Hacking Timbuktu
by Davies, Stephen
- Used
- Very Good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 1842708848
- ISBN 13
- 9781842708842
- Seller
-
GORING BY SEA, West Sussex, United Kingdom
2 Copies Available from This Seller
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
Danny is a freelance IT specialist—that is, a hacker. He and his pal Omar are both skilled at parkour, or freerunning, a discipline designed to enable practitioners to travel between any two points regardless of obstacles. This is fortunate, because they're off on an adventure that's filled with obstacles, from locked doors to gangs of hostile pursuers. Together they follow a cryptic clue, find a missing map, figure out how to get to Timbuktu without buying a plane ticket, and join the life-and-death treasure hunt, exchanging wisecracks and solving the puzzle one step at a time.An exotic setting and gripping suspense, as well as an absorbing introduction to parkour, make this thriller a genuine page-turner.
Reviews
I asked amazon.com/VINE to send me this book to read and review because my 16-year old grandson is into both computers and more especially into parkour. English missionary Stephen Davies, resident in Burkino Faso wrote the boys adventure tale, HACKING TIMBUKTU. In an "Author's Note" Davies claims that this is "perhaps the first ever parkour novel." Davies does not provide a glossary of either hacking or parkour terminology. But he defines and redefines terms throughout his yarn. ***** The novel's hero is 16-year old Londoner Dan Temple. His father has moved to Australia with a new wife. Dad happily pays for Dan's rent in London. Dan is a school dropout trying to make a living as a "freelance code monkey." He is a White Hacker, i. e., does not worm his ways into computers to do harm -- at least initially. Dan's second passion is parkour (from the French parcourir, to run a course). In its simplest form, parkour is the art of running as fast as possible in as straight a line as possible toward a pre-defined goal, using only the human body as a means of propulsion. and for overcoming obstacles like walls, roofs, trenches, etc. A male practitioner of parkour is a traceur, a female: traceuse. "Parkour is not so very different from hacking. ... Both move freely to surpass the barriers erected by man to enclose and restrict" (Ch. 2). Boys love both codes and mysteries and running and jumping; so viva hacking! viva parkour! ***** Through Skype, Dan hacks his way into a computer in Timbuktu, Mali where he finds a Magic Square, the key to an immense treasure of gold stolen and hidden 700 years earlier. With his friend Omar, Dan Temple soon flies to Africa and pursues the treasure. The boys in turn are pursued by a growing horde of computer nerds worldwide who want them to share knowledge of the treasure with them. More dangerous is the novel's murderous villain Moktar Hassim, a religious student in Timbuktu. He offs or maims more than one person in his pursuit of the gold. Moktar has stolen the original manuscript giving exact indications of the trove's location. ***** Parkour is used incessantly throughout HACKING TIMBUKTU. For it is the art of escaping pursuers, as well as the art of running fast toward a goal. And are these boys pursued! Including by a larcenous London policeman. The African roots of parkour are also highlighted, as Moktar Hassim is shown to be a fast racer and obstacle overcomer in his own right. And like many others in Mali, Moktar can climb a cliff faster than is good for either Dan or Omar. ***** This is a fine boys adventure tale. I commend it warmly to parents and grandparents as a gift for boys and girls who show signs of becoming couch potatoes or mentally lazy. It is a wakeup call. -OOO-
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Details
- Bookseller
- World of Books Ltd (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- GOR001735279
- Title
- Hacking Timbuktu
- Author
- Davies, Stephen
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 2
- ISBN 10
- 1842708848
- ISBN 13
- 9781842708842
- Publisher
- Random House UK
- This edition first published
- 2009-10-19
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