Reviews are a great way to see what other teens thought of new books at the library! We post them in their entirety here. This one comes from Tower Teen Kelly:
Technology, hacking, and computers are the main topics of this book. When I first started reading this book, I had to force myself 
to finish the first chapter hoping it would get better. Pretty soon though, I could not put the book down. The plot really gets you hooked, even if you are not tech savvy. Despite the fact that I barely understood some of the really technical parts of the story where the author goes into “computer speak”, I was still able to enjoy the book. This booko is a combination of action, science fiction and technology; you don’t have to be a computer-geek to love it!
The whole story is based on the idea of Neuro-headsets. They are the newest computer accessory; they let your mind become the computer. Forget keyboards and computer mice, the Neuro-headsets allow you to use your brain to control the computer. Sam Wilson, a teenage hacker, gets his hands on one, only to be thrown into jail days later after the US government realizes he’s hacked into the White House. However, instead of punishing him, they decide to offer him a job – a job where Sam gets paid to hack…legally. Soon after he joins the team and starts the job, chaos ensues. Someone is attacking his team, and Sam believes they are using the Neuro-headsets to do it. It is up to Sam to stop the attacks and to stop the Neuro-headsets from taking over the world.
I became lost in this book, and at other times I was just plain lost. It is heavy on technical terms and there were many phrases I didn’t understand. However, I still enjoyed the book. I wished that the author had explained some of the hacking stuff. One thing I did love about the way the author wrote the book, though was how he wrote the first and last chapters from the “bad guy” point of view (the bad guy is attacking everyone using the Neuro-headsets). In addition, it’s pretty interesting to see how a hacker like Sam thinks.
I would recommend this book to anyone that loves computers and wants a good story, but I would also recommend it to anyone that loves science fiction. One thing I learned from this book is that nothing is really protected on the Internet. Hackers like Sam can get through any firewall or password lock. This book really changed how I looked at my computer, for sure!
You can visit www.brianfalkner.com for interesting stuff about this and other books!
