The Passengers
By John Marrs
Berkley, 9781984806970, August 2019, 352pp.
The Short of It:
Interesting concept. Wasn’t sure it would work well but it all came together and raised some good questions about privacy.
The Rest of It:
A select group of participants, chosen for the secrets they harbor, suddenly become hostages as their self-driving cars are overtaken by terrorists.
What added to this story is that a group of jurors have been appointed to watch their every move inside their vehicles and as their secrets are revealed, they determine whether they live or die.
Sound crazy? It is!
The pace of the story took off with a bang but then slowed down considerably as each passenger is revealed to us. Once we get past all the introductions the pace picked up again, significantly. I had mixed feelings about the story. It felt a little cold and it was hard to like anyone in the story, which affected how I felt about their chance for survival, but what the story says about privacy and what we allow technology to know about us gave me pause. This story is not that far-fetched, which is chilling.
I enjoyed The Passengers. I read it in one sitting. If you want a quick read that has a little more to it than just a lot of action, then give it a try.
Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.
Book Chatter 
Vance just bought a Tesla that has the self driving feature so I should get him this book.
I’d be very hesitant to allow my car to drive itself. He might get a kick out of the book though.
The concepts in this book scare me to death. I can’t even tell you how much. Ha! I’ve been waiting to read it for a bit, but I suspect it will happen this next year.
From the news stories I’ve seen, self driving cars aren’t doing all that well. Accidents galore but to think that someone could hack into your device, this device being your car is terrifying. Taking control and taking you where you absolutely do not want to go!
As a Tesla driver, this sounds terrifying 🙂 I’ve been thinking a lot about privacy lately and how we’ve basically thrown it all away.
That’s the thing. This story is over-the-top but not by much. Not if you really sit down to think about it. When I get in the car, my phone predicts where I am going and it’s correct most of the time.
Hmmm, sounds a bit much for me but, glad you enjoyed it.
This sounds interesting.