Devil's Ether

Devil's Ether (2012), RR Cherla's debut novel, published six months before Edward Snowden's sensational NSA expose, has striking parallels with the covert surveillance program PRISM.

The book's account of highly intrusive monitoring techniques, Remote Neural Monitoring (RNM) and widespread abuse of power, could well be the extremity of the real-life scheme.

DEVIL's ETHER : The Network takes a deadly twist

For the purported cause of America's security, a clandestine faction of the United States government is using Remote Neural Monitoring techniques to pry into the lives and minds of citizens.

A deadly game where Netizens are unwitting players.

Social media and communications companies, in their mad rush to connect billions of citizens through the Internet, Social and Mobile Networks, have provided the antagonists the perfect platform to establish a massive surveillance Grid.

A volunteer network with millions of nodes -- participating in the romantic quest for Extraterrestrial intelligence -- is tapped to pump up the Grid's processing power.

An upright but naive American President and an ineffectual Director of National Intelligence are led to believe that the Intelligence community is acting in the best interests of citizens.

Sara Sheppard, a young suburban mother, confronts the group to protect her family from the terror unleashed on it. Determined to save her family, a desperate and clueless Sara sets out on an investigative journey - transiting from the corporate world, into the mind of a prize-winning neurobiologist and to the sleazy red-light districts of Washington DC. As she begins to uncover the devious scheme, the ingenuity of the operation and the scary possibilities become palpable.

A thought-provoking thriller that neatly morphs state-of-the-art and sci-fi, Devil's Ether leaves the reader with the feeling that the last frontier of privacy - the mind - is about to be violated. Set against the backdrop of international intrigue and a connected world, Devil's Ether is a fast-paced read.