Tip of the Spear
Author
S D Hatfield
Publisher
Outskirts Press
4 Review Copies Left
Danny "Cutr" Pearson is one of the best hackers in the country and the Government needs him to help fight in the next great conflict; a Cyber War between the US and China. Reluctantly drafted, he and some fellow hackers create a computer virus that could end the war.
During the heat of battle it falls on Danny to release the virus. The war ends but the US is taken back to a pre-Internet technology level thanks to virus his team created.
Ten years later Danny must work to undo the damage his virus caused and in the process find the truth behind the events that actually ended the war. From the military base where he now lives, to a farming community in Ohio, Danny must travel the country to reconnect the people with the Information age, with the opposition hot on his heels. In Danny's world there is no black and white, only a color gray that is shaded by personal beliefs.
Tip of the Spear takes readers into a world of hackers, the military, government lies and international intrigue all the while digging in the meaning of patriotism and personal responsibility
Reviews
Tip of the Spear opens with Danny Pearson at a technological security expo where he is going to be interviewed. Danny known as “Cutr” to his friends is a famous hacker, who has developed a program that can cut right through every known firewall. After the interview he has a panel with some of the great hackers of the times, including Walz, a fellow computer whiz he had met online. Right after the panel discussion, they are both confronted by a government man, Johnson who “drafts” them to help in a counter attack against the Chinese in the cyber war. They have no choice so join with Johnson on the challenge to create a computer virus that will end the war.
The story then jumps ahead 10 years where the war has ended but in the United States, the internet is no longer available. Danny and Walz have both continued working for Johnson to undo the damage that the virus caused. Danny has befriended Ajax, a soldier, and both go on missions to track down mobile signals. When a signal, somewhat nearby, shows up on the monitor Daniel cannot explain it and wants to investigate. Against Johnson’s orders, he goes and finds people in a farming community who have internet access. He meets other computer geeks and they give him a different story than Johnson has told him about the Chinese, his virus, internet access. Cutr wonders who he can trust and thus he begins a journey across the US one step ahead of those trying to stop him to get the internet back up. He finds out who his real friends are and gets to see how good his hacking skills really are.
Hatfield writes an interesting story and I stayed up late one night reading, as I did not want to put the book down. I was really rooting for Danny. I was also impressed that a website mentioned by the interviewer, www.whoiscutr.com was a real site developed by the author. However, I was very troubled that the book, which was not an Advanced Reading Copy, was full of errors. I hope the publisher goes back and has the proofreading editor correct the punctuation, spelling and other errors in the book, as they were very distracting and take away from the story.
Reviewed on 01/21/2011 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Janice Hidey
