I received this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I enjoyed this read. Yes, it is a technology heavy concept but written in such a manner that anyone can gloss over the technology and still understand the storyline.

The story and characters are interesting. If the subject matter is even half accurate, we are certainly living in an Orwellian society. Don't read if you have a paranoid disorder. Otherwise, it is a good story well worth your time. ( )

The Omicron Code by Victor Arkium is an interesting novel with the premise that a secret code has been developed that allows access to any computer. The main character is a computer hacker who is being tracked down by the government. There are competing groups trying to track down the hacker.

The story starts with an invasion of the house of a software millionaire in the Bay area where one of the main villains is trying to get access to the code. The guy is killed after turning over some information while trying to protect his younger sister. She had overcome her attacker when he tried to rape her and called 911, unbeknownst to her brother. As the police arrive, the villain manages to escape down the cliff side.

The story picks up with the main character in hiding in Chicago. Troa has every idiosyncrasy associated with a computer hacker, which gets a little annoying at times. He is at a party in the apartment he is hiding out at. A beautiful woman makes a move on him. He is drugged sometime during the night and she accesses his computer and gets some software/information from him.

Through his best friend, he is met by some supposed government agents regarding the code. They are helping him escape using the train to St. Louis. The main villain manages to kill off the protectors. Troa gets off the train after discovering someone is trying to kill him after getting the code. He is being helped by Lisa, the sister of the person killed in the opening scene. She has learned all kinds of self defense moves and is very acrobatic.

The characters are a little over the top in that all of them are exaggerations of what you expect of that character type. There were a few spots in the book that events occurred that did not seem possible. While trying to keep up the suspense of the main story line with the changes in plot, it got a little confusing.

Overall it was an entertaining read for a vacation when you want a little diversion while traveling or laying around. ( )

Troa Gray is a hacker & lives under an assumed name to minimize the chances of being caught. He works to find information for a friend based in Washington DC. He has a brief liaison with a girl, then loses consciousness & wakes up naked and the girl & most of his clothes gone. Then he discovers that his laptop has been compromised, but the people who have taken over his laptop warn him that he is a target.

There is a lot of jargon that a few in the computer world might know - some of it is explained. However, this burdens the early part of the book with a lot of exposition that some might find either unnecessary or getting in the way of the reading.

There is too much exposition in the first third of the book, especially in the prologue, which should be trying to grab the reader's attention. Instead I found myself almost closing the book for good at that point. Despite these shortcomings, somehow the author keeps the action going, at least after the first third & manages to end most chapters on a high point so I felt I must keep reading. But the overuse of exposition returned in the last quarter, and the only thing that kept me reading was the desire to close all the open plot points.

The action & tension are maintained at a high pace after the first third of the book. Thus if the start & end of the book could be fixed, as well as the numerous typos, the book would rate higher in my opinion. ( )

I have often wondered about the dark side of the Internet - black hats, hackers, others using the internet for personal gain, and that's why I was interested in reading The Omicron Code. A thriller based on a hacker, Troa, who is being used as bait in something beyond his control, the story builds in tension until the last chapter. A few of the twists I guessed in advance, but many were surprising but not unbelievable in context - something many authors cannot manage. Not every word rang true - Troa declaring his love for Lisa was a bit ridiculous, but he was certainly in lust with her, and he would not be the first young man to mistake unsatisfied lust as love. I could name one or two other discrepancies, but they did not take away from the overall enjoyment of the book.

The story is well-paced, technical in places but not overly so, the dialogue true and the descriptive elements decently done. The first chapter is one of the best, but I found it difficult to tie it into the rest of the narrative until well into the story. Beta, especially, appeared out of nowhere and his past linkages explained very late.

Overall I enjoyed the book. While not yet at the same level of writing, fans of Michael Crichton and that science/tech based thriller realm might give this book a try.

I received a free copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review. ( )

The Omicron Code by Victor Arkium

First, I’ll confess I have always been a huge Michael Crichton fan. Yes I know, some of his science was a little shaky and the characters could be movie-script stereotypical, but he had a great sense of action and a wonderful imagination. I’ll come back to that in a moment.

Victor Arkium, the author of The Omicron Code, obviously knows his stuff when it comes to computer hacking. And he can write interesting dialogue and knows how to drive a story forward. In fact, I would rate the last half of this book a solid five stars.

The first half of the novel was a bit of a challenge for me though. There is a lot of technical exposition here; a lot of VERY geeky dialogue and tech talk, which I’m assuming the author, feels we need to plow through to understand the plot. I get it that Arkium is a programmer; I just think a lot of this hacker detail slows down the story. I really wanted the narrative to get back to Lisa, the sexy and dangerous Oriental-American who I think is a great character and would love to see more off.

My issue with the character of Lisa is that she disappears shortly after being introduced and then doesn’t show up again until the halfway point, which is a shame. Once she’s back in the story, the action cranks up, the dialogue really sparkles and the characters begin to flesh out. Troa, the hacker, is not nearly as interesting alone as the two of them together.

Getting back to Crichton, some parts of the last half of this book reminded me of the feel of Andromeda Strain, Sphere and Disclosure. Which is high praise. So I am rating the book overall with four stars, but stick around to the last act, it’s a lot of fun and worth the investment.

My favorite quote from The Omicron Code: “The only way to make sense of things would be to conclude that most of our institutions – from the government to the banks to big business – are run by inept buffoons who are blindly stumbling down the corridors of power looking for the little boy’s room.” ( )