Helpful Score: 1
A bit of a departure for Francis...its like a story in two parts - 14 years separate part one from part two...The Derry brothers...the elder deals with a sure-fire horse race betting system and a mobster-like family mad to get it, by fair means or foul. The bad guys vengeance and acrimony isn't thwarted when they find, in part two, that that they've got the wrong brother.
Interesting side notes...The book, written in 82, has interesting language regarding early computers and programs used to run the programmed betting system. Nothing an American reader will be familiar with, no Apple Commodore 64 here - but a Grantley Basic...the ability to use regular cassette tapes to record computer data before the "newfangled" floppy disks, calling computers "TOMs" - Totally Obedient Morons...things like that. I found that sort of look back into old computer language programming - the sort of thing we learned in America as basic DOS language "If this, then that, go to", etc...very very interesting.
Other than that, a good book, but a bit of a Deus Ex Machina ending...where it could have ended a lot sooner if the Heroes just didn't play so depressingly FAIR when its clear the bad guys play to win.
Interesting side notes...The book, written in 82, has interesting language regarding early computers and programs used to run the programmed betting system. Nothing an American reader will be familiar with, no Apple Commodore 64 here - but a Grantley Basic...the ability to use regular cassette tapes to record computer data before the "newfangled" floppy disks, calling computers "TOMs" - Totally Obedient Morons...things like that. I found that sort of look back into old computer language programming - the sort of thing we learned in America as basic DOS language "If this, then that, go to", etc...very very interesting.
Other than that, a good book, but a bit of a Deus Ex Machina ending...where it could have ended a lot sooner if the Heroes just didn't play so depressingly FAIR when its clear the bad guys play to win.
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