I really enjoyed this book. Gellman is an excellent writer, who can make you feel absolutely immersed by the story and make you want to continue to read.
The book is starting on a highpoint, but it keeps building up and being more and more interested. It presents the developments around surveillance, makes you question the intentions of Snowden, and walks you through the relationship building between the reporter and the source.
It is a great source of information for anyone, who wants to learn more about the leak and surveillance programs, without reading through too many technical terms and without getting bored by it.

I am afraid that due to formatting problems with the Kindle edition of this book, I cannot give feedback on this book as it is impossible to read the book. I have downloaded it twice, but both copies have problems (large sections missing, paragraphs repeated several times which make it unreadable).
If these are fixed I would love to read it and review it properly as I was really looking forward to this book.

I am currently on a bit of a spree reading journalistic works and have been mightily impressed with the spare, fact loaded type of journalism that is still, somehow, eminently readable. The last book I read that really worked that way on me was 'A Civil Action' by Jonathan Harr. The writing was non pareil and stripped back to its bare essentials.

Barton Gellman works a similar number here, his writing is assured as it covers fairly complex ground, explaining why Snowden was able to gather such a mass of sensitive files. Thankfully he is able to simplify this for the layman and it makes his account all the more readable.

Of course it has all the usual clandestine elements that would make a superb thriller, Snowden slowly builts up trust with Gellman and a documentary film-maker, he uses his fieldcraft in this respect.

The book builds up and never disappoints, it takes something which has the potential to be a stilted, convoluted read and treats the material with respect, it makes things readable but doesn't dumb it down to the level of an airport novel.

The book, quite simply, held me all the way through, I never got bored and I always wanted to know where the narrative would go next.

Recommended.