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bookaddicted's review
5.0
So interesting and fast paced that I wish I could go back in time and become a hacker!!! Love this author, nothing predictable about his plots!
si0bhan's review
4.0
The Blue Nowhere is my fourth Jeffery Deaver read, and it has confirmed my belief that I will have a love-hate relationship with Jeffery Deaver’s work. My first Jeffery Deaver read, Mistress of Justice, was a big disappointment. Retrospect has me believing I was too kind with my three-star rating, yet at the time I was feeling generous and gave it such a rating because it promised potential fun Jeffery Deaver reads. My second Jeffery Deaver read, Edge, was much more enjoyable. I devoured Edge, finding myself addicted to the story and in need of more. My third Jeffery Deaver read, Speaking in Tongues, was another disappointment. Like my first book, I was generous with my three-star rating, yet it could have just as easily been a two-star rating if my mood had been different. At this point, I was questioning how willing I was to dive into more Jeffery Deaver – but with more of his books on my shelf (I brought a handful in a sale) I decided it wouldn’t hurt to give him another try.
From the very start, I knew The Blue Nowhere was going to follow the path of Edge. This story sucked me in instantly, and I found myself more than willing to keep turning the pages to see how everything came together. In fact, I found myself desperately turning the pages, so sucked in that I was willing to finish this story in a single sitting.
It was one of those stories that kept you guessing, throwing out a lot of information that left you with notions in your mind of what was to come. I worked out some, but not all of the details, and I loved the way things came together with this one. There was so much we got to watch unfold, so many elements to watch come together. The crime had me hooked, and so did the characters, leaving me more than willing to keep turning the pages.
That is not to say this book was perfect, but it was a really enjoyable read. I think the biggest issue I had with this one was in relation to the explanations. I know not everyone will understand all the computer speak that occurs throughout this one, but I feel as though some things were explained needlessly. This may be a reflection of this book now being a bit dated – I think we can all agree, people are better educated in regards to technology than they were fifteen or so years ago – or it could just be that Jeffery Deaver felt it was necessary to explain every single detail. Either way, this was the main thing that I had trouble with, but it wasn’t enough to stop my enjoyment of the story.
Overall, this was an enjoyable read. I’m hoping my next Jeffery Deaver read proves to be as enjoyable, yet a part of me fears the emerging pattern foretells of a less than enjoyable read. Whatever the case, at least I enjoyed The Blue Nowhere.
From the very start, I knew The Blue Nowhere was going to follow the path of Edge. This story sucked me in instantly, and I found myself more than willing to keep turning the pages to see how everything came together. In fact, I found myself desperately turning the pages, so sucked in that I was willing to finish this story in a single sitting.
It was one of those stories that kept you guessing, throwing out a lot of information that left you with notions in your mind of what was to come. I worked out some, but not all of the details, and I loved the way things came together with this one. There was so much we got to watch unfold, so many elements to watch come together. The crime had me hooked, and so did the characters, leaving me more than willing to keep turning the pages.
That is not to say this book was perfect, but it was a really enjoyable read. I think the biggest issue I had with this one was in relation to the explanations. I know not everyone will understand all the computer speak that occurs throughout this one, but I feel as though some things were explained needlessly. This may be a reflection of this book now being a bit dated – I think we can all agree, people are better educated in regards to technology than they were fifteen or so years ago – or it could just be that Jeffery Deaver felt it was necessary to explain every single detail. Either way, this was the main thing that I had trouble with, but it wasn’t enough to stop my enjoyment of the story.
Overall, this was an enjoyable read. I’m hoping my next Jeffery Deaver read proves to be as enjoyable, yet a part of me fears the emerging pattern foretells of a less than enjoyable read. Whatever the case, at least I enjoyed The Blue Nowhere.
amyb24's review
2.0
It's not The Blue Nowhere's fault.
If I'd read this in 2001, around when it was published, I would have given it a higher rating. The plot is the type of action-packed mental popcorn you expect from Jeffrey Deaver (although I did notice his character development is better in his more recent work). It's also got some interesting ideas about privacy and data that are incredibly relevant today.
However, the book aged very badly with respect to the technology it describes. Very, very badly. Almost everything described in the book as cutting edge is either low level today, or obsolete (hello, floppy disks--and even the hacker's "state of the art" Zip disk). The technology is such a part of the plot that having it be this out of date is distracting.
I wish I'd read this book 15 years ago.
If I'd read this in 2001, around when it was published, I would have given it a higher rating. The plot is the type of action-packed mental popcorn you expect from Jeffrey Deaver (although I did notice his character development is better in his more recent work). It's also got some interesting ideas about privacy and data that are incredibly relevant today.
However, the book aged very badly with respect to the technology it describes. Very, very badly. Almost everything described in the book as cutting edge is either low level today, or obsolete (hello, floppy disks--and even the hacker's "state of the art" Zip disk). The technology is such a part of the plot that having it be this out of date is distracting.
I wish I'd read this book 15 years ago.
ericwelch's review
4.0
The " nowhere" represents online space, that world of electrons that hackers and unline freaks lose themselves in. It' a nifty metaphor and Deaver handles the technical details of this novel very well — at least as far as I could tell. A brilliant programmer, a cracker (someone who breaks into another computer to do damage as opposed to a hacker who just breaks in to poke around for the thrill of beating the system) is killing people and the Computer Crimes Unit relaizes they are in way over their heads. They enlist the help of Wyatt Earp — oops, Wyatt Gillette — another brilliant hacker currently in jail for having broken in to some defense department computers — to help them find Phate. Phate (there are many spelling related puns) was a former associate of Wyatt' who has so confused reality with a computer game he was playing that he has mixed up the real killing with that of the computer game. By accessing linked computers he is able to " engineer" his identity (changing grades, occupation, references, ownership, etc.,) and track down an ever-increasing set of targets, giving himself additional points as the difficulty inceases. Of course, if you' paranoid, this book will really get you going, because Phate has created a program called Trapdoor that permits him to enter your computer and collect all the information stored therein and then use that data to his own nefarious purposes. Of course, if you never go online, you would have nothing to worry about. Throughout the story, Phate has an ally, one who keeps revealing the police plans and actions so Phate can stay one step ahead of the authorities. The identity of this ally, Shawn, comes as a complete and very satisfying surprise. Good story.
beevimes's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
cheri_maci's review against another edition
3.0
Difficult to get into but was a satisfactory read. Would have rated it higher if there were less history lessons that just slowed down the story.
smcleish's review against another edition
4.0
Originally published on my blog here in October 2002.
Jeffrey Deaver may usually be a writer of traditional thrillers, but with The Blue Nowhere he joins the small group of authors who can convincingly depict the world of the computer hacker ([a:Neal Stephenson|545|Neal Stephenson|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1314902446p2/545.jpg] and [a:William Gibson|9226|William Gibson|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1282769227p2/9226.jpg] being the best known of the others).
The basic plot of The Blue Nowhere is a computerised version of the Eddie Murphy film 48 Hours; a hacker is let out of prison to help the LAPD Computer Crimes Unit track down another hacker, who has the screen name Phate, who has turned serial killer. The actual crime plot is pretty hackneyed, but the computing background means that the novel is more than just a run of the mill police procedural. (The style, by the way, is similar to [a:Michael Connelly|12470|Michael Connelly|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1202588562p2/12470.jpg].)
The one part of the plot which seems unlikely, if not impossible, is the program used by Phate to target the victims, which is named Trapdoor. (Deaver admids in the acknowledgements that the experts he consulted were dubious about the way it is supposed to work.) Phate has cracked one of the major Internet routers, and uses a steganographic (and the proof reader of the novel should note the spelling of the word) method to infect the target machine, sending small sections of the Trapdoor program in individual IP packets which are part of the normal online communication. (Steganographic means "hidden writing" , and is the process of writing a secret message as part of an innocent one, say be using every twentieth character, or altering specified bits of an image file.) To put the information into IP packets, given control of a router, would not be particularly difficult. The problem is that once the data reaches the target computer, it needs to be separated out from the genuine information, re-assembled and then executed, and I can't see any way that this could be done barring serious bugs in the IP stack and operating system of the computer being attacked. This is essentially the same reason that a virus spread as an email attachment is not activated unless the user or operating system is conned into executing (opening) the attachment - computers need a reason to run a piece of software. The reasons that systems are vulnerable to cracking are generally attributable to human carelessness, such things as users writing down passwords or using obvious words, or bugs in software which can be exploited.
Since the Trapdoor program is important to the plot, this is something of a problem; yet the convincing nature of the rest of the setting makes it easy enough to suspend disbelief and enjoy the novel.
Jeffrey Deaver may usually be a writer of traditional thrillers, but with The Blue Nowhere he joins the small group of authors who can convincingly depict the world of the computer hacker ([a:Neal Stephenson|545|Neal Stephenson|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1314902446p2/545.jpg] and [a:William Gibson|9226|William Gibson|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1282769227p2/9226.jpg] being the best known of the others).
The basic plot of The Blue Nowhere is a computerised version of the Eddie Murphy film 48 Hours; a hacker is let out of prison to help the LAPD Computer Crimes Unit track down another hacker, who has the screen name Phate, who has turned serial killer. The actual crime plot is pretty hackneyed, but the computing background means that the novel is more than just a run of the mill police procedural. (The style, by the way, is similar to [a:Michael Connelly|12470|Michael Connelly|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1202588562p2/12470.jpg].)
The one part of the plot which seems unlikely, if not impossible, is the program used by Phate to target the victims, which is named Trapdoor. (Deaver admids in the acknowledgements that the experts he consulted were dubious about the way it is supposed to work.) Phate has cracked one of the major Internet routers, and uses a steganographic (and the proof reader of the novel should note the spelling of the word) method to infect the target machine, sending small sections of the Trapdoor program in individual IP packets which are part of the normal online communication. (Steganographic means "hidden writing" , and is the process of writing a secret message as part of an innocent one, say be using every twentieth character, or altering specified bits of an image file.) To put the information into IP packets, given control of a router, would not be particularly difficult. The problem is that once the data reaches the target computer, it needs to be separated out from the genuine information, re-assembled and then executed, and I can't see any way that this could be done barring serious bugs in the IP stack and operating system of the computer being attacked. This is essentially the same reason that a virus spread as an email attachment is not activated unless the user or operating system is conned into executing (opening) the attachment - computers need a reason to run a piece of software. The reasons that systems are vulnerable to cracking are generally attributable to human carelessness, such things as users writing down passwords or using obvious words, or bugs in software which can be exploited.
Since the Trapdoor program is important to the plot, this is something of a problem; yet the convincing nature of the rest of the setting makes it easy enough to suspend disbelief and enjoy the novel.
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