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rslade
Jul 25, 2012rslade rated this title 1.5 out of 5 stars
This is the type of space opera that creates whole worlds, technologies, and languages behind it. The language or jargon makes it hard to read. The worlds are confusing, especially since some are real, and some aren't. The technologies make it way too easy to pull huge numbers of deuses ex way too many machinas, which strain the ability to follow, or even care about, the plot. In this situation, the plot can be random, so the impetus for continued reading tends to rely on the reader's sympathy for the characters. Unfortunately, in this work, the characters can also have real or imagined aspects, and can change radically after an event. It was hard to keep going. I was prompted to review this book since it was recommended as a piece of fiction that accurately represented some interesting aspects of information security. Having read it, I can agree that there are some cute descriptions of significant points. There is mention of a massive public/asymmetric key infrastructure (PKI) system. There is reference to the importance of social engineering in breaking technical protection. There is allusion to the increased fragility of overly complex systems. But these are mentions only. The asymmetric crypto system has no mention of a base algorithm, of course, but doesn't even begin to describe the factors in the PKI itself. If you know infosec you will recognize some of the mentions. If you don't, you won't learn them. (A specific reference to social engineering actually relates to an implementation fault.) Otherwise, you may or may not enjoy being baffled by the pseudo-creativity of the story.