The book - the writing, the story - was good. The subject matter was...out of this world. And not in a good sense.

Let's be very clear - this is a work of fiction. At best it can be said to be "inspired by real events." I think this is how the author, Ben Mezrich, does a lot of his writing. In and of itself, that's not a bad thing, but it can easily get you into trouble as we'll see. You have to realize that the conversations you're reading are not entirely real. (In this book, in fact, Mezrich admits he didn't even interview a major character - Bigelow - but made everything up based on published interviews and reports.)

Having said that, sometimes playing fast and loose with the facts can get you into trouble as I said. Offhandedly Mezrich mentions towards the end of the book that Zukowski is a ham radio operator. However the FCC has no record of Zukowski having a license. There are a few possible explanations here. Zukowski is a pirate operator (nice for someone previously involved in law enforcement, even in the "volunteer" way he was), Mezrich doesn't know the difference between amateur radio, CB, or the "Family Radio Service," or Mezrich put it into the book because it "sounded cool." But if that sounded cool, how many other things sounded cool, or did Mezrich just get plain wrong?

Like I said, the book is good as long as you accept it as a work of fiction.

The book ends wondering what road Zukowski would go down after he "discovered" what he discovered. History tells us - into the arms of the "Travel Channel" and to trademarking his own nickname. Not exactly someone who at all took the world by storm.