Every so often I do book reviews here, and Darknet is one book I’ve been reading for the past few weeks. Despite my slow reading speed and lack of time, I managed to get it finished just yesterday. Let me start by telling you what Darknet is. Darknet is the change of power between the major major companies to ordinary people. Darknet is freedom. It’s a warning, as well as a voice. Or as JD Lasica, Darknet’s author describes the literal meaning, "Darknet is a metaphor for the hidden-away matter of the web-the burgeoning pool of weblogs, independent sites, and grass roots media well outisde the limelight of big media."
To me, reading Darknet was a great experience. The reason I say this is because Darknet is very unique. I would say this kind of a detailed, balanced book about a great great debate is only written once in a very long while. It’s filled with a lot of excitement, stories, arguments, culture, information-that-you-can’t-read-anywhere-in-the-web, and of course, the name of pioneers and startups who we all, as we read their name, have the urge to Google.
I have learnt a lot by reading Darknet, and would recommend it to anyone, anyone at all who has used the Internet and have at least heard (if not used) of things like Tivo. It has real stories of real people that people just get. Throughout the book, you will be meeting a lot of interesting people, including my favourite: the teenage boys who recreated Raiders of the Lost Ark. As Lasica puts it, Darknet profiles people from the future.
Darknet is one of those which you read now and when you even read one chapter say three or four years later, a lot has changed and some of those little rhetorical questions in the book have answers. Read it ten years later, you’ll be shocked to see what questions got which answers.
In the end, Darknet was just a good, simple, exciting read and would recommend it to any Internet enthusiast, home user, CEO of Blabla, Inc, heck even someone from Hollywood (the important the better!). You can get more information on Darknet, including some of the interviews it features, if you would like on its official website or if your really feeling a great desire to read it, and read it now (well actually tomorrow when it arrives in your mail), do purchase it over here from Amazon.com and if Amazon isn’t your favourite retailer, a Froogle search is a Froogle search away. My final rating: 9/10
