J. Finkel

Russinovich gives us a glimpse into the world of computer hackers and cyber terrorists. But the view is a bit shallow and the world is populated with stereotypes. My primary concern is that Arabs and Muslims are presented in a manner that invites fear of the "enemy within" and will help feed the appetites of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigots. At a time when such bigotry is on the rise (witness the subway murder of a Muslim-looking man in New York City after a vicious anti-Muslim ad campaign was launched), we need less fear mongering.

On the other hand, the intirgue is well constructed and has enough technical material to interest the geeks among us. If it inspires people to increase their own cyber security -- and maintain proper backups -- then it can be deemed a success.

Typical John Scalzi humor and clever plot. Wil Wheaton does a marvelous job, as always, reading this.

I would but that would be ridiculous.

Wil Wheaton always does an exceptional job with Scalzi's books. He makes every character come alive. Not an easy thing to do.

It seems to me that this sort of story is very hard to write well. And this one is written very well. From the Prologue to the third Coda, this kept me interested and amused. And it was very well read.

When Kaku writes about physics, he is a master of making the complicated understandable. When he writes about technology, he presents material well. But when he writes about the social implications of science and technology, he is much less interesting, convincing, and knowledgeable.

Relying as he does on a popular, but inaccurate, understanding of capitalism, Kaku's predictions about the future of political economy is weak. This shortcoming notwithstanding, the book is still pretty interesting,