Customer Reviews

Cyberterror

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

 

 

This book was horrible. Technical jargon was thrown around to make things seem accurate, but was horribly abused. People familiar with TRON will recognize the idea of throwing around viruses as though they were balls.

The writing style was childish and often full of word abuse, as has been noted by other reviewers. The characters are undeveloped and all the good guys think and act exactly the same: buck the establishment investigators who make lots of really good guesses. Deus ex machina to the extreme.

The amount of belief that must be suspended, especially by someone remotely familiar with modern computers, goes far beyond my tolerance for something that is supposed to take place within the decade.

If you want to read some high-tech fiction, read Neal Stephenson. He requires suspension of some belief, but writes much better and has characters with depth.

This book takes what made Neuromancer unique and turns it into cheap suspense. Its technical information is inaccurate, and by trying to stylize "cyberspace," it creates a mess of illusion and reality intertwined around a predictable logical path. For all of its bluster about warning us of the dangers of cyberterror, it gives a simplistic view of the situation. As a suspense novel, it is not terrible, with a reasonably compelling character, but between the plot holes and predictability, it is about as suspenseful as reading The Congressional Record. Read Neuromancer instead.

R.J. Pineiro has written another exciting book.I have yet to read a boring book from R.J. Pineiro.In this book you have the ultimate villain in Ares Kulzak. He is being pursued by three
good guys,Tom Graham,Michael Ryan,and Karen Frost.Kulzak begins the book by leveling San Antonio due to a gas leak caused by computer interference by Kulzak.Kulzak is trying to obtain four computer passwords that would give him control over the nuclear launch codes.During the course of this book Kulzak causes wide scale tragedy in Melbourne,Florida,Austin,New Orleans, Los Angeles and finally San Francisco.The three agents combat the efforts of Kulzak all over the country.They battle him in the cyberworld and every place that he attempts to strike.This book
is another winner from R.J. Pineiro.I enjoyed this book and you will too.

In San Antonio, terrorists access the computer program that regulates the flow of natural gas. They dramatically increase the pressure on the system resulting in uncountable leaks into private homes and other buildings, which in turn leads to numerous explosions throughout the area. Thousands die and The Alamo City turns into a prison cemetery reminiscent of the fire bombings of World War II. More than just the United States is in a panic as much of the developed world wonders if their home will be part of the next assault.

Two decades of experience as a counterterrorist fails to prepare Tom Graham for the type and magnitude of this attack. He knows the old rules are gone and he needs outside the societal crypt type thinkers and a software Einstein to prevent future rapes via the American cyber-infrastructure. Tom mobilizes FBI Special Agent Karen Frost and obtains the services of computer guru Michael Patrick Ryan. The war is engaged as the threesome supported by the Federal Counter Cyberterrorism Team try to follow back the hacking path that led to the San Antonio wasteland.

As President Bush claimed Bin Laden the threat after 9/11 and Hussein as the threat in 2002, R.J. Pineiro provides a cautionary tale that describes the seemingly real threat is through cyberspace. The theme of CYBERTERROR is protection to the computer-managed infrastructure is weak and subject to hacking. Though the characters serve more as good guys vs. bad guys stereotypes, this action-packed thriller will haunt the audience with its message of no escape for the innocent if the cyber weaknesses of our support systems is not fixed yesterday.

Harriet Klausner

In our endless search for popular fiction authors who deal seriously with the Internet and whose works might further our understanding of its impact, we were bound to encounter R. J. Pineiro. Our search, however, does not end with this book... In general, Tor Books, the imprint for Pineiro's works, appears to keep publication costs very low---hence the lack of adequate editorial supervision---and perhaps seeks a less literate audience than do many publishers. Of course, this audience is a vast one, and Pineiro very successful at reaching it... Pineiro's credentials are good ones, and the details of these varied fields in his work are accurate. We feel that he probably has a really good book in him for those of us interested in the impact of the Internet, but sadly, CyberTerror isn't it...

For a full review see Interface, Volume 4, Issue 3.

This author just gets better and better. His subject and characters made up a very intriguing story. It grabbed me by the hand and ran me at a break-neck speed through an adventure not even imagined. He got my attention early with the pipeline because I don't live so far from them but he never let up with adding more to the story with the the action inside the brains of a computer and much more. Action movies are exciting but books like this are so much more. I didn't even miss the visuals because he paints it so well for me to see. It just amazes how unlimited the possibilities for terror are. To me this is fantasy but in reality........... Most of us will never know just how much of a possibility some of this is. I'm looking forward to more of his books.

Good plot and a fast moving storyline that is sure to provide terrorists with plenty of new targets to think about. An equal mix of adrenaline and testosterone that feels like a season script for the TV show "24" - or maybe a Bruce Willis miniseries.

The writing is solid but the author has the annoying habit of referring to the September 11 / World Trade Center attacks so many times (nearly every other page in the first 50 pages - and much more towards the end), that this reader got tired of it. It is as if he keeps doing a George W. Bush impression-repeating Sept. 11 as a Mantra, trying unsuccessfully to push emotional buttons without reason-and looking stupid because of it.

Not my favorite book by Peneiro, but a good solid read with lots of action and suspense.

See book summary above.

Though he goes a little overboard with what he thinks cyberterrorists are capable of, he still provides a very entertaining thriller. The cyber thrills are as moving as the real life thrills and chases. Both provide the reader with quite a bit of suspense.
As a computer engineer, R.J. Pineiro has the background, and as an author he has the skill.

Recommended.

This author just gets better and better. His subject and characters made up a very intriguing story. It grabbed me by the hand and ran me at a break-neck speed through an adventure not even imagined. He got my attention early with the pipeline because I don't live so far from them but he never let up with adding more to the story with the the action inside the brains of a computer and much more. Action movies are exciting but books like this are so much more. I didn't even miss the visuals because he paints it so well for me to see. It just amazes how unlimited the possibilities for terror are. To me this is fantasy but in reality........... Most of us will never know just how much of a possibility some of this is. I'm looking forward to more of his books.