The Ultimate Rush

Rating:
Summary: The Average Joe's Ultimate Rush
Review: Haha...first lemme point out, I find my review title funny. Wow, I crack myself up. Anyhoo...this book, The Ultimate Rush, my friend Alicia and I read it and wow, did it give us something to gawk at or what. I'm still passing it around my circle of friends as well, who would all comment well on it. We find ourselves now using clever lines flourished from the author Joe Quirk's head, and refer to it even as the "Bible" on some occasions, considering we follow up on it for quirky lines and thanks to Ho, fashion statements. Not only has this book opened my eyes to more comedic and real-time thoughts, thanks to sarcastic lead character Chet Griffen, a hacker turned ex hacker turned blader boy hacker with some serious issues when it comes down to love life, making rent, and choosing television channels with his roommate and disabled buddy Denny. Not ONLY do things get worse when his lesbian friend Ho breaks up with her girl, and Chet realizes that he's got the hots for her, but also when this simple messenger guy becomes the hunted by the hunter, which not surprisingly turns out to be the Chinese mafia! I dunno about you, but this is simply one paragraph, and already I'm feeling the need to re-read the book for the hundredth time. Anyway, pick up the book...I got it for cheap because the boneheads that call themselves book critics can't tell the difference between shat and THE SHAT (I'll make it past tense so my review will be read), so spare a few bucks and give this excellent bundle of paper and ink a try, and trust me: You'll soon be left feeling the average Joe's ultimate rush.

Haha...I did it again. Go me. And go READERS and pick up the book already!

Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Read
Review: Okay, let's just accept the fact that, well, there are no facts in this book. Joe Quirk has admitted that he knows nothing about either inline skating or computer hacking and his writing backs him up on this. His mistakes are laughable, from his dearth of knowledge about the laws of physics to the fiberglass wheels he places on the bottoms of his character's skates (which would shatter under punishment of riding San Francisco's hills) to the impossible computer programs his characters write to his complete botch-up of the retail distribution methods of crack cocaine.

But you have to decide why you are reading this book. Is it to gain factual information regarding the underground life of messengers? I propose not. Is it to experience a realistic trip through cyberspace? I hope not. Or is it to take a breathtaking journey through the fictional San Francisco in Joe Quirk's mind? If that's your goal, then you will not be disappointed.

Upon reading the first three pages of "The Ultimate Rush", I was feeling likeI had been punched in the stomach. I was breathless, tense and shaking, as though I had shared Chet Griffin's ride to the Mission from on high. I have not read anything that gripping or funny since the first three pages of Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash".

Sadly, or perhaps fortunately, Quirk cannot maintain the adrenaline rush of his opening chapter (I say fortunately, because I would not have survived the novel at that opening pace), but he does settle into a rather nice little thriller, one that is chilling, amusing and exciting and just plain fun. I kept reading deep into the night, hoping to regain that cherry high of the opening. I wasn't disappointed.

Quirk's characters are fully realized and alive, albeit from a world most of us will never visit. His girlfriend, Ho, skategrrrrrl supreme and punk rocking lesbian, is fabulous and his next door neighbor, a wheelchair-bound hacker, is funny and resourceful.

As has been mentioned before, the plot is ludicrous: Chet is hired to transport illegal data via skates down San Francisco's dangerous hills. The crooks to whom he delivers eventually turn on and attempt to murder him. He decides to turn the tables by turning rival gangs and crooked cops on one another in an amazing climactic battle. That's all.

If you like witty, page-turning, heartstopping novels, give this one a try. You probably won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: An Ultimate Listen!
Review: This was a solid bit of thriller audio-fare. The main character is a hacking-addicted roller-blader who was caught when he was a Jeuvie, and now faces life without a machine. But the ache to hack is rising in him.

When he roller-blades as a courier, Chet Griffin is handed some really harsh information, and when something goes wrong, he, the girl he's falling for, and pretty much anyone he contacts is marked for death. Corrupt cops, internet-police, and the mafia all come racing after Chet, who might just have found "the Ultimate Rush" after all - if only he can survive it.

Anthony Rapp's voice is familiar to anyone who has heard the "Rent" CDs from the musical - he's Mark. So his voice took a little getting used to as a hip, anti-establishment roller-hacker phone phreak. It did carry well, and his slight accents for other characters didn't dissolve into terrible stereotype. Like many abridged audios, this one was really hectic in pace, and I'm tempted to go grab the book itself now.

'Nathan