Rating: 
Summary: Freedom Downtime
Review: Ever see the "FREE KEVIN" stickers on random phone booths in NYC? the "KEVIN" the stickers advertise is Kevin Mitnick, the brilliant hacker (no, not like the movie "HACKERS" although most definitely an inspiration for it) who was put behind bars for a long time for "crimes." Um, funny how only 15 yrs ago you could blow a 2600 hz tone into a pay phone with a cracker jack whistle and hack it, even though everything was supposedly "secure." same thing, only now we're dealing with websites and logic.
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Rating: 
Summary: Cyber offender
Review: A superb book on (mostly on Kevin Mitnik's point of view) the greatest hacker known to the public. If you need to know about hackers this is a must read book. Every thing the back cover of the book says is true. The author has narrated the story in way you will not stop reading until you complete it all. His style appears to be a combination of Frederick Forsyth (author Fist of God, Icon and many more) and Jeffrey Archer (author of As the Crow Flies, Shall We Tell the President). And if you are to buy this I recommend buying Take-Down by Tsutomu Shimomura with John Markoff. But read Fugitive Game first. If you are young at heart you might be moved by the characters in this book. But always try to understand that the real life is much more complicated and deadly than the 397 page book depicts.
Rating:
Summary: Kevin Mitnick likes cheese!
Review: Finally! A book that exposes Kevin Mitnick's secret cheese addiction! I had heard rumors on the internet, but I never knew if they were true until I read this book. Thank you, Jonathan Lippman for providing an unbiased look at the dangers of cheese addiction! Kevin might be a millionaire, but you know where all that money's going. All in all, this was a really good book. In the areas where they weren't talking about something called "hacking", it was interesting and informative. Makes me want to read 2300 magazine and hack a government website with AOL! Ping!
Rating: 
Summary: Not Very good
Review: Buy the Watchman and the Cuckoo's Egg, and maybe even At Large, but save yourself some money and skip the Fugitive. The book seems to be patched together out of boring, roughly transcribed telephone conversations with Kevin Mitnick while he whines about his life slumming "underground" and avoiding capture. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's other book, the Watchman, but the Fugitive was a sore disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Kevin's Side of the Story
Review: If cyberjournalist Jon Littman is to be a trusted source of credible information, then his book "The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick" is a very informational collection of conversational data collected while Mitnick was on the run in the mid 1990s.If you read just one book title about the cyberfugitive the federal government has labeled as "the most dangerous hacker," then read this book. Personally, I would be curious what Mitnick himself thought about this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as Exciting As I'd Hoped
Review: One good thing I can say about this book is that the author didn't suffer from too much distance from his subject (Kevin Mitnick) to accurately describe him- the two spoke on the phone with regularity while the hacker was on the lam. However, this intimacy actually hurt the story in that the author injected himself too much in the tale. I was interested in learning about the seedy lives of these hackers and information thieves, and not about journalistic competition and the charge that the author got out of talking to a fugitive. The writing was disjointed, too: a phone conversation here, a snippet from a New York Times article, there. The story wasn't told in the chronologically ordered fashion that makes most nonfiction works easily read. That aside, although I don't doubt that this book gives an honest and straightforward account of how Shimomura tracked down Mitnick, the story itself isn't that thrilling. I didn't like and/or root for any of the players, thought they were self-serving children, and ended up hoping they all would get caught. The "takedown" was anticlimactic and was like witnessing first-graders spit in one another's milk and tattle on each other. Mitnick, Lewis DePayne, and Agent Steal in particular were loathsome, both in their actions and their attempts to rationalize what they'd done. Claiming that the illegalities one person commits are all right because they are not as bad as another's is ethically a tough pill to swallow- and yet is the morality that pervades the lives of the hackers depicted herein. All told, I ended up frustrated in the FBI, worried about the security of my computer and the internet in general, and saddened to learn more about yet another brand of creep threatening the good people left the world: the hacker.
Rating:
Summary: If I haven't heard FREE KEVIN enough yet...this clinches it
Review: In what is perhaps one of the most exploited, over-hyped computer trials of the decade, Kevin Mitnick has surely not escaped unscathed. The poor guy has been placed on parole which basically limits him to living the way in which a caveman does-I'm surprised he's even allowed to have a toaster. ("No! Don't give him a toaster, he'll hack into the pentagon and start world war three! "...I'm sure this was a certain three letter agency's response) Littman is surprisingly unbiased for working for "THE MAN" (AKA media, etc) and provides you with straightforward facts about the case. That, despite the New York Times running the headline that Mitnick "cost" corporations hundreds of millions, and would not revoke (or even amend the headline) after it became apparent that there was really no "cost" involved...At most, Mitnick used twenty bucks of "someone else's" (PHONE COMPANY!) money. Being basically as uninformed as they come (I have only known about the Mitnick trial via 2600...) I found this book to clear up fogginess in many of the areas that were unclear. Littman exposes Kevin as he is-a charismatic, brilliant man who does not CREATE problems, just merely uses the ones in the current existance. Rather than being brainwashed by media and cultural sources that bombard us with inaccurate information every waking moment, find the real truth in this book. Educate yourself, and this book may do more than just educate you about Kevin Mitnick and the relentless pursuit of him-It may show you that despite the "truth" in everything, that so many things are being misreported and misrepresented. This book accurately portrays the way in which Kevin Mitnick evaded government agents in order to remain free...It is informative and critical, as well as extremely accurate. His eventual takedown and capture is also very well documented, right down to Shimimora (only spelled right) and his whole role in it. I have found this book to be the best book to date that is truthful in the presentation of the kevin mitnick trial
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Analysis As Well As a Provocative Story
Review: I was strolling through a discount bookstore won nice Saturday morning when I saw this book. I, being interested in computers, decided, 'why not give it a shot'? I read through the first three or few pages expecting a rather distasteful and boring read. But what I found was a fascinating and detailed account of the Hunt for Kevin Mitnick. Our (true) story begins with Kevin Mitnick, a hacker/phreaker (I assume the readers of this review know what a hacker is; a phreaker is someone who does the same things as a hacker does, but only with phones), who is so good at what he does that he was able to break into the National Air Force Security System, prompting the 1983 film WarGames. Now, Kevin, as well as being chased by the FBI in public, is being investigated undercover by one Eric Meinz, a hacker turned FBI 'mercenary', that is to say his entire life, including living expenses and computers, phones, etc. are all being payed by the FBI. You're probably wondering, why would the FBI help a hacker? To find out about Mitnick and his plans. Unfortunately FBI, as unattractive as Mitnick might be, he is still a computer genius and, while the FBI is 'spying' on him, Mitnick is himself 'spying 'on them. The chase is on... Now, although the title and cover might suggest this is mostly just interviews with Mitnick, it is much more like... A Civil Action (by Jonathan Harr). It's an analysis of what went on during the months in which Kevin Mitnick was being chased and investigated by the FBI. I thought this was an excellent book. It held my interest thoroughly. It made me think, it made me wonder, it made me... keep turning the pages! The author, ever so subtly, also adds his thoughts on the subject. Also, there are many other characters (real characters, I might add). I wouldn't call this book a report, but rather a telling of what happened. But one thing's for sure... it's not just a bunch of interviews with Mitnick. A great book, especially if you're into computers, hackers, what hackers do, and other things in that subject matter. Enjoy! A.A.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: A good acount on the Kevin Mitnick story. Doesnt go much into Kevin's past though and seems to start mid-way in the story but still a great book.
Rating:
Summary: read this book ..
Review: if you're looking for a revealing account of the "mitnick" story this is it. while littman was researching another hacker, kevin poulsen for his upcoming book The Watchman, he stumbled across mitnick. mitnick and littman form a relationship. mitnick contacts littman from time to time, whether by pay-phone or by hacking into liftman's email account. what makes this book unique from any other is mitnick's account as written by littman of the FBI's pursuit <at the time mitnick was on the FBI's most wanted list>. the story that littman brings the reader in The Fugitive Game is a thorough account of mitnick's humble beginnings from begging radio shack employees to let him use store computers after closing to his hacking of the world most powerful companies. a book well written .. fast paced, fun to read.
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