6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The SQL Injection Adventures of Pawn, June 14, 2007
This review is from: Stealing the Network: How to Own a Shadow (Paperback)
Did you enjoy the previous three Stealing the Network books? Are you looking for more? Then move along now, nothing to see here.
The prior books were interesting because they introduced the reader to new ideas or new angles on old ideas, then moved on without belaboring them. If you wanted more details, there were often URLs provided. The last two tied the stories together with the intriguing Knuth character. But the folks running the project chose to switch to a new format, with fewer characters and stories, not to mention fewer authors, and fewer ways to split the profits.
After three books with the same (proven) formula, it's understandable the authors would want to try something new. Alas, it's a disaster.
Welcome to "How to Own a Shadow," aka "The SQL Injection Adventures of Pawn." Pawn is one of the new characters in this volume, and is the first StN character I hoped would get shot to death by the cops in a mini-mall parking lot. Yes, he's that irritating. Particularly after reading 40 pages about his childhood as a high-functioning autistic (or something like that), and around 100 pages of him performing SQL injection attacks. Most of which is totally unrelated to Knuth. Note to the authors: SQL injection is interesting, but if you want to write a book about it, just write a book about it. I even gave you a title, what more do you want? You can even recycle much of this book, like you recycled part of the last one here.
Oh, you noticed the real subtitle of the book, "The Chase for Knuth." First, one chases _after_ fugitives, and hunts or searches _for_ them. Not that it matters, because there's not much chasing or hunting going on in this book. There isn't much Knuth, either. We see him in the first hundred pages, which is mostly about his son analyzing poker software. That's the last we see of either of them. Because, really, this is "The Biography of Pawn." We do get 50 pages of Knuth at the end of the book, but don't get excited: it's all from the last book, added as obvious filler.
Speaking of filler, there's a 17 page advertorial thrown in for BiDiBLAH, which is commercial software by SensePost. Oddly enough, they're listed as technical advisors for the book. I'm sure it's a fine app, but the authors have forgotten about Knuth again, since it has nothing to do with the story. If it had been relevant, it might have been a less obnoxious addition.
Not everything is bad. There's a brief bit about RFID, which of course turns into how to use RFID for SQL attacks. We get to meet Knuth's supposedly dead wife, and a charming shrew she is. All in all, though, this book isn't worth reading unless you're a truly devoted fan of the series, or SQL. I'm still a fan of the previous books, and I hope the authors can recapture what made them so intriguing for their next book. I won't be buying that one until I'm sure it's not Book Two of the Pawn Saga, however.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Author "review", April 12, 2007
This review is from: Stealing the Network: How to Own a Shadow (Paperback)
Let me first say that I am one of the authors on this book. I don't think authors can objectively review their own work in a forum such as this, so I won't. This won't stop me from rating it five stars to help reinforce the law of averages. ;-)
I will, however, address a few reviews posted here. First and foremost, I am a huge fan of the Stealing series, and the authors that worked on each of the three previous books. But based on customer reviews and our own feelings on the matter, the authors unanimously agreed that boosting the story value of the book was a priority. After all, even security geeks deserve a good plot and decent characters if they take the time to read technical fiction. Books of this genre should also teach. By all fair reviews, this book does both. If you're interested in straight fiction, or straight tech, you'll find this book to only be half-good. If you're willing to be entertained, and are looking to learn something cool about hackers and how they operate, this is the book for you. And there I go, drifting into a review.
So let me address one other complaint: the lack of a "real" ending. Well, that's our fault. There's more to the series, and we know how it's going to end, but we adamantly refused to slip another deadline, so the book went to print with a cliffhanger ending. Now we're not out to sell more books or make your life miserable by leaving you hanging, but this book had to either wrap up where it did, or it would have been scrapped by the publisher, who had no real choice in the matter. As authors, we missed our deadlines, but we did it in order to improve the final product. I'm personally proud of the end result, and the reviews show that we have good reason to be proud.
So to long-time Stealing readers, this book is different because we grew in our craft, and our EXTREMELY capable story editor (Scott Pinzon) held us to the standard of mainstream fiction. Will we make the New York Times best-seller list because of our efforts? No. But this book isn't for those readers. It's for those in and around technology that have read one to many straight technical books.
So we would love to hear what you think. Post a review if you'd like, or if you just want to chat about the book, head over to the "book talk" section of my web site's forums (you know where to find it- Google is your friend). I'd love to hear from you.
j0hnny
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3.0 out of 5 stars
where is the shadow?, March 7, 2007
This review is from: Stealing the Network: How to Own a Shadow (Paperback)
The book is written much better than the previous ones in terms of style, it actually looks like it was very well proofread and edited, but it really lacks in substance which the previous books were full of! So we are introduced to some reverse engineering techniques (rather superficially), nothing new, it was covered to a much better extent in How to Own the Box, the very first book. Lots of extra background, often unnecessary and very predictable. A long story on a little 'different' boy who grows up to get very excited by sql injections... A story that somehow manages to be a bit entertaining, if not for an abrupt ending that leaves you with a surprised and disappointing look on your face. That's it? So who exactly was stealing whose shadow?
That was not even talking about a terribly delayed release. I pre-ordered this book in May 2006 and they kept pushing the date at least 5 times. And after all this waiting I get a half baked sql injection tutorial and learn pretty much zero about Knuth and how his story would end. Are they in for another sequel? This is not Star Wars after all.
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