Shutdown

Rating:
Summary: Author's Note
Review: Imagine a world without technology, without satellite communications or fast transportation, without electricity or air conditioning, without space exploration or the Internet, without . . . you get the picture. If that world seems indeed straight out of the Stone Age, or even worse, apocalyptic, then you have just imagined a world without engineering, without innovation, without a future. Engineering, whether electrical, computer, mechanical, chemical, petroleum, or industrial, is the discipline that literally makes the world go around, the tide that rises all ships. Don't kid yourself. Without it America doesn't get its morning coffee and daily paper, its train ride to work, its host talk shows, its weekend drive to the countryside, its Monday Night Football, its headache medication, or its airline trip to visit grandma. Without engineers there would be no cinema, on-line trading, television, radio, running water, satellite communications, sewage treatment plants, cellular phones, or Nike shoes. Engineering provides the infrastructure for every discipline in the modern world, from medicine and finance, to sports, law, and even politics. Those society who fall behind in the technology race, fall behind in every aspect of their lives.

This book explores the possibility of our 21st century civilization descending to such world. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. Please keep the e-mails coming.

Rating:
Summary: Packed with action, emotion, and suspense
Review: In Shutdown Pineiro makes you see, smell, hear, and taste the tragic results of technology gone bad. The computer-triggered accidents are hair-raising, and the computer viruses evoque raw fear. Here you have a heroine, Erika Conklin, doing "time" as an FBI computer analyst to pay for her past hacker crimes (there was an article not so long ago in the news about how the FBI recruits hackers to assist them in the fight against cybercrime, so Pineiro is dead on here). Erika comes across information that suggests that recent computer shutdowns (which triggered the terrible accidents) may be due to sabotage. So off she goes, performing the type of high-tech detective work that would make Sherlock Holmes proud. As she begins to get close to the source of the sabotage, the FBI assigns seasoned agent Brent McClaine to assist her, and protect her. The chemistry between these two unlikely partners is terrific. Together they continue to probe deeper, facing many dangers, including some very original but plausible skirmishes. The American president also has an important role here, but unlike other thrillers from this genre, the reader gets emotionally involved with the president and sympathizes with the difficult choices he must make for the benefit of the country. The Navy SEALs, which come in toward the second half of the book, are protrayed with both accuracy and respect, and the reader will likely also get quite attached to these amazing warriors. And, of course, no thriller would be a thriller without bad guys. Shutdown has plenty of them, without morals, without remorse, and willing to go to any extreme to achieve their evil plans. Shutdown will not disappoint you. This is the first book that I have read from Pineiro. He has peaked my interest to look up his other works.

Rating:
Summary: 300 Pages Of Recycled Ideas Together With Advertising
Review: It is not always possible to read Authors that are already known quantities. There were no reviews on Amazon so I took a chance as the book was endorsed by more than one well-known Author. Never again will I rely on another Author.

I will not say this is the worst book I have read because something else will surely come along. But my observations are as follows.

The Author is an engineer at AMD (Advanced Micro Devices), I felt is was reasonable to presume he could write a decent work on computer chips as that was his "day job", and one that he surely should keep.

I have never before commented on the quality of proofreading. This book is so filled with bad spelling and groups of words masquerading as sentences that it was distracting to read. In one section three consecutive pages contain the most basic spelling errors.

Entire scenes from the book have been in either another book or movie. Remember when a Japanese bad guy uses a naked woman as a table for Sushi? Well I do, it was in a Sean Connery movie, adapted I believe form a Crichton novel. The writer's imagination was limited to substituting one girl for two.

The book is an endless product endorsement as the world's chip manufacturers are victimized, AMD is of course immune. AMD is also the processor of choice with detailed explanations on why the main character in the book chose it over....you guessed it a Pentium III. The name of the notebook is mentioned dozens of times.

The author's knowledge of a SEAL Team he portrays in the book is zero. Again they were equipped at The Sharper Image and can not check the time without mentioning the brand and model of their watch, their GPS equipment is also a store brand and it beeps when turned on! Exactly what a SEAL team needs when hiding several feet from an enemy, beeping equipment, and watches that could be seen from a couple hundred yards.

The Author also decided to make a woman a member of the SEAL team, and then has her in a relationship with a team member who she chats with about having children as they approach the beach. I know it sounds like I must be making this up but it's sadly all in the book. The President Of The United States carries a football with him constantly. His deepest thought is whether or not he could run the Country without his football!

The bad guy from the Japanese side is named......."Slick Willy". I wish I were kidding. The SEAL commander is Derek Sting Ray. Every time someone wants his attention they say, "Sting?", and the next sentence is "Ray turned, Ray smiled, Stingray, Stingray. My favorite was when he leaned back in a chair that was bolted to the floor of the submarine!

Please let this book die a quiet death. You have read what's in it before, if you like the Authors who endorse the book don't buy it, it strains credibility to believe they think this book has any merit.

The only information this book offers is a repetition of hardware and software companies, and the CEOS that run them.

Most everything that is wrong with lousy, commercialized, recycled fiction is in this wretched book. And when the writing isn't annoying you, the 300 pages of product endorsements may stop you from reading this. I finished it because I won't comment on a book unless I do.

My money was wasted, as was my time. I write this in hope that I save both of yours.

Rating:
Summary: A Nightmare Brought to Life
Review: Mr. Pineiro does his usual good job in providing an interesting and entertaining, well researched techno-thriller.

One wonders about the wisdom of the dependence on so much technology, and how vulnerable the systems underpinning it can be.

If it can be said that the veneer of civilization is very thin and that we are animals beneath, then perhaps a corollary to this is that our technology or confidence in it could crumble easily and with significant impact.

Pineiro takes this question, and exposes the underbelly of it to a knife thrust.

This speculation turns into a nightmare as this erosion is done as a strategic move to gain market dominance by the bad guys.

Mr. Pineiro takes an insider's knowledge and viewpoint of the semiconductor industry and brings this theme to life by weaving a tale that involves fast moving action and an interesting plot.

If you want some good entertainment and find your enjoyment marred by incorrect details and implausible events, then you would probably enjoy this book as much as I did.

Rating:
Summary: Pineiro's Computer World
Review: Piniero continues to generate action packed and technology oriented thrillers. This is a fast paced thriller that combines computer technology with commando action and delivers a message that World WarIII could be waged from the keyboard. The characters are well developed. The action sequences are tightly and clearly conveyed, and the heroes and villans well defined. The only "logic error" in this one is the heroine's master stroke of genius at the end, which in effect negates the efforts of our commandos and the very well depicted battle scenarios of a previous plan to defeat the evil doers. All things considered, a great read, with the scary thought that both the evil doing and the ultimate solution are indeed, in today's technolgical world, not great stretches of reality.

Rating:
Summary: Fast-moving plot, uninspired characters
Review: R.J. Pineiro writes a good hi-tech thriller and Shutdown is no exception. A series of computer chip failures, leading to disastrous computer shutdowns, begins to destroy public confidence in American semiconductor plants. Erika Conklin, a hacker forced to work for the FBI or go to jail, discovers that sabotage is causing the chips to fail. With the help of special agent Brent McClaine, she discovers that the failed chips were designed by traitors planted within the American chipmakers by the Japanese government.

The plot is fast moving and realistic, which we expect from the author, a chip designer himself. The Erika Conklin characterization is thin but acceptable. Brent McClaine is pretty much a stock character, however. A good read for those of us who enjoy cyber-thrillers.

Rating:
Summary: Fast-moving plot, uninspired characters
Review: R.J. Pineiro writes a good hi-tech thriller and Shutdown is no exception. A series of computer chip failures, leading to disastrous computer shutdowns, begins to destroy public confidence in American semiconductor plants. Erika Conklin, a hacker forced to work for the FBI or go to jail, discovers that sabotage is causing the chips to fail. With the help of special agent Brent McClaine, she discovers that the failed chips were designed by traitors planted within the American chipmakers by the Japanese government.

The plot is fast moving and realistic, which we expect from the author, a chip designer himself. The Erika Conklin characterization is thin but acceptable. Brent McClaine is pretty much a stock character, however. A good read for those of us who enjoy cyber-thrillers.

Rating:
Summary: Sabotaged computer chips create havoc in America
Review: The silicon chip, the soul of today's machines, governing every aspect our society--from military systems to communications and transportation, from health care and education to banking and finances. Dominance in semiconductors equals dominance in the new millennium. And the United States holds that dominance. But strange things are happening. A terrible accident in Florida, leaving dozens dead, is traced to a computer chip from an American corporation. A week later, another American tech giant is blamed for an industrial disaster that killed hundreds in Texas. As American stocks plummet, followed by bad press and class actions suits, one woman figures out that the faulty chips weren't due to negligence, but to sabotage. Erika Conklin was forced to work for the FBI because of her hacking abilities. They gave her a choice: go to prison or work for the government whose programs she was entering. Enlisting the seasoned abilities of Brent McClaine, she launches an investigation that spans two continents, unveiling the chilling realities behind the glass and steel structures of the corporate world. From Silicon Valley to the ruthless Far East markets, Erika and Brent must rely on their combined computer and field skills to find the origins of the saboteurs . . . before the next Shutdown.

Rating:
Summary: Compellig. Vivid. You won't be able to put it down.
Review: This book shows Pineiro's talent as a first-rate novelist. The writing style is crisp, the non-stop action will leave you wanting to read all of his other books.

Rating:
Summary: Another Good Pineiro Book!
Review: This book well documents the computer wars between the U.S. and Japan. After some disasters as a result of computer equipment
sabotage Erica Conklin discovers that the sabotage was carried out by members of the Japanese government.She is teamed up with Brent MacClaine an F.B.I. agent.Agents of the Japanese(including
a Japanese terrorist group) attempt to kill them.Erica is working for the F.B.I. because of being caught hacking into computer systems.Erica and Brent stave off several assasination attempts by the forces. Erica and Brent participate in a SEAL operation aimed at getting to the bottom of the computer chip sabotage.Action abounds in this book. The ending is also very good.I stll wait for the day when one of R.J. Pineiro's books is made into a movie.A good book. Read it.