Customer Reviews

Brain Jack

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm a computer USER, not a techie, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am reminded that when Jules Vern wrote about what we know as submarines today, people probably thought it was pretty far-fetched. I would say that Brain Jack is in that category -- it may not be happening now, but could it really happen in the future? Something to think about. I especially recommend Brain Jack to computer gamers who don't *think* they want to read. They may be surprised!

Sam Wilson is a teen hacker. After he hacks into one of the largest companies in the world, Telecomerica--which crashes the nation's internet for three days--his life begins to change. While attending a hacker convention called Neoh@ck, he learns where the real Neoh@ck convention is--in the White House internet. Sam manages hack into the White House internet and gets caught and arrested. He is sent to Reckton Hall Juvenile Detention Center. He breaks through the security of their computers and breaks out of prison. He escapes to a taxi cab, which he gets in, to find a person who was at Neoh@ck who he learned to be Dodge. Dodge then takes him to Agent Tyler of the CDD, and Sam agrees to work for him to stop hackers.
One day they get hacked by terrorists. The terrorists tunneled under their firewall and unleashed viruses to their computers, which suffered the "blue screen of death." They used their hold to take over a plane and aim it in the direction of their base. Moments before the plane would kill them, some "thing" (phantom) came out of nowhere and eradicated the viruses, and the plane gained control of itself. The CDD traced the terrorists who were found with their brains wiped, wearing neuro-headsets. When their computers were checked, there was nothing.
Sam and Dodge come up with ideas for what could have been the phantom. One suspect was the Swamp Witch, who also works for the CDD. But then she gets her brain wiped. They figured out that the neuro-headsets were the source of the computer and brain wiping. Dodge puts on his headset to try to figure out more about the thing that is causing this and gets partially wiped.
While Sam is trying to wake up Dodge, videos are being shown to people and their memories are changed, two of which locked him in their base and ordered their arrest, and another accuses Sam with his false memories. Sam escapes with Dodge, and they find Vienna, who also works for the CDD and hasn't used her neuro-headset yet. Vienna leads them to a mall, where police and soldiers follow in an attempt to catch them. They theorize what could be causing this and realize it was a collection of consciousnesses and the internet combined to form a virtual being called Ursula. They put the information of the fake neuro-virus on the news, and temporarily shut down Ursula. Then they capture Agent Tyler and escape in a stolen car with him.
They get supplies and protective equipment and drive to Las Vegas, which was recently turned into a radio-active wasteland by a nuclear bomb launched by terrorists. The group finds a way around the huge fence that was placed around the majority of it, then to a house that was safe from the dangerous levels of radioactive dust. While they're there, they make a virus to destroy Ursula. As they are leaving, two sets of planes fly above them and fight, one group annihilating the other. Then cars come and attack them, but they escape and get out of Las Vegas.
They meet a group of traveling non-neuro refugees, and learn that a civil war is waging. They meet a general and tell him their plan to destroy Ursula. They are sent to Mount Cheyenne, except for Tyler, who heads off as a distraction. Will Sam, Dodge, and Vienna make it in time?
Brain Jack is a futuristic, adventurous book that everyone should read, especially sci.fi. and adventure lovers, as well as teens. I would rate it 10 stars. It is very well written, and tells a story that is all too possibly in the near future. This book made me see the terrors in technology, and the ending made me feel the possibilities for it. The book is slow at first, but as the story continues, you're hanging off of every word. Brian Falkner, best known as the author of The Tomorrow Code, got the idea for this book after reading about neuro-technology online. Brian Jack proves that not all technology is a good thing.

Didn't understand half of the book but enjoyed all of it.

Falkner delves into the hacking underworld with the precision of a surgeon and the expertise of an engineer. He crafts convincing language of computer geeks that turns the characters into convincing super hackers in a technological thriller.

This book may be not be everyone, since the terminology is over the heads of us mere technology mortals. For all I know, he was making it up, but it certainly doesn't feel that way. And even though I didn't understand much of the language, it was interwoven into scenes that helped build the tension and intrigue. Sam, the main character, becomes our hero through his actions and quick-wit.

I ripped through the engrossing plot, not wanting to slow down until it was resolved. The characters are current reflections of some of today's tech-savvy teenagers and the details of society are current, making the plot all-too-believable.

There were only a few small disappointments. Fargas had a strong presence in the beginning, then appeared to have very little to do with the remaining plot. And the ending wound up a little quickly. I would've liked to have seen Ursula's "death" fleshed out a bit more, to know what she was thinking, how she felt, her epiphany. These are the only reasons I gave the book 4.5 stars out of 5.

BRAIN JACK is a great boy book, especially for those into computers, code, or the hacking world. I've always been intrigued by those who have the technological skill to be hackers and this book showcases them in an exciting way. This book is an exciting, don't-want-to-stop-reading, dystopian, techno-thriller full of action. The interesting thing the author did is created the action through much of the hacking moments by writing the coding actions as if they were a battle themselves, thus making it more exciting. This world Falkner created where neuro-headsets are used to make your computer usage faster by skipping the brain to hand keyboard and mouse step, is a scary vision of where technology could go. It's definitely a commentary on how far we should allow technology to go - and is there a time where the technology could get smarter than the people using it? This book has a future world where online gaming is now an addiction as we see drug use in today's society - people can't unplug and it ruins their lives. There are terrorist attacks all the time (in fact Vegas is now a radioactive wasteland) and there are secret and not-so-secret government groups protecting the people and looking for the terrorists - by trying to find the computers from which they are hacking in. It's a book that makes you question who is good and how do you know?

I never knew what was coming next and each time a plot point felt wrapped up and I couldn't imagine where he would take it next, a twist would be thrown in that I was never expecting. It kept is exciting and made me not want to put it down and stop reading. There wasn't too much character development compared to stories that I'm used to, but as far as thrillers go, I think it was fairly typical - this book is more about the action and excitement and suspense. However, I did love Sam and Dodge was great comic relief. This book is one to read, but with the caution that there are some very technical terms, so if you're not familiar with coding/computer technology, it may take a little getting used to, but it's worth the effort.

Review originally posted at Heise Reads & Recommends

Sam Wilson is a hacker; perhaps one of the best in the world. He can hack into any computer system, no matter what type of security is used. Your information is definitely not safe from him. The government knows this; their solution - put Sam on their team.

Sam and his group of hackers work to keep "them" out of the United States Internet system. No one actually knows who "they" are, but they're out there and are constantly trying to get at classified information. One entity, known as Ursula, wants more than information. She wants total control of the human consciousness.

Sam and his cohorts won't let that happen.

Not unlike Cory Doctorow's LITTLE BROTHER and FOR THE WIN, Falkner presents a scenario that deals with cyber-terrorism/espionage. If you aren't a techie, don't worry; context clues are a wonderful thing, and Falkner makes the story accessible to all readers. Much of what he discusses read like Sanskrit to me, but it didn't matter because the story itself was so engaging.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and am excited to see what the author has in store for us next!

Reviewed by: LadyJay

Brainjack is a techno-thriller: fast-paced, and with an original hero in Sam Wilson, seventeen and in his own mind, invincible. His deeds are unique for a protagonist (except for Lisbeth Salander) and he races from one success to presumably another when unopposed, he hacks into Telecomerica, a large American company and crashes the USA's internet for 3 days. All in a day's work before school has even begun.

He attends a hacker convention called Neoh@ck, where he is challenged to hack into the White House internet. Now, after his greatest hits, he faces his first `failure'. Sam is apprehended and sent to Recton Hall Juvenile Detention Center where he meets Jase, who calls himself Kiwi. In the center, Sam breaks through Recton's computer network and out of prison. There is a scene here, which is hard to believe. The security guard is reluctant even to shoot Sam in the leg to prevent his escape, and the scarcity of guards is surprising. It seemed a little like a convenient plot point, as I have worked at Corrections.

Sam escapes via a fire truck then to a waiting taxi cab driven by a guy who Sam had met at Neoh@ck, "Skullface," otherwise called Dodge. Dodge then takes him to the Cyber Defence Division, CDD, and Sam agrees to work for Special Agent Tyler Ranger - along with Dodge and Vienna - to help Homeland Security to prevent hacking. Even his mother can't be told he is working for CDD.

The unit is hacked by terrorists, who get through the firewall to release viruses into their computers. A Boeing 787 is being used by the terrorists as a target to hit the CDD headquarters. The CDD team find its accesses locked, but as the airplane is about to hit their building, "the phantom of the Internet" appears and destroys the viruses, returning the control of the plane to the pilot. Now the CDD team is facing "the blue screen of death" and suspect that the terrorists beat them at their own game as they wore "neuro-headsets." Sometime later their computers are revived and carry no sign of the virus.

Sam and Dodge suspect the Swamp Witch, who is a supervisor at the CDD, but eliminate her from their enquiry when her brain is wiped. Dodge dons his new neuro-headset as part of his investigation and finds his brain being wiped. Quickly removing the headset from Dodge and as he tries to revive, Sam realizes that the neuro-headsets are the reason for the computer virus and brain wiping, the latter also having been the fate of the terrorists that the CDD traced wearing neuro-headsets.

The senior team at the CDD start to receive messages and images implicating Sam and Dodge of attacking the Swamp Witch, not realising that the neuro-headsets are tampering with their memories. They set out to arrest Sam and Dodge, who enlist Vienna's help to escape. Vienna hasn't used her neuro-headset, and helps them to access a mall, where they are followed by police and soldiers.

They formulate a further hypothesis that the neuro-headsets and the Internet have combined to form a collective conscious, overseen by a viral, virtual entity, Ursula. The trio broadcast information about the computer virus, and suspend Ursula. Taking Agent Tyler captive, they go on the run to Las Vegas - "Vegas," earlier referred to in the book, the dystopic radio-active wasteland laid bare by a terrorist nuclear bomb.

In a house that is free of radioactivity, the team creates a virus to destroy Ursula, and then to try to unscramble the false memories from damaged persons.

This is one vision of the future, enveloping Jung's vision of a collective conscious but in a potentially fatal scenario, like a nuclear disaster - as far-reaching and as deadly, but destroying minds rather than bodies, and then finally killing them too, as in the plane about to be programmed to hit the CDD base. It is a disturbing, annihilating vision - exciting for its breadth of foresight and creativity.

Great book! the whole computer and hacking concept got me hooked. Great book for anyone interested in computers and hacking.

Truely an intreguing and exciting story taking place in the not too distant future, This is a quick and easy read providing a delightful diversion.

Brain Jack is a savvy, YA speculative fiction novel based on the near-distant future America which has become fundamentally dependent on internet communications. A new technology, "neuro-sets" allow users to replace their traditional keyboard, mouse and monitor with a neuro-capable communication headset which provides them with a visual, spatial and linguistic link to the entire internet. Before long, however, it becomes evident that the neural "firewall" built into the devices are easily "hacked" (i.e- bypassed) by the "collective conscious" of the neurally-linked internet. To stop this corrupt, neuro-based "virus", a super-freak team of hackers and programmers employed by Homeland Security must pool their talents to fight the ultimate cyber-war.

Possible Spoilers Beyond This Point:

I was really captivated by the plot in "Brain Jack." At first, the action scenes (which are really just programmers prodding around a boring black screen of code) came off a little cheesy, but soon I got into the groove and really enjoyed the fast pace of the novel. Furthermore, the author introduces some truly thought-provoking and relevant themes regarding the loss of humanity at the interface of man and technology. He created a very fictional, yet very believable future Earth which was very compelling. But, for me the ending fell completely flat. There are so many directions he could have chosen to go: for example, the entire story could have been Sam linked into a "game" and therefore, never really happened. I had a gut feeling this would turn out to be one stories with a huge twist, but the conclusion wasn't just flat-- it was a complete dead end. Oh, well.

Ending aside, the book as a whole is a worthy read-- particularly for techie/gamer YA males (or females!). It reads faster than a roller coaster and will definitely cause the reader to stop and think at the end. B+

Brain Jack
Sam Wilson is the one of the best hackers in the new world where online gaming is the new drug. Keyboards are now inferior to the new technology of neuro-headsets which allows you to close your eyes and the computer screen becomes your mind. Sam was invited to neoh@ck an international hacker convention for the best of the best. However it was a part of a test and he was sent to juvenile but he broke out and was later picked up by an old friend. Now Sam, his reunited friend and other people are all a part of a secret government service full of hackers whose job is to protect the U.S from cyber terrorist.
I absolutely loved this book because the reader was so vivid and descriptive in his writing. I felt enjoyable tension while reading this book. I felt this way because there was a lot of action and I felt very much like I was inside the book battling off DoS spiders and file predators. I think I can relate to Fargas who is Sam's long time friend who has fallen into the trap of video games. When Sam left Fargas he had nothing to reinforce him to not play video games resulting in him to become an addict. I can relate this to me because when I got my first gaming console when I was probably nine. I admit played it way too much and it continued on when I got my Xbox playing hours at a time but my mom put me in her own rehab. I was finally unhooked and was able to live without thinking about my score on a game.
A novel a reader of this type might also like is "Beneath the Ice". One might like this because it is another action thriller however the themes are totally different. This novel is about two scientists who go to Antarctica who are just getting samples of ice for research. However, they find something else while digging in the snow. Suddenly the ice collapses and they soon found out that this cave is home to thousands of slow mud type creatures.
I would give this book 4.5out of 5 stars because sometimes I got lost in the dialogue because the writer probably thought that the reader would catch on. I did for a while but got lost because he would switch up the order. I have read other responses from people and they say they had the same problem. However this might have happened once and I really didn't care too much. In all honesty I don't know why this book hasn't won numerous awards. Another minor setback for this book was when I got I thought it was a book for someone my age. As I started to read I saw some minor profanity but nothing much to me since I am such an intelligent mature young man.