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Hack Is Back
Continuation of the story which began with "The Hacker: Client, Coder, Chaos" in 2012. HACK IS BACK picks up the tale of young technology company located in Gurgaon, and follows the lives and adventures of all the cast members. This time they're mixed up with Israeli cybercriminals, Bitcoin ransoms and malware on smartphones.
274 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 18, 2019
3 people are currently reading
196 people want to read
About the author
SMoss
49 books4 followersSMoss is the pen name of author, brand guru and traveler Stanley Moss (b. 1948). He is CEO of The Medinge Group, a Stockholm-based think-tank, and Travel Editor of Lucire, a New Zealand-based fashion magazine. He's based in Europe.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 17, 2020
I won this book in a goodreads drawing.
Sort of a Bollywood hacker movie in print.
Sort of a Bollywood hacker movie in print.
February 7, 2020
https://www.njkinnysblog.com/2020/02/...
Hack is Back is the sequel to the author's 2012 release, The Hacker. A high-voltage drama that has cyber crime, villain hackers and underdog heroes who race against time to save innocent lives, Hack is Back had me biting my nails to know what happened next!
The Hacker was one of the earlier books that I reviewed on Njkinny's Blog and the story has stayed with me over the years. When I came to know about the release of the sequel, I jumped at the chance to read it as soon as possible.
Just like the previous book, the one thing that impressed me the most is the author's knowledge of Indian culture and the intimate workings of Indian IT. The world building is so real that if I didn't know, I would bet money on the author being Indian.
The book continues from where the first one ended. A disgruntled former employee of an IT firm in Gurgaon who had resorted to hacking into his company's secure networks and stealing data is finally on the verge of getting caught. But in a showdown, he disappears. No one knows if he is alive or dead. After many years of silence, he is again seen but why is he back now?
Something is about to happen but what?
I love SMoss' simple, fluid and engaging style of narration. He has handled so many colourful characters in this book with such ease that not once did I confuse one from the other. Each character is given due page space and used effectively to take the story forward.
While this book is a continuation to the first book, The Hacker, I feel that this book can be read as a standalone too. However, to get the best experience and know the back story better it is recommended that you read the books in order.
The book started a bit slow but soon picked up pace. I did feel that the story dragged a bit in the middle but the author rectified that soon after to give ample action and suspense to make up for the lag.
I didn't find any editing and vocabulary errors in the book and enjoyed the planning, chasing and the adrenaline rush of capturing villains too smart to be caught easily.
All in all, Hack Is Back by SMoss is a smart cyber thriller that will entertain as well as leave you wanting to know more. The only thing that has stopped me from giving this book five stars is the fact that I felt the plot could have used more smooth endings to a few of the subplots and added a better angle to the former hacker mystery.
For now, I give Hack Is Back 4 stars out of 5 and Njkinny recommends it all cyber thriller enthusiasts above the age of eighteen. If you love thriller stories base in India then this series is for you. This is a book that I can easily imagine as a mini series on TV or as a movie!
Hack is Back is the sequel to the author's 2012 release, The Hacker. A high-voltage drama that has cyber crime, villain hackers and underdog heroes who race against time to save innocent lives, Hack is Back had me biting my nails to know what happened next!
The Hacker was one of the earlier books that I reviewed on Njkinny's Blog and the story has stayed with me over the years. When I came to know about the release of the sequel, I jumped at the chance to read it as soon as possible.
Just like the previous book, the one thing that impressed me the most is the author's knowledge of Indian culture and the intimate workings of Indian IT. The world building is so real that if I didn't know, I would bet money on the author being Indian.
The book continues from where the first one ended. A disgruntled former employee of an IT firm in Gurgaon who had resorted to hacking into his company's secure networks and stealing data is finally on the verge of getting caught. But in a showdown, he disappears. No one knows if he is alive or dead. After many years of silence, he is again seen but why is he back now?
Something is about to happen but what?
I love SMoss' simple, fluid and engaging style of narration. He has handled so many colourful characters in this book with such ease that not once did I confuse one from the other. Each character is given due page space and used effectively to take the story forward.
While this book is a continuation to the first book, The Hacker, I feel that this book can be read as a standalone too. However, to get the best experience and know the back story better it is recommended that you read the books in order.
The book started a bit slow but soon picked up pace. I did feel that the story dragged a bit in the middle but the author rectified that soon after to give ample action and suspense to make up for the lag.
I didn't find any editing and vocabulary errors in the book and enjoyed the planning, chasing and the adrenaline rush of capturing villains too smart to be caught easily.
All in all, Hack Is Back by SMoss is a smart cyber thriller that will entertain as well as leave you wanting to know more. The only thing that has stopped me from giving this book five stars is the fact that I felt the plot could have used more smooth endings to a few of the subplots and added a better angle to the former hacker mystery.
For now, I give Hack Is Back 4 stars out of 5 and Njkinny recommends it all cyber thriller enthusiasts above the age of eighteen. If you love thriller stories base in India then this series is for you. This is a book that I can easily imagine as a mini series on TV or as a movie!
December 26, 2019
**SPOILERS INCLUDED**
One of the last books for me in 2019. "Hack is back by Stanley Mosses" in a lot of ways is a better version of the first book in the series - "The Hacker". What I really liked about "Hack is back" is that the details of Indian culture that book has been focused on to add. Not to mention the levels of internal politics that is referenced about IT companies in India (Been there done that, it really sucks!). This I felt is the noteworthy things that can be observed in this book which I've also felt was the same in the first book in the series.
The books does start a bit slow but gets interesting and is incrementally paced as we read on. There is a big improvement when it comes to the transitional smoothness from one scene to another that happens in each chapter of the book. This really increases the pace of reading making it more gripping than the first book. The author have also utilised the references to technical trends more in the book by using cryptocurrency, blockchain etc which makes this hack an improved one! ;)
Just like what I like about the book is a lot same as the first book, what I don't like about the book is also similar to the first book. I felt the book is still stretching the plot of an insider job of an IT corporate company to look a lot like James Bond/CIA coup story. There is a lot of stripping down I would like the book to do. Money laundering saga with Adita of Holmes and Watson's (Nitin and Adita) story, soldiers from the airstrip and Brazillian woman are some of the stories which I felt started very well and was hoping to progress smoothly only to be finished incomplete and abrupt. I would rather have them stripped off completely or in parts from the story than have it included in it's current form.
As a cyber security enthusiast and security professional who worked on the corporate side of things trying to secure the networks, I feel this book has failed to have a concrete base on what really was the problem "hack wise". In a time where people are talking more and more about cybersecurity and TV-Series like Mr.Robot comes in well researched. I would've liked this book to be a lot more researched on hacking than seeing the typical portrayal of a hacker, the money trail leading upto villains which is such a 90's thing.
Overall, I liked and enjoyed it way more than I expected. But I see there is room for improvement and an author who is listening to his readers. This can only make the next book more awesome and interesting to read for us readers. Looking forward to the next hack!
PS: Thanks a lot to Stanley Moss for showing interest in my POV and providing a copy of the book for me to read. Hope I have done justice to myself and to the book with this review. :)
One of the last books for me in 2019. "Hack is back by Stanley Mosses" in a lot of ways is a better version of the first book in the series - "The Hacker". What I really liked about "Hack is back" is that the details of Indian culture that book has been focused on to add. Not to mention the levels of internal politics that is referenced about IT companies in India (Been there done that, it really sucks!). This I felt is the noteworthy things that can be observed in this book which I've also felt was the same in the first book in the series.
The books does start a bit slow but gets interesting and is incrementally paced as we read on. There is a big improvement when it comes to the transitional smoothness from one scene to another that happens in each chapter of the book. This really increases the pace of reading making it more gripping than the first book. The author have also utilised the references to technical trends more in the book by using cryptocurrency, blockchain etc which makes this hack an improved one! ;)
Just like what I like about the book is a lot same as the first book, what I don't like about the book is also similar to the first book. I felt the book is still stretching the plot of an insider job of an IT corporate company to look a lot like James Bond/CIA coup story. There is a lot of stripping down I would like the book to do. Money laundering saga with Adita of Holmes and Watson's (Nitin and Adita) story, soldiers from the airstrip and Brazillian woman are some of the stories which I felt started very well and was hoping to progress smoothly only to be finished incomplete and abrupt. I would rather have them stripped off completely or in parts from the story than have it included in it's current form.
As a cyber security enthusiast and security professional who worked on the corporate side of things trying to secure the networks, I feel this book has failed to have a concrete base on what really was the problem "hack wise". In a time where people are talking more and more about cybersecurity and TV-Series like Mr.Robot comes in well researched. I would've liked this book to be a lot more researched on hacking than seeing the typical portrayal of a hacker, the money trail leading upto villains which is such a 90's thing.
Overall, I liked and enjoyed it way more than I expected. But I see there is room for improvement and an author who is listening to his readers. This can only make the next book more awesome and interesting to read for us readers. Looking forward to the next hack!
PS: Thanks a lot to Stanley Moss for showing interest in my POV and providing a copy of the book for me to read. Hope I have done justice to myself and to the book with this review. :)
July 19, 2025
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