills and
smashing machines. With increased assaults and even murder, North
England feels the grip of terrorism. Government agents attempt to
suppress the rebellion. In 1812 there are more British troops in North
England than there were fighting Napoleon.

Earth, 2212: The novel, third in the Against The Machine trilogy, yet free standing on its own, tells of a dystopian society in the midst of catastrophic climate change. Billions have died. The minority ofpeople remaining inhabit the MEGs, former cities transformed by technology into huge protective domes; outside is the MASS living by subsistence. All seems well for those in the CORPORATE. It is not. With worsening climate, the MASS increasingly restive, and their AI Silicons becoming sentient, those at the top have concocted a final solution: to leave Earth for Alpha Centauri, destroying the planet in their wake. Four protagonists, each from separate segments of this world, come together t...