Red Team Blues: A Martin Hench Novel
2023 • 224 pages
Ratings15
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings15
Average rating3.7
'Doctorow's novels are always feasts for the imagination and the intellect, and this one is no exception: it's jam-packed with cutting-edge ideas about cybersecurity and crypto, and its near-future world is lovingly detailed and completely believable.' Booklist In cyber-security, RED TEAM plays attack. BLUE TEAM plays defence. Marty Hench's career in tech is almost as old as Silicon Valley. He's the most accomplished forensic accountant in town, an expert on the international money-laundering and shell-company chicanery used by Fortune 500s, divorcing oligarchs, and international drug cartels alike (there's more crossover than you might imagine). Marty was born to play attack. If there's a way to get under the walls and bring the castle down, he's the one to do it. There's no better financial Red Teamer in the Valley. Now he's on the trail of a stolen key, one that unlocks an illicit backdoor to billions in crypto. More than reputation and fortune is on the line – Marty's adversaries are implacable criminal sadists who will spill oceans of blood to get what they want. Finding the stolen key is going to be the least of Marty's problems: now he has to save his skin. To do that, he'll have to play defence. And Marty hates playing the Blue Team.
Reviews with the most likes.
Let me start by saying that I wholeheartedly agree with all of the critiques of the american capital system that Doctorow raises and largely agree with his conclusions. This book has been poorly reviewed because those whom it critiques don't like being called out. I disliked the book because there was absolutely no character in the book. Marty is not a character, he is a person stuff happens around. Doctorow is a great writer, and I have liked much of his nonfiction, but this is a miss.
DNF. Doctorow's editor must be on vacation cause this is just... ugh. Main character is a Gary Stu, info dumps all over the place, and if I had paid money for this book, I'd be demanding a refund. Next!
A fun adventure read. Light and satisfying the book was a great porch companion on a cool spring night. I hope I get to spend more time with Martin Hench. Until then, I simply offer a toast for luck. Cheers!
This was good.
Very, very minor technicalities off, but very enjoyable for anyone in the industry - it's not really a book about tech.
