Title: Virus Games
Author: G. L. Sheerin
Publisher: Synergy Books
ISBN: 978-1-934454-04-6
Genre: Fiction/Fantasy/Children

About the Book (From the Back Cover):

Peter Dempsey hates computers. He detests looking at monitors, can barely type with two fingers on a keyboard, and considers his PC 101 class a torture chambers. But when a fateful bolt of lightning gives him the ability to see just who lives and works inside our computers, Peter might have to change his mind.

Peter befriends the "packets" who live in his computer and begins to learn about the secret world alive inside the Internet. Packet World isn't always friendly, though. A new super virus has just been unleashed, and Peter and his packets realize they might be the only ones who can stop the "bullies" from shutting down the internet, and Packet World, forever.

My own impression from a reading of the book:

Though the author himself is a computer expert, he has not fully succeeded in using the power of the story to teach how computers and internet work. While he might have succeeded in holding the attention of young techno-phobes like Peter through the use of some ingenious substitutes for the normal technical terms, he has not attempted to convert the story into a good lesson on the working of internet, data packets, Protocols etc. He could have used the book to discuss computer viruses, how they are detected, how they are studied and how they are deactivated etc.

Editing and Printing: Good.

Recommendation: The book is a good effort to make technical topics like computers interesting but the end results could have been better.