espionage – Made by Mikal

The Cuckoo’s Egg

Post author:mikal
Post published:July 4, 2024
Post category:Book

In 1986, Clifford Stoll and his coworkers were frustrated by what they thought was a billing error of 75 cents in their monthly accounting. Suspecting a software bug, the new guy (Clifford) was put on to working out the error as a starter problem while he got familiar with the systems he was to manage... I've been home sick this week with a chest infection, and what with having a limited oxygen supply I didn't feel like I was braining super well. So what better way to pass the time between naps than another old book I've read before? This is another book I must have read before I started blogging such things, but discussions of old computing systems made me a bit nostalgic for a good gold fashioned tale of computer hackery. The story has some historical significance too, as shown by this quote from Wikipedia: This was one of the first⁠ —⁠ if not the first ⁠— documented cases of a computer break-in, and Stoll seems to have been the first to keep a daily logbook of the hacker's activities. There are a few things which strike me about this story -- Stoll was lucky. He arguably committed…

Cally’s War

Post author:mikal
Post published:March 22, 2011
Post category:Book

Let's be honest, this book has not reviewed well over the years. However, I had a long flight, and figured I'd give it a go. It wasn't actually all that bad, and was certainly massively better than some other share cropped books I have read. The writing is competent and the plotting reasonable. I think the biggest problem is that the start of the book would be quite shocking to some people (it certainly bothered me), and Cally's character is so out of line with where I wanted her to be 40 years after the last book. I can see how it would be possible for her to end up like she is in this book, but it was a disappointment to me. The pretty much constant shagging is distracting from the rest of the plot too. Overall, I am left wanting to know more about the Darhel plot, and the book did help further that story line, if only a little. I don't regret reading the book, even though it isn't the strongest in the series. [isbn: 141652052X;9781416520528]

The Spy Within

Post author:mikal
Post published:August 23, 2008
Post category:Book

LibraryThing, of which I am a member runs a program where members are shipped early copies of books for free, with the preference for them writing a review when they're done reading the book. The books are shipped by the publisher directly to the reviewers. This isn't that uncommon in the publishing industry -- both of my books have experienced a similar process, although less formal. (In fact, any very early review of a book on a site light amazon.com should be viewed with a little bit of caution I suppose. These people probably got their review copies for free from the publisher.) LibraryThing's implementation is a little different though, mainly because of the scale at which they hand out books, and the fact that the publishers don't appear to get any direct say in who gets the books. That means that there is less incentive to write a positive review, and that more people get access to early copies of new books. You can see a list of the books LibraryThing is currently handing out here. The Spy Within is the true story of a senior CIA agent who turned out to also be a Chinese spy. Its the…