I have a pretty strong opinion that The Shockwave Rider does not suck, even if the protagonist is a bit of a Mary-Sue. In terms of prescient details it gets so

I have a pretty strong opinion that The Shockwave Rider does not suck, even if the protagonist is a bit of a Mary-Sue. In terms of prescient details it gets some things wrong. But it gets a lot of the subtleties of a dystopian dataveillance society very, very right. If you read it you'll see what I mean. The idea that pretty much every institution you deal with knows you by your dossier and makes unaccountable decisions based on that knowledge. That this power is unequally distributed and that the data you need to make competent decisions about your future is deliberately hidden from you. The viewpoint that at the elite levels governments and corporations are indistinguishable in their criminality. One could imagine graduates of Tarnover stalking the halls at Google, Palantir and the NSA w/ equal ease. It's actually reasonably fast paced and well plotted ( exceptionally so by Brunner's standards ); and it's an easy read. I recommend it.