In the novel, Stormbreaker is a hyper-advanced computer created by our villain-in-chief, Herod Sayle. This thing is powerful—it makes your brand new PlayStation look more like an Atari.
If the Stormbreaker was a real computer, then there's little doubt it would change the world. It has a few things going for it:
- It's cheap to produce.
- It's incredibly fast and powerful.
- It contains software that makes learning "lively" (8.26).
That would be a pretty big deal, huh? But that's only half of the story.
See, Sayle had added a little surprise to each of the computers—a heavily modified version of the smallpox virus. What's worse is that he's targeting schoolchildren, of all people. Can you think of anything more evil? We can't.
Ultimately, Stormbreaker is little more than a Trojan Horse. Herod Sayle wants to convince the world—and you, the reader—that he is a true humanitarian. That, of course, is far from the truth. And the title, Stormbreaker, is a shout-out to this whole debacle.