What do You think about Invisible Armies (2007)?
Sorry, Mr. Evans, this book was a big ol' pile of stinking poo. I gave it two stars only because I was so fascinated with what a train-wreck it is that I had to finish it.I liked Jon Evans' previous works, in that I applauded him for creating a unique niche for himself in the mystery genre and while some aspects of his niche were more interesting to me: trekking, travel, and his protagonists solving crimes with technology from a hacker/geek perspective; personally, others were miserable for me: the whole "Burner", hippie/tripper/raver culture. I understand how these subcultures intermingle in the real world, so I found it valid, if insufferable.With Invisible Armies, those less favorable aspects made the work completely unbelievable and cannibalized the believability of his other portions with more merit. Also, I felt that his techno-hacker angle both Jumped the Shark on this one AND felt more pedantic than ever �����in that, "I am going to prove to you that I know this stuff!" sort of way.Mix that in with horrible bouts of expository dialogue and the cliche Man Behind the Enemy tactic and, uggghhhh!Piece of poo!
—Philip
I'm not normally a reader of thrillers, but this book is a notable exception. Sure, it isn't Ulysses, but it is thoughtfully-written and tightly plotted. As a geek, I was especially charmed by Evans' cranky black-hat hacker, Keiran Kell. I couldn't tell you how well Evans captures the atmosphere in exotic locales such as Bangladore and Goa, but I can say that he sketches out DEFCON and hacker culture with a deft hand. It's no easy task to write a book about hacking without falling victim to the worst and most idiotic movie cliches - I am, for example, willing to pay good money for the disembodied heads of the people who wrote the screenplay for Swordfish - but this book avoids every one of those pitfalls. Read this, my geek friends. Read it now.
—Eva
