False Positives: A Techno-Thriller [NOOK Book]

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Overview

In 1972, a gifted student at Berkeley writes the first computer virus. When it’s run on the university mainframe it simply vanishes. Thirty-five years later, a government computer system issues ostensibly baseless assassination orders, and its creator goes in search of the ghost in the machine. What she discovers is a legacy black-ops program from the Vietnam Era that is alive and killing today. As she fights to prevent her brainchild from becoming a weapon for government-sanctioned murder, the protagonist is ...
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False Positives: A Techno-Thriller

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Overview

In 1972, a gifted student at Berkeley writes the first computer virus. When it’s run on the university mainframe it simply vanishes. Thirty-five years later, a government computer system issues ostensibly baseless assassination orders, and its creator goes in search of the ghost in the machine. What she discovers is a legacy black-ops program from the Vietnam Era that is alive and killing today. As she fights to prevent her brainchild from becoming a weapon for government-sanctioned murder, the protagonist is pitted against adversaries hell-bent on wielding the machine with Machiavellian ruthlessness to achieve their political ambitions. Joined by an eclectic band of characters, she plots to bring down the system before it is used to start a war of biblical proportions, and in doing so, she becomes marked for termination by her own creation.
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Editorial Reviews

Jon Bloch
A well-paced and imaginative page-turner that will appeal not only to techno-junkies but to anyone who likes a well-spun yarn. The story is written with entertaining characters, a confident knowledge of technology, and just the right touch of wit and humanity.

Seemingly unrelated events across time speed along to a satisfying conclusion that keeps easy sentiment in check. Along the way the reader goes to Bangkok, Tehran, Saigon, and D.C., among other places. Try it, you'll have fun.
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Product Details

  • BN ID: 2940013819849
  • Publisher: Pharos Books
  • Publication date: 12/25/2011
  • Sold by: Barnes & Noble
  • Format: eBook
  • Pages: 316
  • Sales rank: 516,443
  • File size: 470 KB

Meet the Author

Kim Aleksander has worked with computer technology for over twenty-five years and holds a Master’s degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Liverpool. He was raised in California, spent his twenties in Hawaii, and moved to Asia in 1999. Presently, he lives in a jungle in Thailand with his wife, two sons, a Jack Russell terrier, and a few ducks.


FALSE POSITIVES is his first novel.
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Sort by: Showing all of 2 Customer Reviews

  • Posted August 21, 2012

    more from this reviewer

    The Bug in the Machine. I received this book from the author,

    The Bug in the Machine. I received this book from the author, Kim
    Aleksander. False Positives begins in a Berkley dorm room in 1972. From
    there, it bounces around in time and space between 1975 and 2007 and
    from Saigon and Bangkok to Virginia and Tehran. Computer consulting firm
    Burns and Lynch wins a defense contract, and they place their brightest
    star, Marnie McCloud, in charge of the project – the creation of a
    system that will not only integrate information from multiple government
    agencies relevant to the war on terror, but will also analyze the data
    and provide recommendations for action. When the system, dubbed Junior,
    recommends an action that would likely start World War III or the Tenth
    Crusade, Marnie begins a search for the bug that is causing Junior to
    pursue such Machiavellian solutions. Her search leads to Andrew Milas –
    the Berkley student with whom the book began. Milas is now a
    sixty-something, ex-army officer turned renegade and conspiracy theorist
    living as an ex-pat in Bangkok. Marnie learns that Milas created the
    first computer virus in 1972, that it became the basis for a black op
    known as the Phoenix Project, and that it is alive and well in Junior.
    Milas and Marnie work together – along with Marnie’s Burns and Lynch
    colleagues, some of Milas’ old military cronies, a Georgetown Arab
    Studies professor, and the daughter of an Iranian terror financier – to
    stop Junior and those using him for their own political purposes before
    the world can be pushed beyond the point of no return. I have no
    problem with authors promoting their moral or political beliefs through
    their fictional writing if they do it by following the maxim that good
    writing show’s rather than tells. A well-told and well-written story
    allows the reader to find what the author wants him to see, rather than
    beating him over the head with it. Unfortunately, False Positives falls
    into the head-beating category. This is most apparent when the “good
    guys” all pause in the midst of the climactic scene to engage in a
    philosophical discussion about why what they are doing is the right
    thing to do. At that point, the dialogue – which had been pretty good
    until then – takes on a stilted and forced feeling. The action/thriller
    aspects of the story are good and should be allowed to reveal
    Aleksander’s message to us. The book would benefit from some major
    editing. Certain words are used incorrectly in some places but not in
    others and the first half of the book is almost devoid of articles –
    especially “the.” Many of them show up in random places in the second
    half of the book.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted May 22, 2012

    I'm not usually one for a techno thriller. I usually get into th

    I'm not usually one for a techno thriller. I usually get into thrillers, without the techno-babble I've had to deal with in previous jobs, but this book in anything but babble. I was hooked quickly, then had trouble putting it down. Very well written, flowed easily, and incredibly interesting.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
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