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tma29b66's review
4.0
Masterfully written. This book had no lulls. Compelling without being frantic.
Expertly narrated by George Guidall.
Expertly narrated by George Guidall.
jasonabbott's review
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
euclid's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Predictable, stereotyped characters, cookie-cutter dialogue, lousy ending. Disappointing.
clambook's review
Disappointing. Ignatius's appeal is his experience covering national security, and he displays a dec ent command of the current hacker technology. But the plot is beyond improbable and the characters unappealing. I gave up before the end.
ragsr's review
1.0
The story of an ex-CIA agent who appears to have a chip on his shoulder because he was put in jail after doing something that was illegal. He wants to figure out who dun it to him. On the way, there is some verbiage on machine learning and generative adversarial networks creating extremely real fakes. I love books where technology is believable, interesting, and part of the plot.
But this is not it. This one was pretty annoying with shallow characters and stilted dialogue. Ignatius appears to believe in the art of telling, not showing. Unfortunately, the telling is not worth listening to. There are bits that are just completely implausible. To take just one example, one bit has the hero *emailing* (via unencrypted email) a fancy Mayfair law firm to inquire about one of its clients. Within a couple of days, a law partner at the firm *emails* back to ask the hero to meet him in person on a yacht in Sardinia. Several things wrong with that: In real life, an email from an unknown party would be caught by the spam filter. At worst, a junior intern might call you. No one would invite you to the largest yacht moored in Sardinia. Moreover, Sardinia is a pretty large island and simple Googling tells you that there are at least ten marinas in Sardinia where yachts can moor.
The descriptions of the hacking itself are rudimentary and not exciting. And the hero was so unlikeable, I couldn't care less about what happened to him halfway through the book. Interestingly, I put the book down less than a minute ago and I have already forgotten the hero's name. Hopefully, I'll forget the rest of the plot soon.
DNF.
But this is not it. This one was pretty annoying with shallow characters and stilted dialogue. Ignatius appears to believe in the art of telling, not showing. Unfortunately, the telling is not worth listening to. There are bits that are just completely implausible. To take just one example, one bit has the hero *emailing* (via unencrypted email) a fancy Mayfair law firm to inquire about one of its clients. Within a couple of days, a law partner at the firm *emails* back to ask the hero to meet him in person on a yacht in Sardinia. Several things wrong with that: In real life, an email from an unknown party would be caught by the spam filter. At worst, a junior intern might call you. No one would invite you to the largest yacht moored in Sardinia. Moreover, Sardinia is a pretty large island and simple Googling tells you that there are at least ten marinas in Sardinia where yachts can moor.
The descriptions of the hacking itself are rudimentary and not exciting. And the hero was so unlikeable, I couldn't care less about what happened to him halfway through the book. Interestingly, I put the book down less than a minute ago and I have already forgotten the hero's name. Hopefully, I'll forget the rest of the plot soon.
DNF.
borisfeldman's review
4.0
Entertaining ex-spy thriller.
Good beach reading, if we were allowed to go to the beach.
Good beach reading, if we were allowed to go to the beach.
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