The
premise – Islamic jihadists take to cyber-terrorism via an invasive worm
program – is clever and, admittedly if Lynn Lipinski’s descriptions on
America’s internet infrastructure is correct, scary. Unfortunately the
execution in God Of The Internet is weak,
and comes across more as a TV movie of the week starring Kirk Cameron and Helen
Hunt as opposed to a high-end thriller.
For
a read that is targeted as a cyber-thriller, there is a significant lack of
actual hacking and computer time going on. Instead, Lipinski focuses much,
arguably way too much, of the novel on the soap-opera life of Juliana
Al-Dossari – abused wife and mother of two teens, one who is semi-critically
ill. And Juliana? Not a hacker. In fact, she is barely Twitter-literate. She is
the “everyperson” of the story whose life becomes more and more complicated as
she is drawn into the worm that is slowly corrupting America’s public works and
financial systems. But unlike the “everyperson” role that inhabits a good
Spielberg film, Juliana, and her children, are quite boring and possess no
charm worth investing in. Ken, the de facto heroic white hat hacker who is by
far the most compelling of characters within, uncharacteristically takes a
backseat when the action kicks. Why? Choppy narration.
God Of The Internet
starts fast with a killer hook. A quick 21st Century disaster story
that derails as the humbler, personal story takes the centerpiece instead of
the horror at hand with an ending that is slapdash, unfulfilling, and even
unbelievable.
Just
imagine what Nelson DeMille could do with this core idea.
Thanks
to NetGalley and Majestic Content for the advance read.
As
always,
theJOE
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