Book Review - Stealing the Network: How to Own a Shadow
Category Book Reviews
It's nice when recreational reading overlaps with technical material, and the Stealing The Network series qualifies for that designation. The latest installment is Stealing the Network: How to Own a Shadow - The Chase For Knuth by Johnny Long, Timothy Mullen, Ryan Russell, and Scott Pinzon, and it's an enjoyable read that is heavy on the technical how-to while maintaining a decent plotline.
There's basically two story-lines here... The first involves Robert Knoll Jr. and his father, and is a continuation from the last book. All the police surveillance and investigations are taking a toll on Junior's life, so he decides to act on his father's cryptic message to head down to Mexico with nothing much more than the clothes on his back (and a large amount of cash). He is contacted by people who work for his father, and is taken down to Costa Rica where Senior runs an on-line poker site. Everything that Junior wants is provided (top of the line, too), and he starts doing some programming and network intel for his father. But he really doesn't have a clue as to what Senior is really up to...
The second story-line involves an autistic kid by the name of Paul Wilson. As he grows up, he starts gaining an interest in computer hacking and solving puzzles involving gaining access to various network sites. He's befriended by an on-line entity known as Rafa who is amazed at how Paul can pick up concepts almost immediately. It helps that he has a photographic memory and is wired such that these types of problems engage him. Rafa starts paying him for "research assignments", and Paul is thinking that he's actually doing legit security work. That, coupled with his intense interest in the martial arts, pretty much absorbs all his time. But he starts to understand a bit of what's really going on when he starts to hack a mysterious local business in order to help out a woman in his dojo. She has an ulterior motive for wanting to use his phenomenal hacking skills, but it may get them both arrested or killed.
From a plot pacing standpoint, I was pleasantly surprised. The other books tended to be a bit more "vignette" in nature, so the overall story suffered. At least here, the plot and technology actually supported each other. Again, it's not New York Times best-seller action-adventure, but it works for this type of approach. Paul seemed to be a bit over-the-top in his skills, but that element was supported by his autism. It stretched credibility at times, but not so much that you started to laugh (or at least I didn't). My biggest disappointment is that there was no plot resolution to either story-line, so it's a given that you'll need to read the next one to see how it turns out. The plotlines are converging, and the next book *should* be pretty good. Still, I would have liked a bit more payoff at the end.
Regardless, this is an interesting book about hacking techniques (complete with code) all wrapped up in an action/adventure plot. I'll be interested to see how they merge the story and carry it on in the next installment...
It's nice when recreational reading overlaps with technical material, and the Stealing The Network series qualifies for that designation. The latest installment is Stealing the Network: How to Own a Shadow - The Chase For Knuth by Johnny Long, Timothy Mullen, Ryan Russell, and Scott Pinzon, and it's an enjoyable read that is heavy on the technical how-to while maintaining a decent plotline.
There's basically two story-lines here... The first involves Robert Knoll Jr. and his father, and is a continuation from the last book. All the police surveillance and investigations are taking a toll on Junior's life, so he decides to act on his father's cryptic message to head down to Mexico with nothing much more than the clothes on his back (and a large amount of cash). He is contacted by people who work for his father, and is taken down to Costa Rica where Senior runs an on-line poker site. Everything that Junior wants is provided (top of the line, too), and he starts doing some programming and network intel for his father. But he really doesn't have a clue as to what Senior is really up to...
The second story-line involves an autistic kid by the name of Paul Wilson. As he grows up, he starts gaining an interest in computer hacking and solving puzzles involving gaining access to various network sites. He's befriended by an on-line entity known as Rafa who is amazed at how Paul can pick up concepts almost immediately. It helps that he has a photographic memory and is wired such that these types of problems engage him. Rafa starts paying him for "research assignments", and Paul is thinking that he's actually doing legit security work. That, coupled with his intense interest in the martial arts, pretty much absorbs all his time. But he starts to understand a bit of what's really going on when he starts to hack a mysterious local business in order to help out a woman in his dojo. She has an ulterior motive for wanting to use his phenomenal hacking skills, but it may get them both arrested or killed.
From a plot pacing standpoint, I was pleasantly surprised. The other books tended to be a bit more "vignette" in nature, so the overall story suffered. At least here, the plot and technology actually supported each other. Again, it's not New York Times best-seller action-adventure, but it works for this type of approach. Paul seemed to be a bit over-the-top in his skills, but that element was supported by his autism. It stretched credibility at times, but not so much that you started to laugh (or at least I didn't). My biggest disappointment is that there was no plot resolution to either story-line, so it's a given that you'll need to read the next one to see how it turns out. The plotlines are converging, and the next book *should* be pretty good. Still, I would have liked a bit more payoff at the end.
Regardless, this is an interesting book about hacking techniques (complete with code) all wrapped up in an action/adventure plot. I'll be interested to see how they merge the story and carry it on in the next installment...
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Comments
It was definately not STN quality. At one stage, I even pondered if I was reading the same book.
The contrary is the end though, that's where it gets juicy alas it's fast and leaves you hanging.
Definately looking forward to the next one :)
Posted by Matt At 06:43:50 On 08/04/2007 | - Website - |