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Hackster - The Revolution Begins
What happened when people lost faith in the system? One stood up and opened the doors of a revolution.
History has it that such men have the power to bring a nation to a standstill.
Revelations of the past have shattered Vikram and left him in extreme agony. Fueled by the universe of vibrations and his father’s legacy, he must now trigger a digital revolution that will leave India leaderless.
A special unit, CIST has been set up by the President to take on the growing cyber threats. Led by Arjun, CIST tracks down its target, but soon finds itself helpless in the kaleidoscope of cyber war.
The Kingmaker of Indian politics shivers at the sight of the upcoming war.
Who is right? Who is wrong? Who will reach the kill switch first?
History has it that such men have the power to bring a nation to a standstill.
Revelations of the past have shattered Vikram and left him in extreme agony. Fueled by the universe of vibrations and his father’s legacy, he must now trigger a digital revolution that will leave India leaderless.
A special unit, CIST has been set up by the President to take on the growing cyber threats. Led by Arjun, CIST tracks down its target, but soon finds itself helpless in the kaleidoscope of cyber war.
The Kingmaker of Indian politics shivers at the sight of the upcoming war.
Who is right? Who is wrong? Who will reach the kill switch first?
291 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2014
1 person is currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Sankalp Kohli
7 books16 followersBorn and brought up in Kanpur, Sankalp is a MBA Graduate from NMIMS, Mumbai. An entrepreneurial soul with an imprint of a perfectionist, he is a workaholic who believes in turning every single moment of life into something constructive and fruitful.
He is a person who holds his parents above all, especially his mother. All his dreams and aspirations are driven by his wish to make his parents feel proud.
His first attempt with pen, in form of ‘Because…Every Raindrop is a HOPE’, released this year, has been gaining immense success and has already hit ‘the National Bestseller’ tag. His second book, ‘When I Found You’ is due to release on Diwali, this year.
He is a person who holds his parents above all, especially his mother. All his dreams and aspirations are driven by his wish to make his parents feel proud.
His first attempt with pen, in form of ‘Because…Every Raindrop is a HOPE’, released this year, has been gaining immense success and has already hit ‘the National Bestseller’ tag. His second book, ‘When I Found You’ is due to release on Diwali, this year.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 16, 2015
what a thriller! havent read something like this from an indian author.
December 23, 2015
Read complete reviews on my Blog : BookReviewsFromHeart.blogspot.in
* Truth be told : 1. I received this book as a review copy .2. I'm reading Defense related books and magazines since 10 and is a proud son of a Journalist *
Meticulously Designed Plot ........
This gripping debut by Author Sankalp Kohli and Paritosh Yadav in " Crime-Thriller " genre comes with a well designed cover , apt with the story bolted in it . Plot is setup in the time when India was being ruled by a single Coalition government from past many years with Prime Minister as the puppet and the DAP's Party head running the state . The story centres on Vikram , a computer-tech geek who lost his father at very young age and Arjun , a field specialist in IPS Officer . With time Vikrm got to know that his father was defamed by framing him as an ISI Agent by some greedy and corrupt politicians and the feeling to avenge his father and to freed his motherland from the true traitors , let him trigger a digital revolution to sweep the corrupt politicians . On the other hand , The President of India setup a special investigating Unit named CIST to counter the Cyber crime which is rising exponentially .Arjun was called in to be the part of this special unit as the field specialist while the other members assist him as the Tech & Psych experts from different nodal agencies of the Nation .
Authors had groomed the characters in unique ways from Vikram being portrayed as the son who's willing to go beyond any boundry to fulfill the dream of his father , to serve his Motherland by the way he thinks he could . With the most potent weapon of 21st century , Laptop ,, in his hand he'd proved how much powerful a person could be just by sitting in his room with wearing Payjamas and fingers dancing on the keypad of the Laptop .
Another lead protagonist is Arjun , who'd been named on the mightiest warrior of all time , is bolted as the best investigating official with grey cells running continuously in weaving plans to catch the criminals .
Then comes our lady Payal , who'd loved Vikram from all her heart . Krishna Chaturvedi , a short man who managed his image among common people as the man who lives a plain and simple life but wears Armani and Rolex , wields the real power and maintains a polite note on his words but his thoughts are always aggressive .
Best Moments :
# Way vikram and Payal got into relationship .
# Brilliant mind of Anand singh Bedi .
# Arjun's excellent approach on any situation .
So beside having complete fun while reading this book , I also stumble into some facts & stances which trigger alarms in my mind :
# Names of the members of the ' Nuclear Command Authority ' are kept under highest secrecy and don't think could be spilled to anyone who's not a member of the unit . But in the very initital , DG Ketan introduce a member if CIST unit as serving member of NCA .NCA is headed by the PM and is completely isolated .
Yes , CIST is also characterised as a secret agency but naming a NCA official doesn't make sense .
# How could a field agent of ACP rank got window to have basic IT classes ?
# Nikesh ,23 year , was a computer science graduate from IIT Kanpur who had joined the Indian Police service and got posted to the Cyber Police division .
So in India a college student usually pass graduation at the age of 21 and then 2 year training period adds the age to 23 and don't think any one could clear the Civil Services in one go that too in the graduation passing year . But again , considering the kid had done then he can't be placed in the Cyber division in the very early year of his service . So its contradictory .
#How did Arjun got his eyes on Marino Hotel ? What linked to the hotel ? There are lots of hotels but why this is the only one his eyes laid on ?
Seems forcefully bolted in it .
# How could Krishna Chaturvedi address the meeting in Cabinet Room ?
Authors had tried to patch this stance from a real life scenario but there are things that are just deemed to be known and addressed by the PM doesn't matter even if he's a puppet .
# CIST is the brainchild of the President but he didn't appear much in the story .
So for Plot outline : 4/5
For the psycology embedded in story :5/5
But overall 3.5/5 'cause of some concepts that aren't addressed properly in the plot and holds some loopholes .Doesn't matter how much corruption is there at higher level , at the very end its the bureaucracy that runs the Nation and there exist the contingency plan for every single situation .
So Hackster is a fun and gripping book that will refresh your mind with little blows .
* Truth be told : 1. I received this book as a review copy .2. I'm reading Defense related books and magazines since 10 and is a proud son of a Journalist *
Meticulously Designed Plot ........
This gripping debut by Author Sankalp Kohli and Paritosh Yadav in " Crime-Thriller " genre comes with a well designed cover , apt with the story bolted in it . Plot is setup in the time when India was being ruled by a single Coalition government from past many years with Prime Minister as the puppet and the DAP's Party head running the state . The story centres on Vikram , a computer-tech geek who lost his father at very young age and Arjun , a field specialist in IPS Officer . With time Vikrm got to know that his father was defamed by framing him as an ISI Agent by some greedy and corrupt politicians and the feeling to avenge his father and to freed his motherland from the true traitors , let him trigger a digital revolution to sweep the corrupt politicians . On the other hand , The President of India setup a special investigating Unit named CIST to counter the Cyber crime which is rising exponentially .Arjun was called in to be the part of this special unit as the field specialist while the other members assist him as the Tech & Psych experts from different nodal agencies of the Nation .
Authors had groomed the characters in unique ways from Vikram being portrayed as the son who's willing to go beyond any boundry to fulfill the dream of his father , to serve his Motherland by the way he thinks he could . With the most potent weapon of 21st century , Laptop ,, in his hand he'd proved how much powerful a person could be just by sitting in his room with wearing Payjamas and fingers dancing on the keypad of the Laptop .
Another lead protagonist is Arjun , who'd been named on the mightiest warrior of all time , is bolted as the best investigating official with grey cells running continuously in weaving plans to catch the criminals .
Then comes our lady Payal , who'd loved Vikram from all her heart . Krishna Chaturvedi , a short man who managed his image among common people as the man who lives a plain and simple life but wears Armani and Rolex , wields the real power and maintains a polite note on his words but his thoughts are always aggressive .
Best Moments :
# Way vikram and Payal got into relationship .
# Brilliant mind of Anand singh Bedi .
# Arjun's excellent approach on any situation .
So beside having complete fun while reading this book , I also stumble into some facts & stances which trigger alarms in my mind :
# Names of the members of the ' Nuclear Command Authority ' are kept under highest secrecy and don't think could be spilled to anyone who's not a member of the unit . But in the very initital , DG Ketan introduce a member if CIST unit as serving member of NCA .NCA is headed by the PM and is completely isolated .
Yes , CIST is also characterised as a secret agency but naming a NCA official doesn't make sense .
# How could a field agent of ACP rank got window to have basic IT classes ?
# Nikesh ,23 year , was a computer science graduate from IIT Kanpur who had joined the Indian Police service and got posted to the Cyber Police division .
So in India a college student usually pass graduation at the age of 21 and then 2 year training period adds the age to 23 and don't think any one could clear the Civil Services in one go that too in the graduation passing year . But again , considering the kid had done then he can't be placed in the Cyber division in the very early year of his service . So its contradictory .
#How did Arjun got his eyes on Marino Hotel ? What linked to the hotel ? There are lots of hotels but why this is the only one his eyes laid on ?
Seems forcefully bolted in it .
# How could Krishna Chaturvedi address the meeting in Cabinet Room ?
Authors had tried to patch this stance from a real life scenario but there are things that are just deemed to be known and addressed by the PM doesn't matter even if he's a puppet .
# CIST is the brainchild of the President but he didn't appear much in the story .
So for Plot outline : 4/5
For the psycology embedded in story :5/5
But overall 3.5/5 'cause of some concepts that aren't addressed properly in the plot and holds some loopholes .Doesn't matter how much corruption is there at higher level , at the very end its the bureaucracy that runs the Nation and there exist the contingency plan for every single situation .
So Hackster is a fun and gripping book that will refresh your mind with little blows .
November 7, 2014
Hackster, as the name suggests is about the world of hacking and concentrate upon the theme of cyber war situation. While reading the book I could see the immense research and knowledge regarding hacking gathered by the authors before starting to write over this subject. They have beautifully carved their background effort with the story and finally presented it in the form of a good thriller. So for choosing such a theme to write over, I would like to appreciate the authors.
Now, talking about the first look. Cover and the blurb are fabulous. Amol Karambe’s effort over the cover design is commendable. Blurb is intact, as in, not too short not too long. It presents the main theme intelligently. Proceeding with the story, the story doesn’t kick starts. I was expecting it to start with a BAAM! but it wasn’t like that, it takes a bit longer to settle down and tries to take over the mind of reader and make him believe that something big is going to happen. I felt it as a drawback because the reader is made to wait too long to see the real action.
With the beginning of BSE episodes, The thrill catches up the veins of the reader. Cyber war depiction is thoroughly researched by the author and is brilliantly portrayed as well. This thrill and action continues till the end of the novel when last few pages were remaining. Being a reader I was expecting a grand climax because the author wanted me to anticipate so. But I was disappointed to see an abrupt ending. I re-read the climax again but still was very confused. There’s nothing wrong with the climax but still, somewhere, I felt that the climax was unable to match up with the hype created during the middle section of the novel.
FULL REVIEW AT 'THE AUTHOR'S BLOG'...
Now, talking about the first look. Cover and the blurb are fabulous. Amol Karambe’s effort over the cover design is commendable. Blurb is intact, as in, not too short not too long. It presents the main theme intelligently. Proceeding with the story, the story doesn’t kick starts. I was expecting it to start with a BAAM! but it wasn’t like that, it takes a bit longer to settle down and tries to take over the mind of reader and make him believe that something big is going to happen. I felt it as a drawback because the reader is made to wait too long to see the real action.
With the beginning of BSE episodes, The thrill catches up the veins of the reader. Cyber war depiction is thoroughly researched by the author and is brilliantly portrayed as well. This thrill and action continues till the end of the novel when last few pages were remaining. Being a reader I was expecting a grand climax because the author wanted me to anticipate so. But I was disappointed to see an abrupt ending. I re-read the climax again but still was very confused. There’s nothing wrong with the climax but still, somewhere, I felt that the climax was unable to match up with the hype created during the middle section of the novel.
FULL REVIEW AT 'THE AUTHOR'S BLOG'...
November 17, 2014
A man has set sight on everything he desires to be destroyed and reformed and there are forces out there to stop him. So will the good be able to prevail over the bad? Or for once the bad will walk away with the accolades.
The plain sighted thrillers are always something like a cat-mouse chase. The more you try to run away the more it becomes to wade off the troubles. The book runs it's course with revenge and cut to cut thrill at its helm. Both the sides working overtime to make it a longing and lingering story. The story manages to capture the essence of that quirky anticipation and unrelenting march towards glory. Ruthless and pacy approach lends the right voice to the story.
The story does have some sore points. The entire agenda marked against a person and that character doesn't gets enough space. The controversial deaths always under a cloud of suspicion but no attempts to reveal it all. No attempts to justify how the villain got sniffed out of the rat hole. It's sudden ness making it look awkward.
All in all with a tech drop back mingled with outright blazing action, drama and vendetta the story captures and hits the right spot. Technically it's sound and all basic aspects covered but it hits few critical road blocks thus stopping it from transforming it into a revelation. It's a revolutionary attempt with jagged edges but still wins heart with its grit and narration.
The plain sighted thrillers are always something like a cat-mouse chase. The more you try to run away the more it becomes to wade off the troubles. The book runs it's course with revenge and cut to cut thrill at its helm. Both the sides working overtime to make it a longing and lingering story. The story manages to capture the essence of that quirky anticipation and unrelenting march towards glory. Ruthless and pacy approach lends the right voice to the story.
The story does have some sore points. The entire agenda marked against a person and that character doesn't gets enough space. The controversial deaths always under a cloud of suspicion but no attempts to reveal it all. No attempts to justify how the villain got sniffed out of the rat hole. It's sudden ness making it look awkward.
All in all with a tech drop back mingled with outright blazing action, drama and vendetta the story captures and hits the right spot. Technically it's sound and all basic aspects covered but it hits few critical road blocks thus stopping it from transforming it into a revelation. It's a revolutionary attempt with jagged edges but still wins heart with its grit and narration.
November 16, 2014
Rating: 3-3.5
I have read the previous book by this author which had set the bar up high.
A crime thriller or a revaluationary setter, its a story about a boy events in past makes his present and decides his future it will take you through his life.
the plus points of the book is it grips you
the tell tale version and its simplicity.overall just ok for a read
negative points:
A common plot same old story till the end gripping at the later half and dull starts makes reader to drag and just an average end and few typing error
I was confused at the end as what should I give as rating.
overall a nice story with its push missing.
I have read the previous book by this author which had set the bar up high.
A crime thriller or a revaluationary setter, its a story about a boy events in past makes his present and decides his future it will take you through his life.
the plus points of the book is it grips you
the tell tale version and its simplicity.overall just ok for a read
negative points:
A common plot same old story till the end gripping at the later half and dull starts makes reader to drag and just an average end and few typing error
I was confused at the end as what should I give as rating.
overall a nice story with its push missing.
November 12, 2015
good book. a true techno-thriller.
November 16, 2015
if you love technology, this book will make a lot of sense to you.
November 16, 2015
Let the technology revolution begin...
November 13, 2015
wonderful technology thriller.
November 16, 2015
good book. Loved the way author goes about the whole scene.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews