Ex-Pres writes book on "cyber", wheres the tech angle?
Ex-US pres Bill Clinton has written a cyber-attack pulp thriller. With James Patterson. Really
Pop murder mystery scribe James Patterson has teamed up with former US President Bill Clinton to co-author novel about a commander-in-chief going undercover to prevent a catastrophic cyber attack. Neo The Matrix El Reg's favourite Haxploitation films READ MORE The President is Missing, already half-price on Amazon for £10, …
COMMENTS
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Monday 4th June 2018 11:23 GMT Anonymous Coward
Billy boy may well want to see the situation in North Korea resolved, but how about the situation in the US? Couldn't we just ship them some 'u's as they seem to have a critical lack of them. Also, perhaps, we could send over some aluminium in case they want to make some things out of a lightweight metal?
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Monday 4th June 2018 13:24 GMT Matthew Taylor
"I was literally this morning staring at this with a blank look of complete stupidity, wondering where or when I'd ended up. I was deep in a WH Smith store, mind, which didn't help."
I read as far as "deep in a WH",and I thought it was an acronym for White House - so I looked again at your username, but the uncertainty remained. ;-)
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Tuesday 5th June 2018 13:30 GMT strum
Re: Terrible writer
>I'd wager that he's actually a pretty decent writer
Nah. Patterson delivers on quantity, not quality.
And Clinton's contribution is unlikely to help.
A few years back, I read a novel by Jimmy Carter - a man I rather admire, as an intelligent, humane man of affairs. The subject of the book was fascinating (Georgia's reluctance to join the Revolution) - but the writing was awful.
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Monday 4th June 2018 13:38 GMT Tikimon
Write the ending first, please!
"the best way to enjoy it is to rip out the final chapter and imagine your own conclusion. He was excellent in character development but lousy with endings."
In fairness to King, this is true of a stunning percentage of books, movies, miniseries, you name it. So many times I've enjoyed the ride, only to be frustrated and annoyed by a panicky "crap, how do we end this?" conclusion.
Extra negative points for a story with a thrown-together ending whose sole accomplishment is to set up the next $@&*! sequel. Crime against humanity.
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Monday 4th June 2018 14:42 GMT MonkeyCee
SKing
"the best way to enjoy it is to rip out the final chapter and imagine your own conclusion."
I found his novels to be a bit hit and miss, and I've not read any of the Dark Tower series, which I hear is quite good, possibly because he doesn't have to end the story arcs as quickly.
He does write quite excellent short stories, which for me is the test of a good writer. Any idiot can put a story across in 100k words, but doing it in 10-15k requires real skill. Plus there is less need/desire to write a complete ending.
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Monday 4th June 2018 15:15 GMT Milton
Hope Clinton's doing the writing ...
Hope Clinton's doing the writing ... because Patterson is a truly awful writer. He'd even give Dan Brown a run for his money. Their stilted, cliched rubbish and "mysteries" that wouldn't befuddle a brain-damaged sheepdog are painful to read. (An unplanned transcontinental flight and too little time in an airport "book" shop cured me of any desire to pick up a Patterson ever again.)
Since bookshops group stuff by "5-12 Years", "Teen Fiction", "Young Adult" and so on, do you suppose they could helpfully section off a few shelves called, say "Trash for Mouthbreathers"?
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Monday 4th June 2018 22:03 GMT FozzyBear
Yep like everyone else my mind went into meltdown at the mere thought of reading this.
However, I am an evil bastard. So that you can continue the journey into utter despair.
I want to see this made into a movie
Director : Michael Bay
Starring the main cast from the twilight series (Couldn't even force myself to google who they are)
Gerard Butler can make an appearance
I'll leave you to other horrid picks for parts in the movie
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Friday 8th June 2018 20:39 GMT Michael Wojcik
Re: Yep like everyone else my mind went into meltdown at the mere thought of reading this.
In 3D. Packed with product placement and winking pop-culture references. Lots of pointless CGI effects. Action scenes "filmed" (or more likely rendered) in extreme closeup with many cuts, so there's no sense of what's actually happening or how the participants are arranged in space. Music and sound effects mixed very loud, with dialog low, so you can't possibly make sense of the latter if you're watching at home or with headphones. (This last may be considered a benefit.)
And, of course, it must adhere strictly to Scripture. I refer, of course, to Blake Snyder's Save the Cat, which determines how every screenplay must be structured and paced, down to the minute. But this is already required by law for Hollywood movies anyway.
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Tuesday 5th June 2018 19:34 GMT Stevie
Bah!
This the same Stephen King as the one who re-issued The Stand with all the pages editors had removed put back in, thereby showing the world the absolute necessity of editors?
I think I agree that in many cases King's endings let down the book (Tommyknockers is an example) but sometimes he hits one out of the park (Firestarter worked very well for me, as did Christine).
But the real king of "Ruin a Good Idea with The Explanation" is Dean Koontz. I had to stop reading his books. I loved he set-ups but hated his trite reasons why things were happening like they were.
Never read any Twilight books, largely because in a post "Vampire LeStat" world I feel Vampires Are Stupid. There isn't anything anyone can say about them that is new and interesting no matter what you say they eat or when they can or cannot go abroad amongst people. I *did* read a short in which vampires kept herion-addicted humans for the high, but the rest of the story simply wasn't worth the idea.
And for me the sooner the current craze for Zombies is over the better. The Dead rise. Yawn. Even the White Walkers are tedious. We know this because GRRM stopped writing about them yonks ago, having baited and switched the reader at about halfway through book one of A Game Of Pagecounts.
I'll watch GoT on TV next year just for the spectacle, but to the idea that the dead are taking over Westeros I say "about time", and I'm done with the books since book 5: A Blithering with Behemoths.
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Friday 8th June 2018 03:06 GMT Anonymous Coward
Stephen King eat your heart out !!!
The obvious twist is :
The virus is a *real* virus not a Computer virus.
While everyone is pucking their guts up ..... and worse, they realise that the world exists outside the 'shiny shiny' in their hands and 'wonder off' to have some 'Real life' experience after they have recovered from the virus.
The sudden loss of all the geeks that run the IT world will lead to it all collapsing and failing from a lack of care. (Constant tweaking and fixing etc) :)
The collapse of civilisation ensues .......... or does it !!!???
[Buy the next exciting installment to find out *if* the world survives ??? ]
The follow-on volume will be co-authored with Ghandi, Rasputin, Billy the kid and Adolf Hitler's 3rd favourite author [Mystery guest/
ghostwriter], all via a 'Genuine Psychic' author (An ex part-time Homeopathic Dentist who recently discovered his unique and valuble skills. ) ....... not forgetting James Patterson, of course. :)Place your orders now !!!
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