A wealth of white-hat hacking gives this enjoyable sequel a boost.
A group’s noble effort to validate astrology entails the rather illegal procurement of millions of people’s private information in this second installment of a series.
Rufus is a sheep farmer by trade, but his real passion is astrology. He’s even written a book, in which his discussion of unified religions is supported by astrological science—including the concept that everyone’s life is guided by heavenly bodies. Rufus’ ideas earn him an invite to the Data Collection Group, which hopes to authenticate astrology by linking real-life data with horoscope predictions. This requires a colossal amount of information, as specific as possible. Hacking’s the best option, and Rufus—along with his nephew Robert and Robert’s hacker pals, Petey and Matthew—has already gotten his hands on the 1960-2010 American census data. But the “money people,” including Walter and his wife, Erica, want more, from data brokers to social media. Walter’s soon-to-open, wholly legitimate Institute for Humanistic Innovation will give the DCG covert access to a supercomputer to handle the mass of material. Though it’s a large-scale invasion of privacy, the group’s purpose is philanthropic, with no plans to steal anyone’s identity. Some in the DCG, however, have a hidden agenda that most, including Rufus, may oppose. While Jaegers’ (Astrologer’s Apprentice, 2016) series opener was primarily an introduction to astrological theories, his latest tale focuses on espionage. One scheme for pilfering data, for example, begins with a faked cyberattack, which, to avoid detection, puts Petey and Matthew in two different states with encrypted laptops. This maintains a constant threat of arrest or incarceration, as well as some humor: Rufus acknowledges DCG members in public with a surreptitious nod or wink. The story’s unhurried but absorbing, dishing out character dilemmas (Petey may give up a college diploma for DCG) and spiritual insight from Rufus: “Each man’s soul is an integral part of a collective universal soul.” Jaegers ends the novel by leaving the door wide open for another.
A wealth of white-hat hacking gives this enjoyable sequel a boost.Pub Date: June 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-692-88074-6
Page Count: 263
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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