The Enigma Factor

The Enigma Series, Book 1

De: Charles V Breakfield, Roxanne E Burkey

Narrado por: Steven Jay Cohen

Rogue cyber-criminals want Jacob Michaels, a brilliant young programmer, to join them. He just doesn't know it yet. Jacob has the brains, expertise, and programming methods to get them what they want without discovery. With his best friend, Buzz, and a distractingly beautiful encryptionist in tow, Jacob enters the world of the Dark Internet here in the 21st century where the computer is the weapon of choice! With the cyber criminals engaged in international hacking, it's easy to have your identity slip through your fingers. No one, including Jacob, believes it when he learns he has been targeted. Jacob finds the space between cyber good and cyber evil difficult to navigate as well as highly deadly.

Jacob has settled into a quiet routine of a techno geek after his mother dies. The plans he made are disrupted when he discovers his life is in danger. He sets off on a mission that takes him into new technology views and exposes to him the inner-workings of unknown global technologists. Jacob learns that safeguards for technology are always evolving and being exploited. His challenge becomes how to keep ahead of the criminals and identify who to trust.

Book one of The Enigma Series brings relevant technology elements of programming, encryption, crypto-currency, identity theft, and hacking to highlight the professional excellence of Jacob, more so perhaps due to his sheltered upbringing. Explore the horrific damage cyber criminals can inflict as the award-winning authors, Breakfield and Burkey, weave a complex tale of danger, intrigue, and international cyber combat in their debut thriller, The Enigma Factor.

©2013 Enigma Series, LLC (P)2017 Enigma Series, LLC

Takes a long time to travel a short distance

Could use way more editing, remove the technical talk and there is not a great deal of story left.

Fun read!

I found this book to be a fun read. A technology, hacking, and crime novel does best if it can keep the attention of both types of people. Those with and without the tech knowledge and I think this book did pretty well at that. I was always eager to know what was going to happen next. There was a budding romance which may continue in the series but it is not too sappy. There is some pretty graphic sexual moments which were not expected, but not bad, just seemed kinda out of place. overall I enjoyed it and look forward to the next book. I was given a free copy of this book and have left this unbiased review voluntarily.

Slow but well written. Lots of setup for a sequel.

The novel was very well paced and well written. Sex scenes were somewhat more descriptive than you would expect in this kind of book. A lot of exposition and explanation or digital currency and cyber warfare.

When the book ended I was somewhat surprised. I thought it had just finished the setup to get to the main story, but apparently that's where the sequel will come in. Overall it was a good read, and the narrator did an excellent job.

A different story, but not difficult

I don't usually understand much about technology, but I found this book very accessible. There's intrigue, characters with history, and it makes you think about everything that happens on the internet without us noticing. I liked how it all connects. The narrator is clear and you can tell he knows the pace of the story well. It didn't bore me at any point. I recommend it if you are looking for something out of the ordinary, but easy to follow.

This Would Make a Good Movie

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This was good listening. The audible version is over 12 hours long, so it kept me occupied for quite awhile. It was great to listen to while traveling. Really made the travel time fly by.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Jacob is smart, level headed and easy to get to know. He is the main character. The author makes it easy to identify with him.

What does Steven Jay Cohen bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Steven Jay Cohen does a great job of walking you through the authors' technology descriptions. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the terminology, but it made sense to me as I was following along the story line. He described the tech at an easy pace that allowed a non-techie like me to keep up. Plus I always like when the narrator has distinctive voices for the different characters so it is easy for me to follow the story line.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I wasn't particularly moved by any moment, however, it did make me wonder about financial transactions on a global level.

Any additional comments?

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Like tech and cyber espionage? You'll enjoy this!

The Enigma Factor by Breakfield and Burkey has a fun, techy vibe to it. As this book is advertised as a techno thriller, there's some technical stuff that the authors do a good job of explaining to those of us that aren't as familiar with coding, ID theft, cyber crimes, etc. This story introduces Jacob, who is basically a coding prodigy. He's woo-ed by a company to come and work for them, but that the same time, his world is turned upside down when he finds some coding issues in some banking software. This book takes you on a fun, wild, though sometimes confusing ride. Also, as mentioned in other reviews, there are some sex scenes between Jacob and Petra. They are a little more graphic than I would have expected from such a techy thriller type book and seemed somewhat misplaced, as they did seem a little out of place in the story.

Steven Jay Cohen did a good job with the narration. There are a lot of characters and there are some pretty heavy accents as well, and he does a good job handling them all and reads with plenty of emotion when needed. I'd happily listen to another performance of his.

Overall, this was a decent book, and I know that some of the areas that I found myself getting a bit distracted (bored) were necessary because the authors were setting up the story for what is a pretty large number of books in The Enigma Series. I'll be listening to book two in the series, The Enigma Rising, next and now that I have the overall setting and players down, I'm looking forward to learning what happens next with Jacob, Petra and the others. I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher for an honest review.

Exciting read

I absolutely enjoyed this book. I may have to qualify that as I am a retired data security architect. This would be enjoyable for anyone though. You don't have to be a technocrat. I also have to say the narration was excellent


I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.

Awesome

First I have to say I love the whole concept of this book and series. The whole dark hat and white hat hacker stuff is just right up with what I love.
I couldn't have asked for a better book to everything in it.
Jacob is a young man who is brought up learning technology skills and knows so much about computers because of his mother. His mother taught him different languages. And everything is going great in his life. But when his mother dies by a hit and run. Everything changes for Jacob, things he thought he knew no longer apply. Thinking he has no family besides his mother. But when with his job his does codes and helps stops hackers from breaching companies. Jacob also helps to code things for companies and when his friend Buzz uses his code and adds something to it. That's when some things change.
He mysteriously gets an invite to go to Vegas and learn more tech stuff, he learns and meets more then he could have asked for.
His life as he knows it becomes erased and people he thought he knew are not the same. All working for a higher company to stop attacks. Goes so much further then the US.. China and Russia. Don't want to give away anything else. Just read the book or listen to it.

A Great Find!

The Enigma Factor was a wonderful listen. Fast paced tech drama. Part of the pleasure when reading about cyber crime is how fast the players move. There is lots of tension considering much of it take place online.

Narrator Steven Jay Cohen was a perfect choice for this one. He reads well, with just-right pacing, and good variation in characters. I I'll be listening to more of the series. Whether you love or hate computers you will be caught up in the plot.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review. You can read my full review at Mystery Suspense Reviews.

Sexy and Intriguing.

Loved it. I have to confess, I read across multiple genres. Enigma is a series that caters to several. Sort of like a Bond film. There is a ton of international intrigue, lots of extravagant plotting, and some gratuitous sexy-times. (No worries for those who don't like the sex... it is easily skipped with a few presses of the 10-sec ffw button). I'm a big fan of the narrator, but this wasn't his greatest performance (only because of Petra's voice. it was still pretty awesome., which is why I gave it a 4). Otherwise, a story I read further in the series got some much-needed background info, and just topped my must-read list for the month. Well done!