Mercury Rising

by Ryne Douglas Pearson

Book Overview

"Excellent entertainment from first page to last." Booklist"A one-sitting book that will make the hours fly by." Publishers Weekly"...Action-packed and fast paced... A cyberthriller that will keep the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380802945
• ISBN13: 9780380802944
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: Avon Books
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

An Awsome Thriller

Simple Simon, the book that the movie Mercury Rising is based on is an awsome thriller. Great characters and fast moving action keep this book moving with far more action than Bruce Willis could ever keep up with. A great action packed read.

Exalant book!

I am a big fan of Mercury Rising. I read the book first and then watched the movie both where very good. I hope that the movie and book give people more awareness to Autism! And I am proud to note that I am an Autistic myself.

The Book Behind Mercury Rising

I have not yet seen the movie "Mercury Rising" but it is based on Simple Simon (Screenplay by: Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal, Directed by: Harold Becker, Produced by: Brian Grazer, Karen Kehela). What interests me about both the book and movie is the extent to which they reflect our society's awareness of cryptography and the many ethical dilemmas this technology creates. For example, a large percentage of Americans now use software applications (web browsers) that contain relatively sophisiticated encryption (as opposed to things like the password protection in Office applications). But not many people know that our government still reserves the right to declare any encryption scheme, however, it is expressed, whether described in a patent application or sketched on the back of a knapkin, a matter of national security, and thus the property of the United States government. It will be interesting to see how the public reacts to the moive. Certainly the novel itself was a very clever way of playing out this type of government thinking as a very human drama. Stephen Cobb, CISSP Certified Information System Security Professional

Fast paced and engaging

An interesting plot with an autistic teenager breaking a supposedly unbreakable code. The usual good and bad guys but an inexorable story which should appeal to thriller readers.