BKCLDCRS.RVW   20101009

"Cloud Crash", Phil Edwards, 2011, 978-1466408425, U$9.99
%A   Phil Edwards PhilEdwardsInc.com philipjedwards@gmail.com
%C   Seattle, WA
%D   2011
%G   978-1466408425 1466408421
%I   CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform/Amazon
%O   U$9.99
%O  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1466408421/robsladesinterne
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1466408421/robsladesinte-21
%O   http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1466408421/robsladesin03-20
%O   Audience n Tech 2 Writing 1 (see revfaq.htm for explanation)
%P   386 p.
%T   "Cloud Crash"

To a background of the Internet crashing, and opposed by a conspiracy
that has penetrated the highest levels of government, two (no, make
that three ... err ... four ... better say five ...) groups of
individuals race to save the world from ... a stock market fraud?
hostile takeover? aliens?  (No, I'm pretty sure the aliens were a red
herring.)

The story and inconsistent characterizations could use some work, and
the plot twists don't make it very easy to follow what is going on. 
It's fairly easy to tell who the good and bad guys are: the politics
and philosophy of the book are fairly simple, and one is reminded of
the scifi and comics of the 30s and 40s, with heavily anti-fascist and
(ironically) right-wing rhetoric.

It would be tempting to dismiss the work as a simple "jump on the
latest buzzword" potboiler, were it not for the fact that the
technology is fairly realistic.  Yes, right now everyone is jumping on
the cloud bandwagon without much regard for real security.  Yes, if
you wanted to make a big (and public) splash on the Internet, without
doing too much permanent damage, taking down power supplies would
still leave the data intact.  (Of course, an axe would do just as good
a job as bombs ...)

So, while the story isn't great, at least the technology is less
annoying than is normally the case ...

copyright, Robert M. Slade   2012     BKCLDCRS.RVW   20101009