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rowanpendragon's review against another edition
3.0
You don't find that many books where the heros are con men... and geeks. Gotta love it. A Quick fun read.
tallyhotel's review against another edition
3.0
The back half totally made up for the front half. Not sure if I'll continue the series or not.
kynan's review against another edition
3.0
I found this to be quite the page turner, causing me a couple of late nights 'cause I REALLY wanted to know what happened next. It's a relatively, well, OK, somewhat plausible crime thriller set nowish (early 2000s) in Silicon Valley.
Technology plays a major role in the assorted escapades but the details of the hacking, both physical and logical, are mostly glossed over. This means that there aren't any technical hurdles to trip on and it didn't head down the crazy leet-speak path like [b:Zero Day|9763010|Zero Day|Mark Russinovich|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312002496s/9763010.jpg|14652376].
Apparently based on the authors life (according to the appendix in the version I read, startlingly so) it follows the rather bizarre fate of artist/computer game-designer Paul Reynolds after he falls afoul of office politics and is rescued from his scheduled ejection by a rather eclectic crew of modernistic con-artists. For some values of "rescued".
This wasn't "best book ever" territory, but I did enjoy reading it and I'll likely check out the subsequent stories.
A wee warning: I read the PM Press (pmpress.org) electronic version available from Amazon and ran across what I thought was a pretty substantial errata collection (11 issues that I actually wrote down, I know I missed noting a few more) that I submitted to the publisher. For the most part it's not too bad but it threw me a couple of times.
Technology plays a major role in the assorted escapades but the details of the hacking, both physical and logical, are mostly glossed over. This means that there aren't any technical hurdles to trip on and it didn't head down the crazy leet-speak path like [b:Zero Day|9763010|Zero Day|Mark Russinovich|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312002496s/9763010.jpg|14652376].
Apparently based on the authors life (according to the appendix in the version I read, startlingly so) it follows the rather bizarre fate of artist/computer game-designer Paul Reynolds after he falls afoul of office politics and is rescued from his scheduled ejection by a rather eclectic crew of modernistic con-artists. For some values of "rescued".
This wasn't "best book ever" territory, but I did enjoy reading it and I'll likely check out the subsequent stories.
A wee warning: I read the PM Press (pmpress.org) electronic version available from Amazon and ran across what I thought was a pretty substantial errata collection (11 issues that I actually wrote down, I know I missed noting a few more) that I submitted to the publisher. For the most part it's not too bad but it threw me a couple of times.
torridgambit's review against another edition
2.0
cute idea. different from what i normally read. and a geek world which i dont get to be in enough anyways in my day to day life. but the dynamics and personalities were a bit too shallow for my taste..
jmhobbs's review against another edition
3.0
Good idea, poor execution. I didn't like the writing style at all. Rather amateurish.
ribert's review against another edition
3.0
This book is self published and has a lot of typos and grammatical issues. That said, the plot was pretty good and the pace was terrific. I'm certain that other reviews will go into the plot in detail (because that's what people here seem to want to do for some reason) so I will just say it's about a somewhat regular guy's entrance into the world of con artists. Why? For a girl, of course.
chuckmunson's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent! The hacker version of the Monkeywrench Gang.
theartolater's review against another edition
4.0
Giving the writing a 2, but the sheer amount of fun I had reading this a 4.5, I think a 4 is fair.
Paul is getting fired from his job tomorrow. His job is being the creative force behind a pretty big deal of a video game, and the rest of the top-level guys want him out. Paul ends up meeting Chloe at the Mexican restaurant he's hiding out in, and suddenly Paul is in the middle of a massive con to try and get what he's truly owed from the company.
Thus begins the wild ride that is Geek Mafia. The plot is strung together by a bunch of fun, tech-heavy heists, the characters are fun and fascinating, and the book reads like a really freewheeling action movie - this means there's not a ton of depth going on, but it really doesn't matter much in the end because you're enjoying yourself so much.
If I have any complaints, it may be that the author is clearly seeing himself in the main role here. Not a big problem - write what you know. However, a lot of less-than-necessary opinionating along the way kind of throws things out of whack a bit. If you dislike that sort of thing in your fiction, this may be fun enough for you to be able to let it slide, but that might be my only issue. I'm really, really looking forward to the sequel (which I already have on my Kindle). Highly recommended if you're a nerd into something different.
Paul is getting fired from his job tomorrow. His job is being the creative force behind a pretty big deal of a video game, and the rest of the top-level guys want him out. Paul ends up meeting Chloe at the Mexican restaurant he's hiding out in, and suddenly Paul is in the middle of a massive con to try and get what he's truly owed from the company.
Thus begins the wild ride that is Geek Mafia. The plot is strung together by a bunch of fun, tech-heavy heists, the characters are fun and fascinating, and the book reads like a really freewheeling action movie - this means there's not a ton of depth going on, but it really doesn't matter much in the end because you're enjoying yourself so much.
If I have any complaints, it may be that the author is clearly seeing himself in the main role here. Not a big problem - write what you know. However, a lot of less-than-necessary opinionating along the way kind of throws things out of whack a bit. If you dislike that sort of thing in your fiction, this may be fun enough for you to be able to let it slide, but that might be my only issue. I'm really, really looking forward to the sequel (which I already have on my Kindle). Highly recommended if you're a nerd into something different.
mngwinn's review against another edition
2.0
More than a bit of a Mary Sue, with some pacing issues. It was fine, I suppose.