The Internet Detectives: Net Bandits

Internet Detectives #1

by Michael Coleman

Communicating on the Internet leads six teenagers - three in England and three on different continents - into exciting and dangerous mysteries. Josh and Tamsyn make contact with the mysterious XMASTER, who tells them he is in danger. They must somehow track him down quickly and help him.

Genres: Young Adult, Childrens, Mystery, Fiction, Crime

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 12, 1996

About the author

Coleman was born in Forest Gate, a suburb in east London. Not long after he was born, his family moved a few miles east to Barking. At the time of his arrival, the area was just starting to recover from the damage it had received during World War II. He lived in a house on Bevan Avenue, named after Aneurin Bevan the architect of the National Health Service. He lived in that estate for 20 years. The area helped develop Coleman's love of sport due to the oblong shaped lanes of grass leading up the estate, which could be used as mini-stadiums. He pretended to play at various sporting events of the time, e.g. the Melbourne Olympics of 1956, the soccer Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, and the games at Lords Cricket ground. He still has medals he won for being school champion in the 100m sprint and the long jump. As said by Coleman himself "My information series Foul Football tries to convey some of the magic I felt about the game of soccer by relating the weird and wonderful history of the game and the personalities it has seen over the years. On the fiction side, my series about a junior soccer team called Angels FC tries to bring out the humour and sheer fun that you’ll find at the heart of the game when it’s played by youngsters who don’t even know how to spell the word cynicism." Coleman had his first children’s book published when he was 46 years of age. He has also said: "I didn't [want to become a writer] at first. I used to teach computer science at a university and my first book was a boring one about computers. I livened it up by putting a few jokes in. At the end I thought I'd try writing a few more things, but this time forgetting about the computers and concentrating on the jokes. After lots of failures I realised that youngsters enjoy jokes more than adults and started writing for them. Eighty books later, I'm still doing it...I write both fact and fiction. The Foul Football series are favourite fact books, simply because they're about football. On the fiction side, I'm just finishing a trilogy called The Bearkingdom. They're dark and scary, quite different to anything I've written before."

Reviews

[Matt Mazenauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazingly dated, half of this book is kids being flabberghasted that a message came to them THROUGH THEIR COMPUTER! The mystery is solved party by EMOTICONS.

[Rogerio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ow! this is hilarious! Was written in 1996. Surely kids will enjoy but I had a lot of fun reading this kids spy book from the dawn of the Internet. It is very cool to remember how things were at that time - and the book even has screen shots of the Net Navigator and the mailbox. It's 20 years after and it is really amusing to go back to 1996. It even explains how to read the "smilies" :-) and talks about "netiquette".

[Mateja · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is one of the first books I've read as a kid and I remember loving it so much. It's a very interesting, intense read that talks about the magic of online-friendship.

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entretenido y hasta cierto punto nostálgico.

Conocí esta serie gracias a un blog hace varios años, pero nunca había tenido oportunidad de leer ningún libro de ella. La premisa es lo suficientemente simple como para que pueda leerse en un par de horas. Hay que recordar que fue escrito cuando Internet estaba en sus primeros años, por lo que muchos conceptos están desactualizados u obsoletos, pero justo eso hace que tenga ese tinte de nostalgia que pone una sonrisa en la cara. A aquellos que hayan vivido los primeros tiempos de Internet seguro les sacará una que otra sonrisa.

[Ramona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though this was written in the 90s, the storyline is sound, and I enjoyed reading it. There are several positive points you take away from this short, easy-to-read story. Friendship is great! You can make friends anywhere in the world, with the help of the World Wide Web. Being physically handicapped is not a barrier.

[Frida Hultgren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emoji-mystery. Easier to know what it is about now then it was back then when internet was new to me at least.

[Nelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bueno, pero meh bueno

[Paula Paegle · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was quite Simple, but really good.

[Chiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

What type of person calls himself "ZMASTER"? His actual name is Rob Zanelli. Then comes a day when Rob is in terrible danger because a person who used to work for his parents wants to find a gold diskette called Lure of the Labyrinth. he starts to send these funny codes that go like this....... :-((-:-D:-VI-). What on earth does that mean? That the entire point of the book.

[Nikola Jovanović · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the first books I ever fell in love with, as an 11yo. I read them all in one breath :)

[Juanjo Conti]

Muy entretenido a pesar de ser un libro para pre adolescentes.

[Kasper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not old, I'm vintage!



Tamsyn está aprendiendo, con la ayuda de su amigo Josh, a usar internet en los nuevos computadores de su escuela cuando recibe un correo de ZMASTER dándole la bienvenida al mundo cibernético. Al cabo de unos días, vuelve a recibir un correo del mismo remitente, diciéndole que está en problemas y necesita de su ayuda. Tamsyn y Josh acuden a los amigos de internet de ZMASTER para averiguar quién es él y qué le ocurre.

Este libro es sobre 6 niños que descubren las maravillas del internet...hace 20 años. Detectives Internet fue publicado en 1997, y google fue fundado en 1998 (lo googlié!) así que imaginen lo difícil que era hacer búsquedas sin un buscador! Los juegos cabían en un diskette, mandar mensajes a través de correos electrónicos para a cualquier persona en cualquier parte del mundo en minutos era algo nunca antes visto, y hasta los emoticones había que explicarlos :-) Como soy media anciana, yo si me acuerdo de algunas de esas cosas Para aclarar, tenía 7 años en 1997