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Summary: Where are Frank and Joe when you need them?
Review: A recent favourable review in a national magazine made me think this would be an enjoyable summer read. A police procedural set around computer hacking sounded promising. Unfortunately this was not the case due to generally dreadful writing, cardboard characterizations, and pacing (if it can be called that) which manages to be uniformly dull. This is the kind of book that makes memories of the Hardy Boys seem like literary masterpieces in comparison. My first, and last Deaver, I think.
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Summary: A real mess
Review: This book is real mess. I say this as a big Jeffery Deaver fan who is very disappointed with The Blue Nowhere. For example, I challenge anyone to read the first 100 pages and tell me who the protagonist is. That's because the original protagonist disappears (I won't reveal how) after about 90 pages, leaving a void that never quite gets filled. Even toward the end of the book I was still not sure whose story this was supposed to be. Deaver also has fallen into the terrible "more must be better" trap. His earlier books worked well because of his clever plot twists - lead the reader one way, only to discover something else was really happening all the time. But one can only do this so many times before plot twists become boring and predictable. I didn't always know where Deaver was going in this book, but I stopped experiencing any tension because I knew the "threat" was going to disappear in another page or two. By overdoing this device, Deaver sacrificed his greatest skill.Add to the above complaints problems with computer facts, geography facts (Sunnyvale only 10 minutes from the SF airport?) and just plain silly stuff (cop gets beaten senseless with a hammer, but an hour or two later he's back on the job; sensitive child is attacked and witnesses vicious murder, then runs off to have fun at a concert). I used to buy Deaver's books as soon as they arrived. Now I'm not so sure about the next one.
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Summary: Techie Thrills and Kills
Review: Suspense builds from the first chapter of this thriller and never lets up. Phate is the most evil hacker/cracker you'd ever want to (not) meet, a sociopathic serial killer with an Einsteinian I.Q. Worse, Phate is a screen name; this lunatic could actually be almost anyone . . . anywhere . . . anytime. His more ethical counterpart, Wyatt Gillette, appears to be helping the police and matching moral and technological wits with Phate in an effort to stop him, but Wyatt's motives and connections to Phate are themselves questionable. Little is what it seems in Deaver's high-tech world of mirrors. The only slight distraction is that Deaver frequently detours from the narrative to define techie and hacker terminology. This is probably necessary and enables Deaver to get more deeply technical -- and more believable -- than he might otherwise. In any event, this is a really exciting page-turner.
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Summary: Just couldn't stop reading it!
Review: man, this book is amazing! I also read Deaver's bone collector but this one overpassed it in every sense. Sounds pretty much like a real-world history !! Strongly recommend it to anyone who uses computers for a bit more than word processing...
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Summary: Author of $oft Money says read this one
Review: Jeffery Deaver has captured a topic here that will be the genre of the future, Techno Thriller. Murder, suspense and intrigue are mixed into this high tech thriller. This is the first book by Mr. Deaver that I have read, I will now go back and look for past works by this author. I will also be anxiously awaiting future work as well. I highly recommend this book. If you are into computers or not, this book is easy to follow and a pleasure to have read.
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Summary: Wake Me When It's Over!!
Review: I seem to have unfortuately picked the wrong book of Jeff Deaver to read first! After having heard so much about him, I happened to be given this as a gift. It was so bad that I am now having doubts about the friendship of the person who gave it to me. It is not a novel...it is a textbook! A textbook of computer terms, symbols, codes, programs....and on and on ad nauseam. Yes, if you look closely enough there is a thin story line buried under all the acronyms and behind the codes and sometimes really bad technology. The two main characters ( and I do mean characters)Phate and Shawn.... you know, the ones with the black hats...well, sometimes black hats because , yep, you guessed it -"masters of disguise"...well, they can allude anyone and do anything...until the end of course when we find out that the CIA, CCU, DoD, NYPD, ER, the hunks and bumps from Baywatch, and the Lone Ranger have it all under control. But not before we have been 'social engineered' into believing "It's him!, "No, it's her!, "It's the butler!" Of course, it wasn't any of them and we knew that!Then we have other inept phrases rammed into the readers head ..ummm...like "It's all in the spelling."..such as " It's here in the phile on our phriend" (then it's spelled out for us dummies PHILE is file and PHRIEND and is uh..friend. Good thing I had Hooked on fonics oops phonics to phall back on!)..and "Do something with that." I wish he had! I, for one, was happy when the recess bell rang and all of us 'students of the Blue Nowhere' could FINALLY escape. I WILL go back and start with the first of Deaver's books as I do understand they are good reads. But to this author I would have to say-"To thine own self be true!"
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Summary: Connect To The Internet World
Review: THE BLUE NOWHERE By Jeffery Deaver 7/9/01 The Internet will be the subject of numerous books from now on. It's almost impossible to get away from it. This book is a good start by a first-rate author about modern computer lore, or should I say about anything that can be programmed. It is an excellent book about hackers, crackers etc...I don't want to rebuild the glossary which is a nice part of the book, besides most of us would be lost without it. The book is a typical Jeffery Deaver novel, with enough killing to make most of you who like psychotically suspense books happy. But from there it deviates into a hacker's novel and manages to maintain the 'sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-chair' suspense all the way through. The hero has two year toward a three-year sentence in the federal Men's Correction Facility in San Jose, California when the police came to get him to help catch a super good hacker who had broken every rule in the book and turned into a very smart killer. Aside from the psychotically suspense part of the book, Mr. Deaver comes up with a lot of thoughts of what a good hacker can do-such as the Trapdoor program-that frightens me. Although like most computer users, I don't want anyone to get into my hard disk although I know they can when I am on line. That is the reason there are so many 'firewalls'--whether they do any good or not--sold now. This novel is worth four stars as a novel and more for what it teaches.
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Summary: Happy not to see Lincoln Rhyme again
Review: Fast paced story that I could not put down. My guess is that if you a computer tech whiz, there are probablly a lot of implausibilities in this story; but if you're not and you can handle all the acronyms and are somewhat into computers, you'll like it. The main character, Wyatt Gillette (a hacker)is released from prison temporarily to help find another hacker who is murdering people based on a computer game. Lots of surprises and twists. Bring back Wyatt Gillette
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Summary: The Blue Nowhere
Review: This novel offers a great learning experience for those of us who are not totally computer literate. I enjoyed the story and can only hope that it is really not a portent of things to come, however I believe it may already be here. If you like a very current subject and the many ramifacations of our tecno world, you'll love this....and be forewarned
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Summary: Another Winner From Jeffery Deaver!
Review: This author is one of the finest, past and present. His informed, intelligent writing, for me, is "scalp tingling", as well as spine tingling. In this story he leads us through the almost unbelievable technology and complexity of computer hacking. Although at first seemingly challenging to us "mostly e-mail" users, he explains the terminology and takes us on a journey, the destination to which it seems impossible to reach.
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