Read about some Javascript hacking at its finest!

After finishing reading Permanent Record by Edward Snowden I felt compelled to write a review of it. I loved the Stealing The Network series and The Art of Intrusion, and Snowden’s book reminded me a little bit of these. So I’m already a fan of this genre of tech-based-non-fiction.

The book was easy to read, thrilling, and his story basically writes itself. But he has chosen the bits of his story that actually matter. In places so much of the content seems like it cannot be possibly real, but yet it probably is. And that is what is stunning.

But first off, Snowden is no John Steinbeck in creative writing eloquence. The words and metaphors seem lumpy and forced in the first few chapters, and sometimes the writing is rambling and contained a lot of information that didn’t advance the story much. However, I don’t often read autobiographies, so they might have a different written style. Anyway, as I’m no literary critic or Pulitzer Prize-winning author I won’t dwell on this aspect for too long.

OK, so onto the good bits. And there’s a lot of good bits. I’ll mention “spoiler-alert” now, and it remains in effect for the rest of this article, but I’ll try not to give too much content away.