-
Geek Fiction
Posted on August 8th, 2008 6 commentsI like reading.
We learn an awful lot through reading, the invention of RSS was like some sort of geek miracle!"
As well as all the technical material I read I also like to read fiction. The problem I have is finding stuff I’m interested in. Even though it’s not a reference book I still like it to have a geek angle (it’s the way I’m wired unfortunately)
The trouble I have is there is no genre that caters for this.
Science fiction & fantasy is usually space travel or elves and goblins which is not what I’m looking for
But you search for “computer” or “Internet” (or anything tech related) on a book site you get mostly reference material
Here are some books I have found interesting:
Stealing the Network: How to Own a Continent (Cyber-Fiction) – very cool book. The story tracks a “cyber terrorist” as he tries to “own the continent”.(Though the ending left me quite confused). There are a couple of others books in this series that I’ve been meaning to pick up
The Cuckoo’s Egg- Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage (Paperback) – Based on a true story of an astronomer turned network admin who discovers his network has been hacked but struggles to get the authorities on his side
The Art of Intrusion- The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders and Deceivers – Not sure if this counts as fiction? Anyway, Kevin Mitnick recounts stories of various computer security “incidents”. I enjoyed this much more than his “art of deception” book which was interesting but got repetitive after a while
Springboard (Tom Clancy’s Net Force) – One of a series of books involving Tom Clancy under the “net force” banner. This was pretty much the sort of thing I was looking for but is a bit too military for me and not quite geek enough. Was enjoyable enough though and I’ll probably read some more net force books. Though I do already have a couple of them which I haven’t started yet
Digital Fortress – Dan Brown is well known for the Da Vinci Code but this was his first book I read. I picked it up while I was away on training course and read the whole thing in one night. Thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is about the NSA’s “invincible code machine” that comes across a code it can’t break
On a slightly different track I have also read four of the Halo novels (Fall of reach, The Flood, First Strike and Ghosts of Onyx). While looking on Amazon for the links to those turns out there are a couple more I didn’t know were out (or coming out)
Do you have any recommendations?
6 Responses to “Geek Fiction”
-
Jeffery Deaver – The Blue Nowhere. Quite enjoyed this one.
-
Thanks David
Ordered!
-
Silicon Snake Oil was another Clifford Stoll book I quite enjoyed bit seems a litle funny now… from the Preface Tonight,
“twenty letters want replies, three people have invited me to chat over the network, there’s a dozen newsgroups to read, and a volley of files to download. How can I keep up?”
Oh the simple life on the net in 1995 that takes me back
-
Not a computer book, but what about “Googlies, Nutmegs and Bogeys”?
Its kind of a sporting reference book but not a reference book in the traditional way. Written by Bob Wilson it is all about the origins of certain sporting phrases.
As an example:
Love (tennis) – no score
Reputedly this comes from the 18th Century expression “to play for the love of the game”, in which “love” acts for the substitute for nothing. Some also believe that it derives from the French word l’oeuf meaning egg, as the shape of the egg resembles the zero that the player has next to their name.
-
A great book I would like to recommend isSome Kind of Angel. It is about terrorists with weapons of mass destruction threatening the security of our world. I couldn’t put the book down- great read!
-
Thanks everyone for your recommendations…
I’m currently reading through Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. While not quite i was looking for it’s an interesting read!
Leave a Reply
-
![[This is a SBS Community blog you are reading. Are you subscribed to the Official SBS blog?]](http://www.sbslinks.com/images/sbsblogweb.jpg)
Recent Comments