Rating: 
Summary: Phantastic
Review: It's been a very long time since I read I novel that I simply could not put down. A long time since I read a novel in the space of 24 hours. I have never read a Jeff Deaver book before and you can be sure that I will now check out as many as I can. I found the book clever, intriguing and incredibly fast paced. Truly an amazing piece of writing! I now have a new "favorite author."
Rating: 
Summary: Scary
Review: This book goes beyond the movie The Net (which was technically flawed) and presents a frightening glimpse of what a determined hacker could do if he was also a psycho killer. The hacker has created a virtually undetectable trap door program that can invade a victim's computer undetected and provide the hacker with a with all key strokes made by the user as well as all data on the user's PC. The hacker than uses the information gleaned to social engineer his way into getting close to his victim.The hacker also employs tactics that were used by Jonathan Littman and Kevin Mitnick to reroute phone switches so he can break into virtually any call. The hacker also has an array of other nasty Internet tools like encryption and password crackers. What makes the whole thing really scary is that many of the tools are available as shareware on the Internet so it might not be so hard for a "sick" individual to carry out some of the things he does. A must read for those in the computer security field!
Rating: 
Summary: an unfortunate thing to happen to such a great writer
Review: I have always enjoyed reading Jefferey Deaver, but after finishing The Blue Nowhere, I was thoroughly disappointed. The plot first seems compelling and interesting enough: a jailed hacker is freed to work with a detective to capture a dangerous person named Phate, who uses computers to kill people. Although the characters seemed interesting at first, I quickly realized there was absolutely no depth to any of them. The intentionally misspelled computer terms ("warez" or "phreaking") were very amusing. During most parts of the book, it seemed that Deaver had just done a large amount of research on the subject and then with no knowledge of the topic, he sloppily compiled it into a story. Yet, the major error of the book was the timeframe of the events of the plot. All of these major events occur within several days, which is entirely improbable considering the numerous murders that occurred during the novel. Bottom Line: The Blue Nowhere has a compelling storyline, but its numerous errors are the cause of its downfall. Check it out, but don't buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Cyberspace thriller pretty accurate, complex & pleasing plot
Review: This was our first book by Deaver, so we had no background of his apparently pretty good list of best sellers to influence our thoughts on this one. But the sheer joy of the story, with some incredible twists here and there, kept us entertained throughout. Based on a reference from a friend who knew of our lengthy career in real computer mainframes, we were afraid the computer terminology might be at the 4th grade level or else totally fictional and unreal. Neither extreme was the case, implying that the author did a fine job of research for this book. If you know nothing about the Web or "cyberspace" or as its called herein, the "Blue Nowhere", you will learn a lot; and most of it is at least plausible. Two expert hackers are at each other's throats, literally, as one, Wyatt Gillette, assists the cops in identifying and tracking the other, a wizard known as Phate. The one gone bad is so caught up in unreality that he sees nothing wrong with murdering with a knife through the heart his totally innocent victims picked only for the challenge to physically get at them. Other members of the Computer Crime Unit are at times helpful and at other suspected as abetting the bad guy. In a series of plot surprises, many deaths occur with the cops just a few minutes or less from nabbing the culprits. Overall, we liked this novel: Deaver maintains a high level of suspense for almost the entire book, despite the obvious setup work and occasional tutoring he needs to do to make the computer stuff make sense. We do come to care about the characters and really want that bad guy nailed, and once the book gets toward mid-way, our reluctance to put it down is probably the best recommendation. While we think some of the hacking described is a little far-fetched, those concerned about identity theft and similar "new age" white-collar crime will find much to think about here as well. All told, we find more than ample reasons to pursue other Deaver works.
Rating:
Summary: Over shoulder page-turner
Review: Despite some inaccuracies, this was a real page turner. The author explained much that newcomers to computers and the net wouldn't otherwise know about, while weaving a compelling story!
Rating:
Summary: Definitely not a true book
Review: This book has to many things that are completely wrong, for example: in this book there is a fight between a hacker ( who was in jail) and a cracker who wants to kill people like a computer's game, the hacker sent an email with a virus to control the hard disk of the cracker and to know where he is, you think that a cracker will not have an antivirus in his computer?
When the cracker found the hacker, all he wanted to do is kill him, he has two opportunities and he didn't kill him because... It was also another woman who wanted the programs of the cracker, and when were the three of them she didn't kill the hacker why?...
I put this book 2 stars because just writing a book deserve 2 stars.
If you want to read a book of the net that could be real and amazing, read: Don't Talk to Strangers by Bethany Campbell
Rating:
Summary: Good read, especially if you don't know much about computers
Review: I finished this book in two days, literally devouring it. The characters were interesting and the procedures realistic. As a computer professional and a forensics buff, however, I did find fault with some of the more technical details that most non-computer readers would neither catch nor care about. An earlier reviewer by "Leigh" documented many of them; another one involved a shot fired by the lead investigator, a seasoned professional cop, into a plate glass window. Deaver neglected to mention that anytime a cop - even a senior officer - fires their gun, the bullet and shot must be accounted for. It may seem minor, but it was one of several erroneous forensic details that detracted enough from the story to make it less believable. On the whole, though, it is a very good read. If you have a few days and an interest in the underground world of computers, this is the book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Great joke material at lunch
Review: I'm a programmer, have been for about 15 years, and the only good thing I can say about this book is that I like to read the 'technical' parts to my coworkers at lunch. Always good for a laugh!
Rating:
Summary: Phlawed, but not Phailed
Review: I've been such a Jeffrey Deaver fan, and yet this novel, The Blue Nowhere has left me nowhere. It's flawed, not fatally, but for anyone who has any kind of depth as a computer professional, this book will leave them laughing or worse, crying. Maybe it's my problem- I expect the same perfection from Deaver as fans expected from Dorothy Sayers, but this time the author didn't deliver. I suspect the cause is that his advisors were too lightweight, too inexperienced. In past novels, Deaver always expected us to take one big leap of belief, such as having a man leaving his wife by the side of the road holding a gun on a perfectly useful cop whilst he rushes off alone to confront the resident psychopath. This time though, Deaver expects so many leaps of belief that it's more like reading a Harry Potter novel, complete with a blurring of men and monsters like MUDders, crackers, hackers, gurus, and superpros. The problem with stories featuring computers, is that most authors err in a range from wrong to very wrong. (The most accurate I've seen- evolving intelligence non-withstanding- was a book called The Adolescence of P-1.) With that background, I had been looking forward to The Blue Nowhere; after all, Deaver is among the best. Certainly, Deaver uncovered insights that other authors haven't noticed. One was the concept of "elegance", though this rarity is more embraced by academics and professionals than hackers. Another was the buzzword "robustness", although his definition was incorrect. Deaver noted the glut of caffeine the top computer people consume, the insane hours they work, their skewed sense of humor, their counter-counter culture, and many of their quirks and mannerisms, but he didn't follow it to its logical conclusion: Most of the best super-programmers are beset with ADD- attention deficit disorder. The Blue Nowhere also dipped into computer trivia and history, interesting and accurate. But this time flaws asserted themselves. Some were small, like misunderstanding the purpose and performance of mainframes. More common were errors of terminology and definitions, like confusing code and commands. Even the use of "codes" was a flaw: like hardware is never hardwares, the plural of code is still "code". Further, the deliberate juvenile misspellings using "ph" and "z" are used by underground gamers and crackers rather than people serious about their craft. Emergency procedure descriptions were seriously fallacious. Phate, the bad guy magically wrote a virus that caught a PC on fire. (Yeah, right.) Then the protagonist pushed a kill switch (what the author calls a scram switch) which is typically not pushed but pulled- significantly the only pull-type switch in the room. That released halon, and the story has the crew hang around chatting, not something oxygen-breathing organisms would be doing... at least for very long. The greatest problems center around the major characters, both good and bad, but the most serious being the hero himself. Frankly, if Gillette had been working for me, I'd have fired the dude. No, I'd have plunked him back in prison for the crime of ruining Deaver novels for me, though I pray the setback is only temporary. When Gillette got his chance to get his hands on an infected computer, he blew it through sheer, amateurish incompetence, not what a seasoned expert would do. Simply, every step was bungled. The only correct suggestion was made by the token incompetent-old-guy (whom everybody knows was replaced by the really sharp young dot.com'ers that, uh, well, wrecked the industry). The real damage has been to my ready appetite for the forensic detail that Deaver normally does so well. I'm certain, as least I'd like to be certain, that Deaver knows his forensics, that he gets it right the rest of the time. But now, I have this seed of doubt...
Rating:
Summary: Well written book that makes you think
Review: I was fascinated and glued to The Blue Nowhere from beginning to end. It's a shame Deaver wrote this in between his regular novels (which I am unfamiliar with) as I would love to see these characters again in the future. He did his homework with his research and it shows throughout the entire book. Lots of twists and turns in the plot that made you think. A very enjoyable book!
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