The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf |
- We Are Anonymous is probably the scariest book you'll read
- Of zombies, angels and clones
- Glee's Chris Colfer can also write
| We Are Anonymous is probably the scariest book you'll read Posted: 16 Nov 2012 04:37 AM PST We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency WE Are Anonymous is probably the scariest book you'll read in 2012. Parmy Olson's book on the faceless, amorphous Internet collective is enough to make you distrust your own passwords – a well-founded fear these days when news of hacking, data theft and destruction of people's digital lives are increasingly creeping into the headlines. But, as the subtitle says, this book is more about the rise and fall of LulzSec, the hacker group that claimed responsibility for a number of high-profile hackings in the past several years. LulzSec's leap into notoriety began with the failed attempts to infiltrate Anonymous by cybersecurity firm HBGary Federal's former CEO Aaron Barr. It was only after several members of Anonymous locked him out of his social media accounts and published his e-mails did he realise he either needed a much bigger boat and harpoon ... or easier prey. Barr resigned, and HBGary Federal is now defunct. We do get a peek into the underbelly of the Internet where groups such as Anonymous lurk. But as the book progresses, the focus shifts to LulzSec. We see this group break away from Anonymous and, through acts of digital theft and vandalism aided by hackers outside LulzSec, help establish the myth of Anonymous as a world-shifting underground movement – until a combination of hubris, dissent and betrayal brought it down. A handy timeline of events is available in the book for reference. Olson's research is voluminous, as the end notes testify. However, I wasn't quite as awed by Anonymous's role in the "global cyber insurgency" (which, so far, hasn't lived up to the hype) as I was overwhelmed by its potential to cause havoc in our online lives (as well as by the wealth of computer jargon within). One comes away with a very grim outlook of the future of computer security. It may not be Olson's intent, but this book makes it hard to see members of Anonymous, LulzSec and other similar groups as anything but selfish, self-aggrandising, amoral and extremely computer-savvy miscreants who amuse themselves by hacking into systems, stealing data, and messing with the lives of others. One example is "William", a hacker who, among other things, duped some Facebook users into giving him nude photos of themselves. And these people are among those whom former LulzSec member Topiary claims "owns" the Internet: "The Internet belongs to the trolls and the hackers, the extremists and the enthusiasts; it will never cease to be this way," he wrote in a "missive" published near the end of this book. Which includes everything that the rest of us puts on the Web, one presumes, and if these guys want to mess around with all that, there is, apparently, nothing the rest of us can do about it. My blood runs cold thinking about that. It's said that one is more likely to die in a road accident than be attacked by a shark. Thousands pass their days online without incident, so one shouldn't be unduly worried. Olson, arguably though, makes it very, very hard to keep calm and go online. |
| Posted: 16 Nov 2012 04:37 AM PST Zom-B THIS new series explores the phenomenon of an impending zombie apocalypse from the first-hand viewpoint of a teen trying to grow up while the undead are slowly, but surely, rising in his world. This is the first of a planned 12-book series featuring teenager B. Smith. Playground LOOSELY based on his own experiences during his adolescent years, this story was written by American rapper 50 Cent with his own 14-year-old son in mind. The plot revolves around bullied 13-year-old Butterball, who – being the subject of incessant teasing regarding his weight – turns into a bully himself. After an incident puts a boy in hospital, Butterball is sent to detention where he is forced to speak to a therapist about the problems that have made him who he is. Through dialogue-driven prose as well as photos and drawings, teen readers will be drawn through a very visual telling of Butterball's story and how he got to this troubled point in life. Angel Dust Angel Dust WHAT happens when angels fall in love? Does it mean they fall from grace as well? Serafina, the angel of death, faces this dilemma when she is smitten by Marcus Montague, a man whose soul she has been sent to retrieve. Montague is a young "gangsta" but with a true heart that Serafina discerns and strives to protect. Defying her orders, she requests for an extension on Montague's life to avoid claiming his soul. Which of course leads to unfathomable consequences – breaking the rules set by heaven is one thing, having to deal with the dire repercussions is another matter. Every Day TEENAGE romances are complicated enough without waking up in a different body every morning ... A is neither male not female, white nor black, gay nor straight because every day, A is a different person. It's a difficult way to live, as you can imagine, but A makes do, having learnt not to connect with anyone, not to make friends or an emotional investment in another human being. But then, A wakes up as teenager Justin one morning and meets Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon – and all of A's careful survival strategies go out the window. How do you get someone to fall in love with you when you're different every day? Scrawl Scrawl THIS book focuses on the story of a bully that is written in the style of journal entries. Guidance counsellor Mrs Woodrow makes Todd Munn pen down his thoughts during his daily stints in detention and what emerges are the motives, intentions and circumstances that arouses a need in him to bully others. Mrs Woodrow is convinced that Munn is just playing at being a bully and that his heart is not really in it when he hurts his peers – but is she just being naive? Even if she's right, can Todd stop his violent tendencies before they become who he really is permanently? The Raft TEENAGER Robie Mitchell is no stranger to travelling across oceans. She pays regular visits to her aunt in Honolulu, taking flights from the Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands where her parents live, many times before. Nevertheless when the plane Mitchell is on this time round crashes, she finds a new experience in having to survive adrift on a raft with nothing to eat but a bag of Skittles and no one to talk to but a despondent fellow survivor. The story lets readers into the scared mind of a 15-year-old who just wants to make it home alive, despite the odds. Beta ARTIFICIALLY created in a laboratory, Elysia is a 16-year-old human clone. She is an empty vessel devoid of life experiences and her only purpose is to live in servitude to the inhabitants of Demesne, an island paradise for the wealthiest people on Earth. Then she begins to sense a stirring conscience within her, something that the clones of Demesne are not supposed to possess. If anyone finds out that Elysia is no longer an unfeeling clone, she will face an unimaginable fate ... This YA sci-fi novel is the first in a series by bestselling author Rachel Cohn. |
| Glee's Chris Colfer can also write Posted: 16 Nov 2012 04:32 AM PST The Land Of Stories: The Wishing Spell WE all know that Chris Colfer, who plays Kurt Hummel on the television show Glee, can sing, dance and act. With his new young adult book, The Land Of Stories: The Wishing Spell now out, the question is, can he also write? Following current trends in YA authorship, Colfer's story embraces those traditional and familiar fairy tales like Snow White, Cinderella and Red Riding Hood, among others, and gives them a twist of his own. The Land Of Stories is about the adventures of 12-year-old twins Alex and Conner Bailey. Alex is the smart one, who is trying vainly not to be viewed as a teacher's pet by her peers, while Conner is the fun-loving, mischievous one, who doesn't really pay too much attention in class. Fairy tales have always been a big part of their lives, with their favourite memories consisting of trips to their grandmother's cottage in the mountains, where their grandmother and grandfather would take turns making their grandmother's book of fairy tales come alive through their animated storytelling. But things change when they lose their father in a car accident; Their mother, a nurse, has to work very hard to keep the family afloat, and they've had to move away from their beloved home. Then strange things start to happen when their grandmother pays them an unexpected visit on their 12th birthday, and gives them her old book of fairy tales. The book turns out to be some sort of portal, and the twins accidentally fall through it – right into the Land of Stories, where all the fairy tales live. Wanting to get home, the twins start a quest to find eight rare items that make up the legendary Wishing Spell, which will grant any wish to the person who has all the items. Their journey takes them through the various fairy-tale kingdoms where they encounter characters like Goldilocks, a fierce outlaw on the run, a crush-obsessed Red Riding Hood, a kind, but troubled Sleeping Beauty, and more than one Prince Charming! The search is made more difficult as they also have to race against the Huntsman's daughter, who has been commanded by the Evil Queen, Snow White's stepmother, to gather those very same items for the queen's own Wishing Spell. All in all, the story is a good debut effort. The writing is not perfect, especially the dialogue where the twins seem far older than their age, and speak far more formally than regular people do in casual conversation. You can also see how Colfer's TV experiences have influenced his writing, as some sections of his book seem more suitable to a larger-than-life screenplay, rather than a prose fiction. A few of the "original" ideas expanding on familiar fairy-tale characters, like Snow White and the Evil Queen, are not so original any more, considering the number of books and television shows revolving around fairy tales that have come our way of late. The beginning is also too preachy for my liking, as it practically shoves down the reader's throat the idea that fairy tales are the panacea to the world's ills. However, as far as books go, The Land Of Stories is a fairly entertaining read, with good reimaginings of popular fairy tale characters and their current kingdoms (or queendoms, as most of them are). And considering the revelations in the ending, it looks like this might be the first book in a series set in this land. A decent YA book revolving around fairytales, which I would suggest for the precocious story-loving tween in your life. |
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