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Cloud Crash: A Technothriller
Cal Stevens has two problems. The first is a hangover. Living the playboy lifestyle in his San Francisco loft had led to quite a few rough mornings.The other problem is worse.A mad bomber is crossing the country, destroying buildings and taking lives in the process. Now Cal has to stop him before he strikes again. Thousands of lives and the future of the internet hang in the balance.Cal must team up with a beautiful PR professional and a paranoid blogger who rarely escapes his basement. He'll discover secrets about himself and his partners, conspiracies that extend all the way to the White House, and the hidden truth about Napa, Area 51, and the entire country's future.Cloud Crash is a fast paced romp that touches on the biggest issues of our privacy, government secrets, and how to recover from a hangover when you're busy saving the world.Cloud Crash is approximately 105,000 words, or around 420 pages in a standard print edition.
387 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 5, 2011
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199 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 26, 2012
A barely passable read if you can overlook the idiotic technical descriptions and the entire premise that a small biotech company is overtly responsible for "the cloud" which is apparently the entire internet. Suspend any disbelief as the company and the NSA rely on a private investigator to do their duty to uncover the mystery of third-party co-location facility terrorism? Marching through mud and piloting a helicopter never interferes with the perfectly proportioned blonde NSA agent's high-heels-at-all-times sensibilities. The investigator doesn't know what a traffic camera is or that a data center contains computers (the "CPU" of the Internet) which need electricity. Another expert finds two paragraph blog comments to be a smart "dissertation or proposal rather than an e-mail." Then there is the Area 51/crop circle conspiracy ... Well, authors with the courage to write despite their increasingly crippling dementia must be applauded.
"But what if you're wrong?"
"Then we avert disaster."
"And if you're right?"
"Then maybe we can stop it."
"But what if you're wrong?"
"Then we avert disaster."
"And if you're right?"
"Then maybe we can stop it."
October 19, 2012
I wanted to like this book, but just couldn't finish it. I know a little about cloud computing, and absolutely nothing rang true from the technical point of view.
January 9, 2021
Entertaining
This was a pretty good book. I felt the pace was just about right too. However, the author should probably invest in a good editor or at the very least a thesaurus. Just sayin'.
This was a pretty good book. I felt the pace was just about right too. However, the author should probably invest in a good editor or at the very least a thesaurus. Just sayin'.
August 12, 2016
~~From Red Adept Reviews~~
I received Cloud Crash: A Technothriller, by Phil Edwards, as a review copy submitted to “Red Adept Reviews” by the author.
Overall: 3 Stars
Plot/Storyline: 4 Stars
This book took me weeks to read, when I usually grind through a novel in hours. But it wasn’t due to a bad plot; I very much enjoyed its final few twists.
The subplot involving Area 51 wasn’t what I expected and could have been cut entirely, and the bomber’s subplot could have been a quarter as detailed and still remained relevant. The blogger’s subplot was my favorite; it wasn’t overdone, and the character was easy to relate to.
At one point, a newly-broken code is described as consistent, but it wasn’t; the author used two kinds of ciphers. Another time, guards had been forewarned of the bomber’s attacks, but weren’t given weapons or any other means to defend their building—a plot device that saved the final confrontation for our heroes.
The various settings were entertaining; I particularly enjoyed the final section of the book; all the plotlines dovetailed nicely and the tension was intense.
I particularly enjoyed one scene between Ben and Khalid which brought up both sides of what is currently the argument surrounding the SOPA bill. There’s nothing like relevant fiction to give us another look at ourselves.
Character Development: 3 3/4 Stars
Cal Stevens starts off with a quality pedigree: journalist, investigator, party boy, sexy guy. But when the story begins, his intelligence doesn’t hold up to the hype. He asks questions about internet topics so basic that I wondered where he’d been in the last decade. He felt Gary Stuish from the start, though his snappy wit was always entertaining.
Schloss, the bomber, starts his day with a perfect plan, we’re told. But as time goes by, he’s revealed to have made mistake after mistake during his planning phase, as well as goofing up during the plan’s execution. He ends up seeming to suffer from delusions of competence, and, as with Cal, I wondered how he got hired.
Brianna, PR agent/actual agent, was awesome. Her PR side was strongly shown, and her kick-ass side did just that. Mysterious, possibly untrustworthy, having her own agenda and not apologizing for it, she owned this book. She definitely owned Cal.
Ben the blogger was an interesting addition to the book, in a good way. The pacing of his sections were different, but no less intriguing or tense. His fears and paranoia were a nice foil to the confidence of the other characters.
There were several minor characters as well, and while they were all developed to some degree, I didn’t feel they all needed inclusion and/or POV scenes.
Writing Style: 2 Stars
The author has a habit of putting a character’s dialogue in its own paragraph, without a dialogue tag. Occasionally, this made it confusing as to who was speaking.
Technical details felt overexplained, particularly through Brianna’s, Kevin’s, and Arthur’s dialogue. The “use in sentence—question—explain further” dialogue sequence happened regularly in the first half of the book, slowing down the pace and making Cal—who did most of the questioning—look so technically inept that it strained my belief to accept that Kevin would have hired him in the first place. It was hard to stay interested when I kept feeling like I knew more than the characters (including things like the purpose of speed-limit cameras).
Numerous instances of vague writing made it harder to stay focused on the action; some scenes wrapped up with a vague pronouncement that killed the building tension.
Editing: 2 1/2 Stars
Run-on sentences were rampant. Comma usage was minimal and inconsistent. I also found a large number of simple grammatical errors and a handful of capitalization errors.
I received Cloud Crash: A Technothriller, by Phil Edwards, as a review copy submitted to “Red Adept Reviews” by the author.
Overall: 3 Stars
Plot/Storyline: 4 Stars
This book took me weeks to read, when I usually grind through a novel in hours. But it wasn’t due to a bad plot; I very much enjoyed its final few twists.
The subplot involving Area 51 wasn’t what I expected and could have been cut entirely, and the bomber’s subplot could have been a quarter as detailed and still remained relevant. The blogger’s subplot was my favorite; it wasn’t overdone, and the character was easy to relate to.
At one point, a newly-broken code is described as consistent, but it wasn’t; the author used two kinds of ciphers. Another time, guards had been forewarned of the bomber’s attacks, but weren’t given weapons or any other means to defend their building—a plot device that saved the final confrontation for our heroes.
The various settings were entertaining; I particularly enjoyed the final section of the book; all the plotlines dovetailed nicely and the tension was intense.
I particularly enjoyed one scene between Ben and Khalid which brought up both sides of what is currently the argument surrounding the SOPA bill. There’s nothing like relevant fiction to give us another look at ourselves.
Character Development: 3 3/4 Stars
Cal Stevens starts off with a quality pedigree: journalist, investigator, party boy, sexy guy. But when the story begins, his intelligence doesn’t hold up to the hype. He asks questions about internet topics so basic that I wondered where he’d been in the last decade. He felt Gary Stuish from the start, though his snappy wit was always entertaining.
Schloss, the bomber, starts his day with a perfect plan, we’re told. But as time goes by, he’s revealed to have made mistake after mistake during his planning phase, as well as goofing up during the plan’s execution. He ends up seeming to suffer from delusions of competence, and, as with Cal, I wondered how he got hired.
Brianna, PR agent/actual agent, was awesome. Her PR side was strongly shown, and her kick-ass side did just that. Mysterious, possibly untrustworthy, having her own agenda and not apologizing for it, she owned this book. She definitely owned Cal.
Ben the blogger was an interesting addition to the book, in a good way. The pacing of his sections were different, but no less intriguing or tense. His fears and paranoia were a nice foil to the confidence of the other characters.
There were several minor characters as well, and while they were all developed to some degree, I didn’t feel they all needed inclusion and/or POV scenes.
Writing Style: 2 Stars
The author has a habit of putting a character’s dialogue in its own paragraph, without a dialogue tag. Occasionally, this made it confusing as to who was speaking.
Technical details felt overexplained, particularly through Brianna’s, Kevin’s, and Arthur’s dialogue. The “use in sentence—question—explain further” dialogue sequence happened regularly in the first half of the book, slowing down the pace and making Cal—who did most of the questioning—look so technically inept that it strained my belief to accept that Kevin would have hired him in the first place. It was hard to stay interested when I kept feeling like I knew more than the characters (including things like the purpose of speed-limit cameras).
Numerous instances of vague writing made it harder to stay focused on the action; some scenes wrapped up with a vague pronouncement that killed the building tension.
Editing: 2 1/2 Stars
Run-on sentences were rampant. Comma usage was minimal and inconsistent. I also found a large number of simple grammatical errors and a handful of capitalization errors.
July 25, 2013
This book was really just a struggle to get through. Most importantly because it reads like a draft. Or at least was in desperate need of another pass. A syntactical nightmare if ever there were one.
The disparate story lines are uneven in quality, do little to reinforce each other, and 75% of it could be cut out entirely. If that weren't enough of an issue when these stray plot lines aren't failing to get sewn together, we're bombarded with massive info dumps that read like someone proud that they just researched computers and the internet using books from the late 90s. This might have seemed engaging to readers without any background knowledge of computers if they weren't beaten over the head with it. Those who are better informed will find the whole process infuriating. Simply, the facts presented aren't facts at all.
If that weren't enough, there's alien paranoia presented by characters that suffer at times from exhausting colloquialisms that made an already inane and unnecessary plot line that much harder to read.
Oh, and let's not forget that the book fails to follow it's own continuity quite regularly. Most of this is plot convenient later in the book. It's almost as if in juggling all these disparate elements—again, that never get sewn together properly—the author confused himself and had to discount his own story to make it all work again.
If it weren't for Cal Stevens (who isn't without his own continuity flaws) and Ben the blogger, there would almost be no redemption here.
I can't help but wonder if this book was published by a front company run by the author, because it desperately needs an edit in all facets: syntax, content, continuity; all of it. There was a good story in here somewhere, but it's very much lost.
The disparate story lines are uneven in quality, do little to reinforce each other, and 75% of it could be cut out entirely. If that weren't enough of an issue when these stray plot lines aren't failing to get sewn together, we're bombarded with massive info dumps that read like someone proud that they just researched computers and the internet using books from the late 90s. This might have seemed engaging to readers without any background knowledge of computers if they weren't beaten over the head with it. Those who are better informed will find the whole process infuriating. Simply, the facts presented aren't facts at all.
If that weren't enough, there's alien paranoia presented by characters that suffer at times from exhausting colloquialisms that made an already inane and unnecessary plot line that much harder to read.
Oh, and let's not forget that the book fails to follow it's own continuity quite regularly. Most of this is plot convenient later in the book. It's almost as if in juggling all these disparate elements—again, that never get sewn together properly—the author confused himself and had to discount his own story to make it all work again.
If it weren't for Cal Stevens (who isn't without his own continuity flaws) and Ben the blogger, there would almost be no redemption here.
I can't help but wonder if this book was published by a front company run by the author, because it desperately needs an edit in all facets: syntax, content, continuity; all of it. There was a good story in here somewhere, but it's very much lost.
July 22, 2013
Cloud Crash was a well done local terrorist techno thriller. While some of the twists and turns were bordering far-fetched, it still maintained a level of reality that was on this side of believability. The technology didn't go overboard to sound like a manual, but also wasn't too vague so as to not be understood. There were a few scenes that were on the slow or redundant side, but otherwise the pace flowed really well.
While most of the book was predictable and you knew what was coming, the adventure of getting there was done well. A couple of the twists made me shake my head a little, but a couple pages later I forgot about them and was immersed right back into the story. One particular medical facility was the focus, but this book could ring true of almost any business (much of it was also affected by events). The author displayed some great knowledge of how the digital world is held together and also how little it would take to bring it to it's knees.
This is a very good book for those of you into technology, conspiracy theories, or those paranoid of how easy it would be to halt the digital world that we live in. While an organized attack by many individuals or groups would be much more realistic than a "lone gunman"-type, it didn't hinder the book as much as I thought it would as the action started. At the moment it is a $2.99 purchase from Amazon, I found there to be more value than that in this book so it should be a definite buy.
While most of the book was predictable and you knew what was coming, the adventure of getting there was done well. A couple of the twists made me shake my head a little, but a couple pages later I forgot about them and was immersed right back into the story. One particular medical facility was the focus, but this book could ring true of almost any business (much of it was also affected by events). The author displayed some great knowledge of how the digital world is held together and also how little it would take to bring it to it's knees.
This is a very good book for those of you into technology, conspiracy theories, or those paranoid of how easy it would be to halt the digital world that we live in. While an organized attack by many individuals or groups would be much more realistic than a "lone gunman"-type, it didn't hinder the book as much as I thought it would as the action started. At the moment it is a $2.99 purchase from Amazon, I found there to be more value than that in this book so it should be a definite buy.
March 7, 2011
I’m not a tech guy, but I have some idea what “the cloud” is. My e-mails and documents are in the cloud. My Facebook status messages and photos are in the cloud. My twitter blurbs are in the cloud. So if the cloud would collapse, a part of my life would disappear. This is happening in Cloud Crash. Websites are down, services are unreachable, the Internet is collapsing, because data centers are detonated.
The CEO of Bioze calls Cal Stevens, consultant to find out who is behind this conspiracy. Because for Bioze it is not only information which is at stake, but the life of hospital patients are in danger, whose treatment is handled and followed by cloud computing applications. If the Bioze data center crushes, people dies.
So Cal does his best to get to the man who is not afraid to kill anyone between him and his target. Fortunately Brianna Cowell is helping him, who turns out to be an agent.
I liked that the story is fast paced. I liked the characters too, because they were not perfect, but human. I liked the idea of erasing “the cloud”. I liked the book.
The CEO of Bioze calls Cal Stevens, consultant to find out who is behind this conspiracy. Because for Bioze it is not only information which is at stake, but the life of hospital patients are in danger, whose treatment is handled and followed by cloud computing applications. If the Bioze data center crushes, people dies.
So Cal does his best to get to the man who is not afraid to kill anyone between him and his target. Fortunately Brianna Cowell is helping him, who turns out to be an agent.
I liked that the story is fast paced. I liked the characters too, because they were not perfect, but human. I liked the idea of erasing “the cloud”. I liked the book.
October 21, 2012
What's surprising about the story is that it could turn out to be true. As we depend on computers more and more, we take for granted that our private data is in safe hands. But what happens when one man is set out to destroy them all? Certainly not a crisis, we reply.[return]And we are right: this is not a crisis. This is cloud crash.[return]When one thinks of thrillers with cryptic mysteries, Dan Brown always seems to slip into first place. This book however, is a very nice proof that there are other authors who can write equally, if not more, enjoyable stories. True, there are a few noticeable things which may hint at the author's journalist background, such as the sometimes seemingly pattern-based description of characters, but all in all the plot and the characters are well designed, with sprinkles of humour which last till the end.
December 3, 2012
I liked the pace of the book, I liked the humor of the book . Cal Stevens who chases the mad-bomber with Brianna Cowell is quick witted and sometimes just plain stupid LOL. They make it easy to understand the tech stuff without being to techie. F - bomb twice 2/3 rds thru the book , talk of sex but no description of the deeds (the way I like to read about it), lots of inuendos and several killings. As most books the first few chapters are laying the ground work and for me sometimes its hard to muddle thru to learn all the players. Once you know it becomes fast and frenzied. Trying to figure out the clues with Cal and Brianna is exciting. Those who like tech and spy stuff would like this .
August 8, 2016
Decient story
This dragged a bit and was a little unbelievable. But then it has to be some what unbelievable since it is a book and not a true story. Character development was about right. You get to know the characters and some are even quite likable. As in any book it has to have many parts that are pure fantasy but then it is a book not a true story right. Overall I would recommend this to friends.
This dragged a bit and was a little unbelievable. But then it has to be some what unbelievable since it is a book and not a true story. Character development was about right. You get to know the characters and some are even quite likable. As in any book it has to have many parts that are pure fantasy but then it is a book not a true story right. Overall I would recommend this to friends.
February 12, 2012
Someone is bombing Server Centers across the country and knocking out commercial and recreational web traffic. The head of a Silicone Valley data storage company hires an investigator to look into what is happening which leads him and an under cover FBI agent into a race to discover where the bomber will strike next. Interesting story, the writing is so so but readable.
March 25, 2013
This is much more my speed...I did not put this book down. Conspiracy surrounding the usage of the cloud computing which most of us use in some way today...memorable characters and plausible scenes....had me guessing throughout the read.
January 4, 2012
A thriller featuring an attack on the internet and one man's attempt to stop it - and to discover why.
January 18, 2012
A fast paced technothriller book, I couldn't put it down. Highly reccomend this book which is value for money (2.99 at amazon)
January 22, 2013
Sorry, but the author didn't develop the characters or explain their motivation or tie up all the loose ends. And all this took place in 2 days? I like a fluffy book, but come on....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 27, 2012
Pretty good read
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December 7, 2013False
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews