Read For Free Script Kiddie (Assured Destruction, #2) Invented By Michael F. Stewart Issued As Hardbound

Kiddie by Michael F Stewart is the second book in the Assured Destruction trilogy, You can read my review of the first book here, This review contains spoilers for the first book, Assured Destruction, since the ending of that feeds into the set up of Script Kiddie.


Where the first book was about Jan doing some questionable things and then being "punished" for it by the bad guy, Script Kiddie is about Jan trying to hold everything together while trying to prevent bad stuff from happening.
After the events in Assured Destruction, Jan finds herself sentenced tohours of community service, Luckily for her, the cop that showed up a bit in the first book, recognises her hacking skills and recruits her as an assistant sort of in the cyber crimes division.


Script Kiddie definitely carries the same tone as Assured Destruction, but the angle of the plot is less someone semirandomly attacking Jan and more Jan trying to help and fix things.
I think I enjoyed it more for this reason, Like in the first book, she does make some poor decisions, but most of those were related to not being experienced with what the police wanted her to do.
Aside from a few naive and, well, a little eccentric choices, I didn't feel she made quite as many poor decisions, Which, yay, character development. But she does do some silly things still, don't get me wrong,

The title comes from her making some forays into the hacking community a script kiddie is a very lowlevel hacker that more experienced hackers mock.
Tied with the hacking is Jan's changing relationship with Peter, her mum's boyfriend, In the first book he was newer and more distant from the plot mainly just existing for her to be annoyed that her mum has such an old boyfriend but he has become more central.
I have to admit I'm a little suspicious of his role and I'm wondering what will happen with him in the final book.
I hope he really does turn out to be nice, but it's hard to predict at this point,

Although this is a second book in a trilogy and the events do follow on directly from the first book, the plot is pretty standalone.
I mean, it's still better to read the first book first because of character introductions and backstory, but the plot that arises in Script Kiddie is almost all tied up by the end.
The only thing that isn't tied up is Jan's mum's illness MS which takes a turn for the worse in this book.
That's the only cliffhanger at the end, I was going to read the third book anyway, but now I need to, to find out what happens with her mum.
I hope it won't be too sad,

Script Kiddie was a fun read and I'll definitely be reading the last book in the series straight away, I recommend the series to anyone looking for a fastpaced, geeky, contemporary YA series, Each book is pretty short in fact, my omnibus edition is only a few iPad pages longer than the last BFF I read and not a huge time commitment.


/stars

You can read more of my reviews on sitelinkmy blog, I was sent a copy by the author, as part of my being approved by NetGalley to review book, in exchange for an honest opinion.
While there was no condition involving writing a review for this one, I still decided to do it,

I read sitelink Assured Destruction in, and really liked it, though much to my shame, I failed to keep track of when the next installments were published.
This second volume I found just as enjoyable as the first one, mainly for similar reasons, With each chapter, I wanted to know what was coming next,

After her stint in book, Jan, the main character, is still in dire straits, having to balance school, the store, her mother's illness, Peter's arrival in their lives, her new relationship with Jonny, and the many hours of community service she owes to the police.
Sure, she can stil somewhat rely on Shadownet to vent out, but mostly she's now confronted to more than she can chew, and frustration's building up.


Characters amp plot:

I like Jan, As a character, she has a lot of potential, some of which she lives up to, and some that still leaves room for improvement.
She's far from perfect she commits mistakes sometimes she's too proud for her own good and doesn't realise what she's getting herself into until it's too

late.
I guess her fatal flaw would be hubris, combined to her problems to cope with the more social aspects of life, She fancies herself a hacker, but is soon brought back to reality, She imagines her community service as an open door to be acknowledged as part of the police, but of course reality is harsher, and soon she's reminded she's still just a kid in many ways don't expect cop drama here, and a teenager being propelled as star of the detective showwhich wouldn't be too believable anyway.
Her eagerness and overconfidence when it comes to computers/networks land her in trouble,

However, she also tries to fix things and help, When she's humbled by people who know more than her and who knows everything at!, she accepts her shortcomings and strive to get better.
She also shows a lot of courage, involving herself in personnot because she's too stupid to live although her mistakes could get her killed, but because she genuinely wants to save other people, while knowing that waiting isn't an option.


I also appreciated how her relationship with Jonny was portrayed, because it's light on the romance part, The events of the book unfold on roughly one week, and Jan is very busy, . . so busy that she can't keep up with having a boyfriend and doing "what it takes" to keep him, Now, considering what happens, I found this understandable, She's worried about her role regarding the police, about missing school, about being wrongly accused of hacking, about her mother whose health isn't great.
. . I can understand that. I can understand a person being unable to keep up, and I think I would have held it against Jan if she had put everything to the back of her mind to be with Jonny all the time and play loveydovey, the way it happens too often.
I can't say she always knows how to keep her priorities straight the carding case is a good example, but that part fits with her personality.


Last but not least, what's going on with Peter is intriguing, On the one hand, I can understand Jan's wariness when it comes to this man: he's new in their lives, and with all the problems the store is facing, of course Jan is going to think he's up to something.
Overall, he's sweet, caring, understanding, he tries to help her, as if he was doing his best to get her to accept him.
. . Too good to be true Perhaps he's just that: a man who loves her mother and wants to earn his place in the daughter's life as well fast, considering how bad Tina's health is.
Or perhaps he's something else, Or more than simply that,

The tech:

I already liked the computer/tech aspect in the previous book, and I still like it here.
What happens in Script Kiddy is actually good lessons for teenagers and for anyone not internetsavvy, for that matter, but not presented as such.
They're integrated within the flow of the story, while dealing with real problems: phishing, how wireless devices can be a downfall, internet predators, and so on.


The way procedures and technology in general are described is also easy to understand, Well, it's easy for me, as I know enough though I'm certainly not a specialist, but I think anyone would understand what's going on.
Some things made me frown at first, and think "why is this explained" but not everyone knows what IRC is, after all.


Problem

A few things bothered me not enough to prevent me from enjoying the story, but I still feel I should mention them.
The murderer's laptop was one of them: would the police really hand evidence to Jan, let her take it out of the precinct This I found unbelievable and considering what happens with it next, it should've tipped her off.
Also, at times Jan felt just a tad bit immature when it came to the problems in her life, mainly her mother.
On the other hand, I can also envision her as the kind of girl who would cope by shutting off and/or focusing on different things for a while, so I'm not completely sure I can chalk that to sheer immaturity, or to the kind of slightly neurotic persona she seems to be developing.
There's just so much going on that at some point, the girl's doomed to break,

Those put aside, this second novel in the series was really a pageturner, and a good read for me, I received a free copy of this ebook from the author, Though I didn't win it in the Goodreads Giveaway, Michael F, Stewart generously offered me a copy anyway,

I've heard many people claim that the second book in a series could never possibly amount to the sheer intensity of the first.
Well, those people have obviously never discovered the Assured Destruction series, I honestly had to pry my ereader from my fingers to get any sleep, If you've read the first book in this series and are looking for more of Janus's angst and attitude paired with her ohsocomical witty comebacks via Shadownet tweets, then you, my friend, are in for an awesome followup read.
What I like most about Michael F, Stewart's writing style is that his words flow together in a way that's both welcoming and refreshing, The plot keeps up a steady pace all throughout without lagging somewhere towards the middle or near the end, Script Kiddie is full of twists and turns that will leave you nursing suspicions and assumptions as you try to guess the ending before it is revealed.
Who the heck is this Hannah chick And why, oh why, does she have so much Hello Kitty crap in her room Who is Peter really Is he truly the retired hacker legend he claims to be or is it all a ruse for some ulterior motive And what will happen to Tina Rose Will her MS further deteriorate her health and leave Janus to fend for herself And perhaps the biggest and most important question of them all: how will Janus Rose, Script Kiddie and aspiring white hat hacker, be able to juggle all of this and complete her service hours for the High Tech Crime Unit, keep her "in a relationship" Facebook status, and save Assured Destruction from a bleak and possibly incomeless future

I absolutely cannot wait for the third installment of this series! Bring it on.
This is the second book I've read in the Assured Destruction series, and both are going on my "favorite reads of" list.
Janus is a take charge kind of girl, and that leads her into all kinds of dangerous and sometimes hilarious situations, In the last book, she got in trouble for hacking into people's hard drives, This time, she's working for the cops, using her hacking abilities to help solve crimes, Of course, being Janus, she doesn't always follow the rules, and that gets her in even deeper trouble,

I read this book in one sitting, and then was sorry when it was over so soon, Will definitely be continuing the series as soon as new books are released, Great story. Excellent writing. Fun characters. Lots of suspense. This review may contain spoilers,

I quite liked this sequel to Assured Destruction, It was nice to see Janus and the other characters again, though this wasn't quite what I was expecting from reading the blurb.


I liked the glimpses of Janus' other sides that came from her tweets from Shadownet, Some of those made me smile, I think I'd almost like to explore other aspects of my personality in a similar way though I think Shadownet's existence is something indicating how fractured Janus is.


My knowledge of hacking is virtually nonexistent and I only know slightly more than the obvious about computers, so some of the language went over my head.
Still, I found this book to be enjoyable and easy to read,

A couple of the characters kind of irritated me in the book, especially Hannah, with the way she demanded help from Janus and then pushed her away.
I can understand, in a way, why she did it but even so, . .

I'm not entirely sure what to make of Peter, He's quite a mysterious person and I don't know if he really cares about Janus and her mother or if he's working towards his own agenda.


There wasn't a lot of mystery in this book, unlike the previous one, I did like the more 'human' aspect of Janus like when she cooed over the chick, I think the description of the chick worked really well, too, Janus' reaction to it really made me able to empathise with her, along with the fact that she's 'adopted' the stray cats.
Cats are my favourite animals, so it's always nice to see characters who like them,

I really did like this book and I'm definitely hoping there'll be a third one, This is a really good series so far, .