Terminal Value by Thomas Waite
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Technology is often dangerous. Technology plus finance is too often lethal. This is a tale about why the modern combination of practical science and money goes off the rails. Tightly written with a compelling plot, Waite's debut novel is more than a good read. It's an acutely observed social commentary about the world of the high-flying, high-tech entrepreneurs who turn the abstract ideas of physics and logic into cash... or at least stock prices. And it's about how easily "wanting to make a difference" slides into greed, obsession, and self-promotion. Clearly Waite has been on the inside of this culture which is so incessantly reported but rarely understood. He knows the 'types', the Bernie Madoff, the Steve Jobs, the Jeff Skillings who inhabit the this world of wealth by innovation. And he knows what can happen when they mix: the tragedy of success, quite literally Terminal Value.

Michael Black
Oxford

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