Simple Simon

Rating:
Summary: Fast paced and engaging
Review: An interesting plot with an autistic teenager breaking a supposedly unbreakable code. The usual good and bad guys but an inexorable story which should appeal to thriller readers.

Rating:
Summary: The Book Behind Mercury Rising
Review: I have not yet seen the movie "Mercury Rising" but it is based on Simple Simon (Screenplay by: Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal, Directed by: Harold Becker, Produced by: Brian Grazer, Karen Kehela).

What interests me about both the book and movie is the extent to which they reflect our society's awareness of cryptography and the many ethical dilemmas this technology creates. For example, a large percentage of Americans now use software applications (web browsers) that contain relatively sophisiticated encryption (as opposed to things like the password protection in Office applications).

But not many people know that our government still reserves the right to declare any encryption scheme, however, it is expressed, whether described in a patent application or sketched on the back of a knapkin, a matter of national security, and thus the property of the United States government.

It will be interesting to see how the public reacts to the moive. Certainly the novel itself was a very clever way of playing out this type of government thinking as a very human drama.

Stephen Cobb, CISSP
Certified Information System Security Professional

Rating:
Summary: I must be simple...too many characters!
Review: I have not yet seen the movie "Mercury Rising" but it is based on Simple Simon (Screenplay by: Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal, Directed by: Harold Becker, Produced by: Brian Grazer, Karen Kehela).

What interests me about both the book and movie is the extent to which they reflect our society's awareness of cryptography and the many ethical dilemmas this technology creates. For example, a large percentage of Americans now use software applications (web browsers) that contain relatively sophisiticated encryption (as opposed to things like the password protection in Office applications).

But not many people know that our government still reserves the right to declare any encryption scheme, however, it is expressed, whether described in a patent application or sketched on the back of a knapkin, a matter of national security, and thus the property of the United States government.

It will be interesting to see how the public reacts to the moive. Certainly the novel itself was a very clever way of playing out this type of government thinking as a very human drama.

Stephen Cobb, CISSP
Certified Information System Security Professional

Rating:
Summary: I must be simple...too many characters!
Review: The premise of the book was what drew me to it. I thought it sounded interesting, especially the part of Simon being autistic, but able to solve these encrypted messages. I listened to the story on audiobook which may have made it harder to keep track of the characters, but there were so many introduced that it took me awhile before I could remember who was who. It was an OK read, but I'm not really a big fan of thriller/mystery type books. I was able to follow the plot, but not without really paying attention to the story, which was hard while driving.

Rating:
Summary: An intriguing premise not fully explored
Review: The title character of Ryne Douglas Pearson's "Simple Simon" is a 16-year-old autistic boy with a remarkable skill for doing puzzles. One day, he is given a magazine from a group for the super intelligent. The magazine includes an apparently random series of letters and numbers, which Simon decodes in a matter of seconds, thereby doing what computers could not. The message hidden in that series instructs him to call a number to say that he has solved puzzle 99. As it happens, Simon, who needs explicit instructions to get off the bus at his own house, has just broken the most sophisticated code out there, and he therefore becomes a danger or a valuable commodity to those forces with an interest in the code. Those forces include, at the most lethal, a Japanese woman who is expert at sado-sexual torture and in fact thrives on such work. After Simon's parents are murdered, Simon is cared for by a nurse and her FBI agent husband, who must seek to protect the boy while extricating himself from danger as well.

The puzzle angle of "Simple Simon" serves as the hook for what is otherwise a fairly standard thriller--capable and interesting, but with little to set it apart from others in the genre. That Pearson declined to use more puzzles or to explore that angle more fully is too bad, for the idea of an autistic (whether the depiction of autism is accurate I leave to others with more knowledge of the topic) boy is an intriguing one as well as a relatively fresh one.

Rating:
Summary: Fast Pace, Weak Writing
Review: This book had a great deal of potential. It seems to have been either over-edited or the author had not researched his subject matter very well.

It is very fast paced, extremely so, with shallow character development and only cursory details about where the action takes place. There is a subplot about a sadistic assasin that one wonders why is in the book. The premise tends to insult the reader's intelligence. It is also sexist and marginally racist.

It is also evident the author was not trying to authentically depict the intelligence establishment or the use of cryptography. There seems to be a 1970's sense of mistrust of the government written into the novel as well as a sense of governmental incompetence.

The characters are cliche but friendly and this book will keep you reading it, however, it will not take very long, the pace is maddening and the details few.

For a brief, if not unsatisfying, distraction, Simply Simon, fills the bill.