I picked this up on a whim. Seriously, it was a complete impulse buy. I read Seth Godin's short recommendation a few months ago and was intrigued. So I hopped over to Geek Mafia's site, read a bit more, was further interested and and then pleasantly surprised to see that Rick offers it as a free download (pdf). In fact, I love his description:

"Don’t have the cash to buy your own copy of Geek Mafia? Or are you just too damn cheap? Or maybe you prefer reading on screen to the look and feel of a book in your hand.

Well, fact is, I’d rather you read the book than not, so if you don’t want to pay, then fine. Here. Have it for FREE."

I was going to download the pdf, but then noticed that the paperback version is only $5 through the publisher. I prefer the feel of a book in my hand so I dropped the $5 (+ shipping) and it was well worth it.

Anyway, my impression of the book...

A definite thumbs up for those that enjoy the suspense, thriller genre. I especially enjoyed how the story evolves around high-tech scams with a lot of human element mixed in. Dakan does a good job of giving you enough technical mumbo-jumbo to make it believable, without going into the deeper issues/details where most authors get tripped up. Like 24...I hate how they're always saying "open a socket into his PC." A socket? Obviously the writers don't know what a socket is, how it's used or have the time/energy to look it up. Maybe they're thinking of a socket wrench?

Regardless, Geek Mafia is a good story and a pretty quick read at just under 300 pages. I highly recommend it.

Oh, and it looks like he has a sequel in the works. Good times.

~tod