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I understand what you're saying, is like they are OP (overpowered). In a good book, you expect a mistake or two, I'd love to see that too.

The author made it appear like the ear was too easy though I personally think it ain't easy to execute such atechnological production.

Letora wrote: ↑03 Jul 2019, 08:14 As I am reading through the book, it seems like whenever the cyberwar is brought up, there isn't any conflict. They take down websites, change language, break encryptions, but nothing has been happening to them! Being over halfway through the book I find it hard to believe that everything is going off perfectly and there has been no connection to Cynthia and her brother. Does anyone else feel this way?

Yes, I feel the same way. Their connection was not really developed. The plots were not getting to a climax. It was as if the author was in a hurry to finish the book.

Nuel Ukah wrote: ↑10 Jul 2019, 07:45

Letora wrote: ↑03 Jul 2019, 08:14 As I am reading through the book, it seems like whenever the cyberwar is brought up, there isn't any conflict. They take down websites, change language, break encryptions, but nothing has been happening to them! Being over halfway through the book I find it hard to believe that everything is going off perfectly and there has been no connection to Cynthia and her brother. Does anyone else feel this way?

Yes, I feel the same way. Their connection was not really developed. The plots were not getting to a climax. It was as if the author was in a hurry to finish the book.

I honestly wouldn't have thought Cynthia and her brother were related unless the author mentioned it.

Letora wrote: ↑10 Jul 2019, 17:57

Nuel Ukah wrote: ↑10 Jul 2019, 07:45

Letora wrote: ↑03 Jul 2019, 08:14 As I am reading through the book, it seems like whenever the cyberwar is brought up, there isn't any conflict. They take down websites, change language, break encryptions, but nothing has been happening to them! Being over halfway through the book I find it hard to believe that everything is going off perfectly and there has been no connection to Cynthia and her brother. Does anyone else feel this way?

Yes, I feel the same way. Their connection was not really developed. The plots were not getting to a climax. It was as if the author was in a hurry to finish the book.

I honestly wouldn't have thought Cynthia and her brother were related unless the author mentioned it.

Yes. You're right. Perhaps the author is a debut author. I wouldn't expect much from a debut author.

SolemUmbra wrote: ↑03 Jul 2019, 14:17 Very much so! It’s late in the book when the hit a slight hiccup from America. Even that is solved easily and they remain pretty much anonymous. Even if the other side couldn’t get at them to slow them down they would have threatened something. I thought that this book was just surface level across the board. It touched on many things but didn’t fully develop plots in those areas which I think made it lacking.

I agree, the story line felt underdeveloped and we didn't get to see much of the action and suspense that was expected. Being that the Cyber War is the main plot line it was majorly overshadowed by Cynthia's love story lines. The best parts of the book were the Cyber War and I was a bit disappointed that it was solved so quickly and didn't really have much conflict which made for a flat story line. By the end I was left uninterested in the Cyber War at all.

Generally speaking, a war is supposed to have two sides. The fact that the men in the "War Room" were fighting terrorist cells virtually unopposed keeps their excursions from being a war. Instead, their actions operate as a form of virtual slaughter against a faceless enemy. Perhaps if the author fleshed out these parts of the plot, the book would seem more like a suspense novel and less like a cheesy and unbelievable romance novel with a so-called cyber war as the catalyst.

Yes, it was! It showed how the author did very minimal research on cyberwars. The book would have been so much better if the author hadn't left a lot of subplots underdeveloped and with loose ends.

I like the fact that the cyber war is too easy in the story! It is good for the readers that are new to the knowledge of computers and paves way for the spread of the new knowledge of the computers. I feel like elaborating on the discussion about computers. In some way this touches the answer to the question where does such a knowledge stand as far as other aspects of life are concerned!

Omg yes! that kind of takes away the spark of the book. I feel more drama and tension and more hurdles along the way would've made it much more enjoyable. I mean realistically speaking, such things are not so easy!

It seems to me like the author was writing without the necessary research on the topic she was writing about. If you're going to try to write highly technical information, we need more than 'long strings of numbers' and baffled witnesses. Someone needs to know what they're doing and show it rather than having a lot of exposition and lay-explanation that is unbelievable at best. I didn't feel like I was reading about experts, I felt like I was reading about teenage hackers that didn't want to explain their doings to their parents. And it WAS too easy, and too pat - he managed to shut down just one computer and that's the end? It was most unsatisfactory to not have a highly technical result rather than some guy messaging his girlfriend that somehow saved the Iranian computers.

Certainly, I've read several books whereby the "war" was very one sided. If you think about it, in reality, war is very much about making the conflict one-sided in your favour, though I have to say, making it one sided in a book does not make for very interesting content..

That's a small word to describe it! I think the author should've added some major drama to make it worth a while. I was disappointed

Summer_Pit wrote: ↑07 Jul 2019, 13:38 I thought that the CyberWar was not only too easy, but reflected an imperfect understanding of the complex politics and labels associated with the Middle East conflict. The term "terrorist" was thrown around very casually, and only specified two different groups operating in the Middle East; ISIS and Al Qaeda. Even when the author mentioned their names, it was like she didn't understand how they operated, especially in relation to Iran. I just find it hard to believe two college students, no matter how smart or gifted they are, could pull off short-circuiting all of Iran's "top-secret" computer systems. Maybe I misunderstood, but what was the point of the these computer systems? Also, why were they all in the same place?

I totally agree with the term terrorist being thrown around way too freely. The book never pinpoints an exact target for their cyberwar and it kept the playing field so scattered that was hard to even call it a war. It seemed like they were doing more online guerrilla mercenary tactics against anyone they could hack into as opposed to targeting a specific group like Al Qaeda. This could possibly be because they left their entire operation in the hands of two college students that wouldn't be equipped with the same knowledge as an expert in the field. Also, the author leaves too many plot holes such as why hacking into a convenient Iranian computer lab full of computers that contain top secret information was so easy. With all the different types of technology available such as laptops, cell phones, tablets and desktop computers, there is no way all of Iran's secret intel is located in one small computer lab. Plus these two college kids have no idea if these computers have anything to do with "terrorism". For all they know, it could be something else related to their government such as tax codes.

I think the author did not do adequate study about the cyber world. The war seemed too easy and unconvincing, even with my little understanding of programming, i can tell that pulling something that big would require higher technical resources- the procedure would be very complex.