Influx

At first Influx seemed to have a similar tone and style as Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, a just published book I read recently. But then it goes way beyond that and becomes an over-the-top techno-thriller. The bad guys' headquarters seems like something from a James Bond film - you know, with minions in colorful jump suits scurrying about in an ultra-modern industrial complex where all we see of the villain is his cat.

There is seemingly lots of hard science, but really it's just techno-babble. The gravity mirror is an interesting concept, though. Amazingly, the rogue government agency that is the parallel of Spectre, was able to bring it from the state of the Wright Flyer to the level of modern aviation in about three years, without ever understanding how it worked. That's why they needed to force the protagonist, it's inventor, to help them.

This novel won the libertarian Prometheus award, apparently because our hero battles the evil BTC, Bureau of Technology Control, A secret government agency, that even the US government can't reign in, but which they keep secret so as not to panic the citizenry.

An entertaining read.