CyberStorm

By: Matthew Mather

Narrated by: Tom Taylorson

Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

New York goes dark in the dead of winter…
A terrifying mystery begins…
But who is the enemy?

Sometimes the worst storms aren’t from Mother Nature, and sometimes the worst nightmares aren’t the ones in our heads.

Mike Mitchell, an average New Yorker already struggling to keep his family together, suddenly finds himself fighting just to keep them alive when an increasingly bizarre string of disasters starts appearing on the world’s news networks. As both the real world and the cyberworld come crashing down, bending perception and reality, a monster snowstorm cuts New York off from the world, turning it into a wintry tomb where nothing is what it seems.

Anyone who enjoys insightful, cutting-edge fiction mixed with action and adventure won’t want to miss CyberStorm.

©2013 Matthew Mather (P)2013 Blackstone Audiobooks

Okay, it did suck me in - readable

There are a lot of moments in this book that had me right there with it, I was involved and thought the writer was on the right track, and the book takes off in that direction from the start and you are pretty sure you have a winner. The narration is solid, the writer has skill at describing a scene and bringing it to the listener (reader) in a plausible manner. Here comes the "but"- the author pens the scene of societal collapse of the urbane fairly well, the characters are diverse and have each some skill which comes into play after the collapse, the mode of the collapse, a cyber attack is well explained and actually plausible, BUT this is written from an urban centric point of view and the description of people in the countryside is horribly derogatory, they are painted as rapists, cannibals, and in one scene are shown to be chasing a cow down with machetes and hacking it to pieces. Nobody in the rural section of the story is presented as anything other than an ignorant villain. Oh, but in the enlightened city, violent acts are stopped by a group of people holding up their phones and taking pictures, that is all it takes. The people who leave NY city for the country side are forever haunted by that stupid move, of course the city would be much safer than farm country once food becomes scarce in the city. There are some well done sections in this book and if the author had stayed within his comfort zone it would have been a good book. The storyline describing the method of cyber attack is done well and the author has knowledge of the subject matter and is able to bring it to the reader in an entertaining manner, as in the degrading situation in the city. The problem with the book comes in the section after they leave the city, things just begin to fall apart from there.
As far as a recommendation the subject matter is interesting and brought to the reader in a well done manner, the story has some holes in it but works at the base level and the narration is well done as well. If prepper grid down subject matter is your genre then you might like this book, if tech suspense it your thing this might be okay but a bit of a departure and not deep enough into your subject matter to be a total thumbs up.
I would recommend it with just a few grimaces.

This...Could actually happen.

You have what you think is a perfect life. Except, in reality your wife's parents "hate" you and then all the sudden your wife drops the bomb on you she wants to move for a job; which only solidifies your suspicions of her cheating on you.

Then BAM, an unknown aircraft is seen in american airspace, everyday electronic luxuries and the internet start failing, snow starts burying cars and you are stuck on the island of Manhattan. What do you do?

With political, technological, psychological and social events and atrocities that can be related to our most dark days in history, this book never lets you down and makes sure to instill into you that nothing is what it seems. All culminating into kind of eerily, something that could actually happen to America.

5 Stars to the author and narrator for this amazing testament to human endurance, bigotry and dedication to one's family.

Fantastic book

Great story. Well written. Characters were developed, plot was well paced; you just have to ignore the time line. Definitely recommend.

a bit of a cliche some interesting parts

it was ok, some interesting parts but very predicable. reader was good, decent escape factor

Global Warning

The residents of a Chelsea building band together to deal with the dual impact of a cyber-attack that cripples New York City's power, communications, and public services infrastructure, and a series of massive snow storms that compounds these problems and takes out all transportation options.

The most important consideration for a potential listener: this is NOT at all about the technicalities of the cyber-attack, it is all about survival in a world suddenly devoid of everything we rely upon -- no heat, no food or water, no electricity, no cars or trains, no nothing. And the most interesting aspect of that story is human nature -- the courage of some, the cowardice of others; community and the instinct to help others vs. predation and the instinct to prey upon others; ingenuity, facing your fears, fighting for you family and friends.

I live in NYC and was in the power outage zone for a week in the aftermath Hurricane Sandy, and while that was tragic for some and inconvenient for others (like me), the situation in Cyberstorm is Sandy times ten, times a hundred. Nevertheless, I experienced the goodness of people that emerged during that crisis, so I appreciate Matthew Mather's desire to show that side of humanity when it would have been easier to just show people at their worst (which is here as well).

The writing and story telling are not perfect, and you could poke holes in some of the speculations of what would happen, but overall, an interesting book with some very good ideas.

Awesome Yet Scary

a very well written book common that was my modelling because of the dangers of computers and a Reliant of such period I would definitely say that we need to understand and have boundaries for our Internet and network systems and how the enclaves the disconnect and don't allow the whole to be destroyed.

The author has written a brilliant novel!

The author has written a fantastic novel, full of intrigue and suspense! The narration is superb, bringing the characters to life!

Enjoyed it!

Kept me interested and it was a layered story with just enough complexities. Realistic and enjoyable.

very good

I very much enjoyed your book! looking forward to listening to more of your books!

feel good Kumbaya apocalyptic story

A decent premise for a apocalyptic book however filled with white guilt / White privilege mixed in with a healthy dose of man-made global warming with a big fat bow at the end wrapped up nice and neat with a happy little ending.