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11/9
Nine-eleven was the world's worst terrorist atrocity.
Julian Fox intends to change that fact.
The planning will take months.
The attack will take just two minutes.
Nine-eleven involved four airliners, three buildings, and 3,000 deaths. What Fox is planning will down 1,300 airliners, devastate countless city centers, and kill around half a million people.
His method won't require a single hijacker, just 23 lines of computer code.
Sarah Green is an aviation risk analyst in the Department of Homeland Security. Her job is to out-think the identify weaknesses in airline security arrangements, figure out how those weaknesses might be exploited, and get protections in place before the terrorists get their chance.
Neither knows the other exists, yet the two are locked in a race that only one of them can win.
Julian Fox intends to change that fact.
The planning will take months.
The attack will take just two minutes.
Nine-eleven involved four airliners, three buildings, and 3,000 deaths. What Fox is planning will down 1,300 airliners, devastate countless city centers, and kill around half a million people.
His method won't require a single hijacker, just 23 lines of computer code.
Sarah Green is an aviation risk analyst in the Department of Homeland Security. Her job is to out-think the identify weaknesses in airline security arrangements, figure out how those weaknesses might be exploited, and get protections in place before the terrorists get their chance.
Neither knows the other exists, yet the two are locked in a race that only one of them can win.
- GenresContemporary
Audible Audio
First published May 4, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
November 13, 2015
EDIT: I'm removing my original comments on proofreading errors and adding a star as the author contacted me and said they'd be updated in the ebook. The prevalence of this problem is still frustrating, but it's fantastic to see that some authors are paying attention to it, and that it's not something future readers should encounter for this particular book.
This is a quick, fairly enjoyable suspense novel without a great deal of depth. It has the usual ingredients: two-dimensional villains with stereotypical motives, intrepid but under-appreciated investigators with no apparent personal lives, and an evil plot with enough thought put into it to be convincingly plausible. The author has clearly done his homework on the technical aspects, and for the most part does a good job of making them understandable to a general audience, though there are a couple of places where, in doing this, he began to sound like an encyclopedia article. The characterization could have been stronger, but was serviceable for what the book was trying to do. (Curiously, I often felt the minor characters were more interesting, as if the author has a particular talent for quick character sketches but isn't quite sure how to expand them.)
Where this book was strongest was in its very long build-up of suspense. This is tricky to maintain evenly across an entire book, and I thought the author did an excellent job of it, and of the pacing in general, enough that despite the other problems, I would at least be willing to give another of his books a try.
This is a quick, fairly enjoyable suspense novel without a great deal of depth. It has the usual ingredients: two-dimensional villains with stereotypical motives, intrepid but under-appreciated investigators with no apparent personal lives, and an evil plot with enough thought put into it to be convincingly plausible. The author has clearly done his homework on the technical aspects, and for the most part does a good job of making them understandable to a general audience, though there are a couple of places where, in doing this, he began to sound like an encyclopedia article. The characterization could have been stronger, but was serviceable for what the book was trying to do. (Curiously, I often felt the minor characters were more interesting, as if the author has a particular talent for quick character sketches but isn't quite sure how to expand them.)
Where this book was strongest was in its very long build-up of suspense. This is tricky to maintain evenly across an entire book, and I thought the author did an excellent job of it, and of the pacing in general, enough that despite the other problems, I would at least be willing to give another of his books a try.
April 26, 2015
11/9 sets up the story in the first chapter. A terrorist, Fox, hatches a plan to bring down every Airbus airliner in the world. The set up is terrifyingly plausible. Fox assembles a team of well meaning innocents, each with their own role to play, but with no idea of the horrific end goal. The characters are rounded out, and the pace, once it gets going, never slows down.
The danger of a first time technothriller author is to get stuck into the techno, rather than the thriller, and to be tempted to show how authentic it is by regurgitating his research. The author avoids this, and places the emphasis right on the thriller, with the good guys picking up clues and closing the gap on the bad guys. Will they do it in time?
Highly recommended!
The danger of a first time technothriller author is to get stuck into the techno, rather than the thriller, and to be tempted to show how authentic it is by regurgitating his research. The author avoids this, and places the emphasis right on the thriller, with the good guys picking up clues and closing the gap on the bad guys. Will they do it in time?
Highly recommended!
June 25, 2015
After contributing to the Kickstarter for this novel I was excited to get my hands on 11/9. It proved to be a pacy technothriller that I thoroughly enjoyed. Told from multiple perspectives the narrative never grows dull and I genuinely had no idea how things were going to turn out. Sarah Green proved a standout heroine of the kind that's difficult to come by and I was gripped until the last page.
April 20, 2015
Captivating and terrifying concept. Beautifully written, the author creates relentless and escalating tension. Great characters, whose motivation is always at the forefront of the novel giving them an eerie sense of purpose and determination. Fabulous attention to detail, makes the whole experience riveting. The book is quite unputdownable.
May 14, 2015
I have mixed feelings about this book. I was an early backer, and one of the first readers. Well-researched, detailed in places, some neat aspects to it. But I think fundamentally I didn't love it. There was some detail to the characters, but they were still felt bit distant from me, the reader. I didn't feel connected or loyal to any of the main characters, and as such, the climax and conclusion didn't satisfy or dissatisfy me. It just was. The story had moments of tension and suspense, but without my emotional connection.
I also think that the whole terror plot was a little "too easy". The private investigator's antics in Fox's office was far more suspenseful than the infiltration into Airbus to actually execute the terror plot. It never felt risky enough, all things considered.
I have respect for Ben for taking on a big challenge, and I don't mean to diminish what he has done. I offer this review primarily as feedback for him to take with him into his future novels.
I also think that the whole terror plot was a little "too easy". The private investigator's antics in Fox's office was far more suspenseful than the infiltration into Airbus to actually execute the terror plot. It never felt risky enough, all things considered.
I have respect for Ben for taking on a big challenge, and I don't mean to diminish what he has done. I offer this review primarily as feedback for him to take with him into his future novels.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 4, 2016
This review is for the audiobook narrated by Chris Abell.
This is definitely the first technothriller I have read so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but it seems that's it's a genre that I enjoy. Yes there is a fair bit of technical jargon in here but I think it was necessary to satisfy the 'techno' description and I was able to listen without totally understanding what it meant. I found the narration jarred a little in terms of accents and particularly the pronunciation of 'mobile' which was a frequently used word. Overall it's a really well plotted story but probably not one you want to read on an aircraft.
This is definitely the first technothriller I have read so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but it seems that's it's a genre that I enjoy. Yes there is a fair bit of technical jargon in here but I think it was necessary to satisfy the 'techno' description and I was able to listen without totally understanding what it meant. I found the narration jarred a little in terms of accents and particularly the pronunciation of 'mobile' which was a frequently used word. Overall it's a really well plotted story but probably not one you want to read on an aircraft.
May 12, 2015
A little bit too technical and with way too many details, also some really important stuff (IMO) is left unexplained, but is a fun read and fast paced at the end.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 9, 2015
Very intelligent terrorism-plot. Good characters and a plausible approach make this fun to read!
May 19, 2015
Fantastic twisting plot which promises lots and delivers even more!
I'll be taking my next holiday by train.
I'll be taking my next holiday by train.
March 10, 2016
I don't know if I'll ever get in an airplane again without thinking about this book.
August 30, 2015
Scary, fast paced, great book!
January 27, 2023
Ben Lovejoy's novel “11/9”, is a riveting techno-thriller that refers to 9 November, a date that was meant to be historically infamous, and begins with an audacious threat. And while it can get very technical,some of us like it that way. And there are some hair-raising thriller scenes that are full-on white-knuckle stuff that are both detailed and grisly. Lovejoy rachets up the tension and the cat-and-mouse moves, rushing towards a climax. Highly Recommended. Five INTENSE Stars.
374 pages. Kindle. This is a re-read novel.
374 pages. Kindle. This is a re-read novel.
January 13, 2018
really enjoyed it all the way through, Lovejoy's already impressed me with his near-misses and this one certainly held true. I do find it a little sad that an author has to warn readers that he's not an American, why should we apologise for doing English properly? And there were a worrying number of "though" instead of "through". Apart from that and a bit of a maudlin ending, I found myself enraptured from the first page.
September 23, 2017
Top class read.
This book is a fascinating read, very well written with an incredible storyline that seems so real. Very technical and convincing. Highly recommended.
This book is a fascinating read, very well written with an incredible storyline that seems so real. Very technical and convincing. Highly recommended.
December 22, 2019
Awesome!
July 10, 2021
Good book, you have the good guys and the bad guys in a race to cause/prevent an unprecedented disaster.
September 5, 2021
Characters: Fox, York, and Green
Plot: An environmental terrorist plots to stop the air industry by creating the worst air disaster since 9/11 and he appropriately plans it for 11/9. A Homeland Security agent find some worrisome gaps in security and tries to rectify them, putting herself in a race to secure the skies before 11/9.
Likes: This book actually had moments where I would be reading and realize I had been holding my breath due to how intense the action was.
Dislikes: Some of the technical bits were really difficult to follow.
April 10, 2016
Described as an un-put-down-able techno-thriller, and obviously with a non-veiled reference to 9/11 thrown in there (though an unrelated story), I was psyched for something gripping and engaging, and, well, techie. It is, no question, a quite good read, and I enjoyed it thoroughly, but I’m also interested in science and engineering and similar topics, and there’s a lot of time in the book spent delving into those arenas where the pace of the book lags. It wasn’t surprising to find out that the author is a technical writer by trade, as the book careens between white knuckled flipping of pages while the characters are engaged in a life and death moment, and then almost like breaking the infamous theater fourth wall, a different character would be doing something that felt like wading through a technical manual to explicate what was going on in the previous, or an upcoming, scene. Great story and indeed gripping and engaging, but by turns, quite put-down-able, at what more or less are, for a techno-thriller, the commercial breaks.
November 21, 2016
I needed some perseverance to finish this book. There was a lot of scene setting and I had quite a lot of long breaks from reading. But I did enjoy it and I did read most of it, just skipping some of the detail towards the end. And it was intelligent and the plot did work.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews