Seven Floors High

Rating:
Summary: The opening of "Pandora's Box"
Review: A truely awesome book. Seven Floors High is a thoroughly entertaining and intelligently written book which I avidly read in two sittings. If you want a hilarious read about staff antics within a telecoms company that's rising high with the NASDAQ in 2000, then read this book as soon as you can. If you are interested in America's role in the modern world and want new information and a deeper understanding of some less well known CIA and NSA covert operations, then read every line of this book without delay. As a reader of many foreign policy books and papers, I saw clearly that the pages of Seven Floors High are loaded with important political facts and forbidden intelligence "gems," some of which are handed to the reader in a stealthy tone by a 'secret narrator.' And, just like Pandora who opened her box, reading the contents of Seven Floors High leaves the reader with the feeling that your hands are suddenly full of Pandora's forbidden "gems." ...And the readers perception of America's role in the world is changed forever. This book is very well crafted and the ending of the story's many elements is ingenious. A sure bombshell for anyone working in the intelligence field, this book contains lots of new information and should be read by every American without a doubt.

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing.
Review: I bought this book because of all the rave reviews here and I feel as if I've been conned. It was not a very exciting read and, in fact, I nearly gave up on it several times. I'm not quite sure how the author could sustain so many pages of the same "action," over and over. The "secret narrator" asides were informative -- if you know the code names of all the secret projects the US government has cooking -- but they were mostly distracting. It appears the author was trying to write two books in one. The first was a first person account of his wild experiences with a telecom startup. The second was a highly disjointed account of the US government's secret dealings in the Middle East and China. Why the author chose to present these two stories in one book is beyond me, since the two stories don't naturally interact in any way. In fact, the presentation of the spy stuff is rather forcibly achieved through contrived dialog and the asides of the "secret narrator." Why?

Rating:
Summary: Good Story and well written
Review: I found this book to be fun reading and I'm very pleased I got my hands on a copy. Two very interesting themes run through this book. First, Goddard's journey through a crazy telco at a time when the NASDAQ was breaking all record high's. The other is an almost forensic insight into many secret policies of the US government. Both of these themes worked very complementary. The author's knowledge of secret US government operations is superbly placed in this very funny story with its many hilarious character descriptions. This is definately a good book to read if you are interested in espionage.

Rating:
Summary: Statecraft, Tradecraft and BLOWBACK
Review: I was given this book as a present while on Christmas vacation to England and I could not put it down. The narrative of Seven Floors High takes the reader on a journey through the world of tanker chartering with the 'old boys' to a start-up telecoms company called iaxis. From here, the story describes the aspirations, antics, the high's and the low's of the iaxis staff during the NASDAQ telecoms boom of 2000, all seen through the perceptive eyes of the the iaxis Internet Peering Manager, Steve Goddard.

For a first time writer, the writing is highly intelligent, humorous and very informative. The quality of writing really shines out through great characterization, constant eye catching detail and above all, by a highly ambitious espionage sub-theme, which is expertly woven together informing the reader of certain aspects of communications intelligence gathering operations by the NSA. Also added to this political theme is some astonishingly detailed covert intelligence material from the NSA/CIA's role in various countries. Those who are well informed in the dark arts of statecraft and tradecraft, this book will give you the opportunity to "read between the lines" and fill in a few gaps of whatever your perception is of the big picture from your time in Service.

It is clear from the start that the intelligence material has been handled with supreme confidence by a young writer who knows his subject matter very well. From Chapter 1, Goddard draws in the reader and subtly details covert intelligence operations as a cryptic jigsaw puzzle that runs the length of the entire book. I would say that Seven Floors High is a must read for anyone with an interest in the Wall Street / NASDAQ boom of 2000, especially investors, traders and analysts, and also Intelligence Anaylsts of today's intake at Langley who want to learn more about past covert CIA/NSA operations should pick up this book and read it and then be held in awe at its detail, as it provides the little operational details that the New York Times and Washington Post are not lucky enough to print. (Mr Woodward...what do you do these days?)

So why does the world not trust George W.Bush...? Read this book and hold your breath. As for Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and ex-president George Bush Sr., burn every copy of this book you can find.

Rating:
Summary: Essential reading
Review: One of the best books I've ever taken on a vacation. If you are looking for a charming and light-hearted read before bedtime, this is not the book for you. This book deals with some controversial issues and provides many unpleasant political truths mixed in with a very entertaining and witty narrative. It is original and unconventional and, as the cover says, it is a journey of greed, espionage and deceit; the greed is supplied by a start-up telco called iaxis floating high with the dotcom bubble, while the espionage comes from a very sharp political awareness of America's covert strategies in Saudi Arabia, Argentina and China. And there's plenty of political deceit in these pages to make the average American go red with fury and cry with shame.

Seven Floors High begins in oil shipping as we follow the author changing career from his old-style shipping outfit and entering the wild west atmosphere of iaxis, which we soon learn is on the verge of floating on the NASDAQ and the staff walking off into the sunset with their millions. Working in a parallel to the author's story of greed and ambition, we learn some political disclosures about the military origins of the World Wide Web, NSA SIGINT details and the inside track on a Middle East covert strategy in the late 1980's. Although I occassionally found some intelligence details overwhelming, the story ties up remarkably well and my eyes never glazed over once. From beginning to end the story is told in a fast moving and very funny narrative with terrific attention to detail (I never noticed a single typo), which all makes the characters and events come to life. I greatly enjoyed reading this book and I intend to read it again. I would highly recommend Seven Floors High to anyone who wants a read that stays with them long afterwards as it certainly made me think about politics, life and the lure of money. A heavy cocktail of ingredients, this book is a political flamethrower and a very rewarding read.

Rating:
Summary: SECRETS
Review: The Man Comes Around...Some very real secrets are there to be discovered by the more enquiring mind. The clues are in the text, study the narrative closely: follow the 'white rabbit'...

Rating:
Summary: Statecraft, Tradecraft and BLOWBACK
Review: This is one of the best books I have read in a longtime. And the fact it is written by a first-time writer makes the impact even more shocking.
It is set in a company called iaxis, based in London's ITN building, where anything seems to go in the quest for telecoms wealth and riches in the dotcom boom. The story has everything from sex, drugs, alcohol and even a suprisingly highly detailed espionage theme. This is provided by a 'secret narrator' and also person who appears later in the book who used to work for America's National Security Agency. Some of this information seems very close to the bone...
Having worked in telecoms at the time, this book really is the business, telling you what really went on inside a start-up. If you don't know what internet peering is, you soon will!

Rating:
Summary: Powerful and Compelling
Review: This is one of the most astonishing and hard-hitting books I have ever read. It is brilliantly written and gives a fascinating insight into the get rich quick folly of the Internet boom, all combined with a powerful and breathtaking sub-theme of covert espionage policies of US Military Departments such as the NSA and CIA. Throughout the book, the pace of the narration is sustained by a descriptive, entertaining and razor-sharp dialogue as we follow Goddard from a decadant shipping company into the brave new extravagant world of telecoms, when dotcom adoration was at its NASDAQ peak and millionaires were made in minutes... As an effective parallel to the iaxis/dotcom story, the interwoven espionage theme is also remarkably coherent in its development, as catalogue after catalogue of intelligence information is described in compelling and precise detail by an ex-employee of the NSA. This intelligence theme is also complemented by a Secret Narrator which has been effectively immersed within the dynamics of this authoritive and sophisticated story.

This book is a must read and should carry a warning, because once you start to read it, you will not be able to put it down.