Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: A Novel – haruki murakami. An organisation that encrypts information by using people’s own brains? A professor and his plump, pink wearing daughter in a sound removed underground lab? The main hero is mid-30s, divorced and a bit of a loner with a habit of random sexual encounters with librarians? It could only be a Murakami book. This story reads a lot like Iain M Banks, although it transpires that Murakami wrote this long before the Internet was popular and before Banks got his act together to write quality sci-fi prose. With that background it makes the book even more impressive, with a very contemporary air. As usual, the ending is less than conclusive though, leaving you wanting much much more!