Helpful Score: 3
Picked this off my shelf yesterday morning, 'cause I was kind of in the mood for a dumb, light thriller. And I had recently read a review where someone had said that they had "learned a lot" about Internet privacy and cryptography from the book. So, even though I hadn't really liked Brown's 2 other novels, I figured I'd give it a go.
Well, it was dumb.
You one thing that always annoys me? When an author goes out of his way to tell you that his heroes are gorgeous, fit/muscular, and at a genius-level of intellectual brilliance - but then they don't do anything to prove it.
Another thing that annoys me? Boring, unresearched stereotypes. In this book, it's the people of Spain (in general), and punk rockers. The punks were so bad I was actually laughing. It was worse than sitcoms from the 80's where it was trendy to have an episode featuring those stupid, dangerous, drug-using punks for a while. Seriously.
Oh, and there's nothing about codes or security in it that the average Internet user or person who read a book on codes as a kid doesn't know. If you have no idea what PGP is AT ALL, go for it.
There's also a bunch of total crapola about how the government NEEDS to be able to read everyone's e-mail to defeat all the insidious plots against us, and snide comments about how silly it is that housewives are worried about the government stealing their top-secret recipes. And references to civil rights activists as "fanatics." Rather offensive, really.
To give it its fair due, the denouement was fairly exciting.
But if you're interested in finding out about computer security, read Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon." Now that's a good book.
Well, it was dumb.
You one thing that always annoys me? When an author goes out of his way to tell you that his heroes are gorgeous, fit/muscular, and at a genius-level of intellectual brilliance - but then they don't do anything to prove it.
Another thing that annoys me? Boring, unresearched stereotypes. In this book, it's the people of Spain (in general), and punk rockers. The punks were so bad I was actually laughing. It was worse than sitcoms from the 80's where it was trendy to have an episode featuring those stupid, dangerous, drug-using punks for a while. Seriously.
Oh, and there's nothing about codes or security in it that the average Internet user or person who read a book on codes as a kid doesn't know. If you have no idea what PGP is AT ALL, go for it.
There's also a bunch of total crapola about how the government NEEDS to be able to read everyone's e-mail to defeat all the insidious plots against us, and snide comments about how silly it is that housewives are worried about the government stealing their top-secret recipes. And references to civil rights activists as "fanatics." Rather offensive, really.
To give it its fair due, the denouement was fairly exciting.
But if you're interested in finding out about computer security, read Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon." Now that's a good book.
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