Alan B. Johnston

The author is certainly a subject matter expert on internet security and writes in understandable language about it. Unfortunately, fleshing out what sounded like a credible story and creating an enjoyable experience for the reader were beyond his reach. I'm sure his PhD dissertation was well-received, but deep subject matter expertise in a technical area doesn't often yield a great novel on the subject.

I liked the general topic of the book, but the problems I had were around how the flow of the story was interrupted by terrible dialogue, incredible occurrences, and annoying writing techniques (for example, the blog question and answer pages). Many of the situations described were very believable, such as the chapters centered on technical conferences, but overall it was far too dependent upon unlikely happenings to ring true. It seemed as if the writer veered off-course as soon as he moved out of the realm of internet security. That's too bad, since the premise of the book was really interesting and the story had a lot of potential.

This wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't well-written.… (mehr)

Generally I love cyber-thrillers but I must admit I was disappointed with this book. The story was pretty well crafted and believable but the writing seemed disjointed and the characters were shallow. At times the book seemed to read like a travel diary. The author seemed to spend little time (or perhaps I should say words) developing and fleshing out the details of the settings. The characters, especially Mick, are one dimensional, lacking the depth and development needed for the reader to relate to the character. The plot was simple with each twist and turn easily anticipated by the reader. The book did have excellent detail concerning internet security (or the lack of), an important topic in today's society.… (mehr)