Rating: 
Summary: Page-turning, though flawed, and with NO SEX!
Review: A 2001 reviewer complained about the gratuitous sex in the first and last chapters. After I wrote an initial review of my own saying there was no sex at all in this novel, he has now (Dec. 2004) revised his review to say that the copy of the book that he obtained from his public library evidently was a publisher's error -- it did indeed have two chapters with sex between characters that didn't appear at all in the rest of the book. Very strange, but errors do occur in publishing. So this review is my revised version. In any case, this is a novel about computer nerds -- driven, vicious, dangerous, yes -- trying to destroy each other in a quest to get a ground-breaking new killer-app program to market. It's exciting in a goofy sort of way -- you always want to know what is going to happen to next, and the villains are *really* villainous, and right up to the very end it looks as if the bad guys are gonna get away with their nefarious scheme. The characters are cardboard, but, for all I know, typical of geekdom in Silicon Valley. Read it, and get several hours of enjoyment from it.
BUT -- don't expect there to be any sex in it except for a chaste kiss in the next-to-the-last line. What else could you expect from computer types?
Rating: 
Summary: plot a bit implausible, technical aspects believable
Review: Hard Drive is truly a thriller in the sense of the ballooning out-of-control villanous thing which takes over the world...and only our hero can stop it...!
P.S. Make sure your Mac has the right date and time!
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant surprise. Excellent techno-thriller.
Review: I bought this book on impulse while standing in line at my college bookstore. It was a slow day and I needed something resembling mental popcorn to occupy my brain for awhile.Hard Drive turned out to be one of the best computer-themed thrillers I've ever read. I devoured the book in a few hours and read it again immediately thereafter. (I NEVER re-read anything.) I'm not a Macintosh fan, but I appreciate that David Pogue is definitely a Mac expert. I didn't see anything wrong with his using the book to toot the Mac's horn a little bit. Those without much knowledge of computers might be a little put off by the book's premise, but I don't think the book would appeal to that type of person anyway. This book is out-of-print, but is well worth searching out!
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant surprise. Excellent techno-thriller.
Review: I bought this book on impulse while standing in line at my college bookstore. It was a slow day and I needed something resembling mental popcorn to occupy my brain for awhile. Hard Drive turned out to be one of the best computer-themed thrillers I've ever read. I devoured the book in a few hours and read it again immediately thereafter. (I NEVER re-read anything.) I'm not a Macintosh fan, but I appreciate that David Pogue is definitely a Mac expert. I didn't see anything wrong with his using the book to toot the Mac's horn a little bit. Those without much knowledge of computers might be a little put off by the book's premise, but I don't think the book would appeal to that type of person anyway. This book is out-of-print, but is well worth searching out!
Rating: 
Summary: Okay book.
Review: I found the concept interesting, but the characters totally uninteresting. The bad guys were unbelievably bad, invoking no sympathy, empathy, or understanding from the reader. The other characters were mostly bores. The plot almost makes up for the loss in the characters. I guess I liked the book - I guess. Not even remotely close to being a "10" - try "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein instead (a definite 10).
Rating:
Summary: The book is excellent reading!!
Review: I have read the book more than once, and i found the book to be very entertaining and enthralling. I myself being a mac enthusiast and an amateur programmer, the book most deffinitely appealed to me.
Rating:
Summary: I don't understand the sex scenes that bookend the story.
Review: I've read this book three times, most recently four or five years ago. It's entertaining and enjoyable, and an easy read.
The copy I read, from the Durham County Public Library (of Durham, N.C.) was apparently a bit of a misprint, in that it contained the first and last chapters of what appears to be another novel dealing with geriatric sex before and after the book's actual prologue plus nineteen chapters.
Rating:
Summary: I don't understand the sex scenes that bookend the story.
Review: I've read this book three times, most recently four or five years ago. It's entertaining and enjoyable, and an easy read. (Writing for Mac users has clearly taught Mr. Pogue how to write in a way that requires little brainpower to comprehend.)
My only question is: what is up with the sex scenes in the first and last chapters? (I have little doubt as to why the 12 year old reviewer expressed his appreciation for the ending.) I failed to find any connection between the woman having all of the sex and the rest of the plot. Was I meant to, or was she simply there to get people to buy the book after reading the first and/or last chapters in the bookstore? Was it some kind of joke? I'll always wonder.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic! An Instant Classic!
Review: If you haven't read David Pogue's HARD DRIVE, what are you waiting for? This is the most chilling and gripping techno-thriller I've read in years. A computer virus as contagious as bubonic plague and just as deadly is set loose upon the world, and the ensuing mayhem is all the more terrifying because it is so plausible. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book so much. The plot is riveting and tightly constructed (hey, Michael Crichton and Steven King, this is how it's done!), the characters are likeable, and the villain is deliciously evil. And you don't need to be a Macintosh user to enjoy HARD DRIVE any more than you need to be a paleontologist to get a thrill out of "Jurassic Park." A word of warning: don't start HARD DRIVE in the evening unless you're prepared to stay up all night. Once you start reading, there's no way you're going to put this book down until you've turned the last page. By the way, you do have your anti-virus program turned ON, don't you...?
Rating:
Summary: Look for David Pogue
Review: Look for people who really understand computers and can helpother people understand them, and you get a small pool of people.
Look for people who really understand people and can make them come alive for others, and you have a smaller pool of people.
Look for people who understand stories and can make them captivate audiences, and you have a yet smaller pool.
Look for people who combine the three, and you get David Pogue and his novel Hard Drive.
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