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Mar 25, 2010

Kemper rated it:

If you were someone with more computer knowledge and money than Bill Gates, and you found out you were dying, would you:

A) Give all your money to charity just in case you can buy your way into heaven.
B) Indulge in an around the world drinking, drug and sex spree until going out in a blaze of glory by crashing your private jet into an erupting volcano live on CNN.
C) Pour all your money into a cryogenics program and freeze yourself like Walt Disney in the hope that they’ll More...

0 comments like (17 people liked it)

Feb 23, 2009

Michael rated it:

Billionaire computer software mogul Matthew Sobol has died and he wants to make sure he leaves behind a legacy. That legacy comes in the form of a daemon, or a computer programing running in the background of every system that has installed his massively popular on-line, multi-player video game. When news of Sobol's death hits the Internet, the daemon becomes active, creating havoc across the world as it exploits vulnerabilities in computer networks and uses them for its own purposes.

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0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 08, 2009

Mike rated it:

I learned that we used to fear supercomputers (cf. The Corbin Project) but now should fear superprogrammers and/or obsessive gamers. There's all kinds of pleasure one could take in chewing over the metaphorical fodder of this novel's central Threat: is it a gloss on the blurring of virtual and real worlds? A jeremiad about the dangers of our super-networked interglobalizachology? Or a veiled reminder of the way terrorist cells take down the body politic? Or...

Ah, fuck it. Big sc More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 11, 2009

Nathan rated it:

Awful. "Daemon" suffers from all the usual pitfalls of the first novel: unoriginal premise, wooden dialogue, melodramatic action, clumsy exposition, sloppy resolution, inconsequential subplotting. When the author tries to be witty, he comes off as conceited; when he tries to impress with his tech-savvy, he sounds as if he's quoting from "Popular Science" magazine. This was the worst book I've read in a while, and I'm not sure whether I want Daniel Suarez to stop writing altog More...

6 comments like (9 people liked it)

Aug 11, 2009

Chris rated it:

Well written, and successfully both gripping and credibly accurate, as one would expect of a book reviewed on Slashdot. Unfortunately, the beginning has several problems, all of which may be Suarez attempting to ensure he is taken seriously:

* The painstakingly correct detail distracts from the story a bit.
* The concept of the world being decided by a battle between carders feels silly.
* Suarez makes it a point to demonstrate just how evil some of the characters are. This More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 10, 2009

Keri rated it:

Into the third chapter of this book I had to close it for good. I was very disappointed given its good reviews. There were a few swear words but as the F-bombs started to land, the Rave parties began, drug dealers started trash talking, prostitutes hit the scene and a date rape began I had to quit, all before chapter 4. This was such a departure from the "computer program gone awry, murder mystery" premise I was totally taken off guard. I wish there was a content rating for books lik More...

10 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 03, 2011

Weavre rated it:

In the Eighties, I read and loved the genre called "cyberpunk," and was disappointed to see it vanish as the fantasy Net was replaced with the very real Web, imagined microcommunicators were replaced with Bluetooth headsets, and anyone anywhere with a bit of knowledge and equipment became able--for real--to dive into government databases, corporate financial records, and anything else on the web. Cyberpunk-era virtual reality bore a strong resemblance to Second Life, but as the reality More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 04, 2010

Otis rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 08, 2009

Samantha rated it:

This is definitely one of the best books I've read in a year. The premise was fascinating. It's a great thrill ride. Can someone program computers with backdoor programs to read the newswires and make other things happen? Can a computer drive a car and kill people? Are there people so involved in the gaming world that they would do things in the real world just because a game told them to or just to earn more points in their gaming world? This book is extremely fast paced and never boring. Don't More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 25, 2009

Samantha rated it:

A solid debut novel from Mr. Suarez. This highly suspenseful techno-thriller/dystopian sci fi tale is centered around a genius computer game designer, Matthew Sokol who has passed away. But his legacy is sinister indeed - a computer program, aka a "daemon," so complex it sets up a series of fatal events and ensnares various people in its plans, stating with the dispassion of the program that it is that they will die if they don't cooperate. More than mere terrorism, Sokol's program has More...

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Feb 16, 2009

John rated it:

Cybernetic thrillers about the end of life as we know it aren’t a usual stop for me, and when I started this tale about a twisted genius inventor of computer games who happens to be dead and the havoc he wreaks on the living, I really wasn’t expecting to get beyond the first chapter. But Daniel Suarez knows his stuff, explains it deftly so that mind-boggling concepts don’t interrupt the action, and keeps you turning those damned pages (except when you just have to put the book down to chew on so More...

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Dec 15, 2011

Andre rated it:

A computer game designer dies and, upon the online publication of his obituary, a daemon—a computer program running in the background, under no human control—is activated, setting off a chain reaction that will lead to numerous deaths and, quite possibly, a new world order.

Daemon is an inventive techno-thriller, blending Michael Crichton with Neil Stephenson. The science feels real, grounded in possibility if not probability, and, in the second half of the novel, as events accelerate a More...

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Dec 03, 2011

Mike rated it:

I met Suarez this summer, and had to read this book and its sequel, Freedom (TM). This isn't the sort of fiction I usually read. I'm really not big on thrillers, and I'm typically cool towards sci fi (though I see I've reviewed a lot of it here).

Daemon absolutely has to be read with Freedom (tm). The two are one sustained novel.

Just as Cory Doctorow's Little Brother was science fiction when it was written, but there's little in the book that couldn't happen now, Daemon More...

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Oct 08, 2011

John E. rated it:

As a part-time tech-head who has been working and playing with computers since the early 80s, I was intrigued by the book and genuinely fascinated here and there. As a one-time English major who has been reading serious fiction for a good deal longer, I was pretty nonplussed. I'm a little reluctant to take a superior attitude, but I might as well be honest (while trying not to be harsh): this is science fiction that's strong on the former and weak on the latter.

Daniel Suarez (see my More...

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Aug 19, 2011

Terry rated it:

Daemon tells the story of a program/set of programs activated after the death of a computer programmer. These programs at first seem to just cause the death of a few people but later the total scope of their power grows considerably. The book is heavy on the tech-talk and while the book explains a lot as it goes, the informed reader is well rewarded.

I found the book very fun to get through and is the closest I've come to a page-turner in a while. The author makes a few poignant obse More...

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Jul 13, 2011

Joe rated it:

Intriguing premise with a couple of interesting plot twists. Amazon describes this as a techno-thriller, but I think it's maybe more accurate to call it pre-cyberpunk. I say "pre" not because it predates cyberpunk (which it obviously doesn't) but rather because it shows a plausible(ish) path from somewhere very like here to a not-very-distant world of cyberjacked augmented reality.

As one of those very rare double nerds (political philosopher who gave up the glamor of the prof More...

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Jun 06, 2011

Dmdutcher rated it:

Apparently this is first of a series. MMO and videogame magnate dies, but somehow works his will through outlandish technological means to implement some plan of collapsing/remaking society. People try with absolutely no success to stop him.

The problem with this book is that all the cards are held by the villains, to the point of absurdity. Literal absurdity, once they start pulling the Razorbacks in. The heroes exist only to be struck down, and while this might be good as a set-up, an More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 28, 2011

Paul rated it:

In computer language, "Daemon" is a computer program that runs continuously in the background and performs specified operations at predefined times in response to certain events.

Matthew Sobol is a multi-millionaire who has earned his millions in the computer gaming business. He has set up a daemon program on his company's computers that is to react to his obituary.

The daemon sets in motion a series of events that causes the death of several of Sobol's co-worker More...

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Dec 17, 2010

Bryce rated it:

An interesting read that took me a while to get into and left me feeling rather frustrated. Despite that, I enjoyed it. First, the frustration: this book is part 1 of a two book series. You won't see that anywhere on the cover, and it very much leaves off right in the middle of the action. I don't mind series, but I'd appreciate to know when I'm reading one, so that I don't expect an ending. (Although in this case, the "ending" is more just a convenient pause in the action, not a real More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 14, 2010

Jim rated it:

Fans of the likes of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson will find much to enjoy in this techno-thriller. And anyone paying attention to the recent Wikileaks story and the subsequent DDoS shenanigans of some of its supporters will quickly see how fiction can be very relevant to the real world at times. As for the book itself, inconsistent pacing and focus were really all that kept it from being a rare five-star for me.

Specifically, the first third of the book was absolutely terrific More...

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Oct 28, 2010

Chibineko rated it:

Do you like techno thrillers? Does the idea of killer computers make your spine tingle? If so, then you'll probably like this book. Not only is it a techno thriller, but it tries very hard to sound authentic & (as far as I know) it succeeds.

The plot of this book is incredibly diverse, spanning multiple characters and places. In one spot you have a detective who is rather bitter about life, having had a child at a young age & married the mother out of obligation. In another you have More...

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Aug 20, 2010

Jay rated it:

Being my first to-do once I got back into the reading game, I found Daemon to be an awesome example of a modern adventure. Every novel I'd read growing up either took place in some neutered village without a computer in sight, or a fantastical science fiction future where the technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Daemon takes place firmly in present day, and Suarez does an excellent job introducing the tech involved. He goes through great pains to ensure that anything that happe More...

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Jul 18, 2010

AudioBookFans rated it:

I selected this audiobook based off of a recommendation from some guy on twitter. He was pretty pumped about this book so I looked it up and decided to give it a try. I found Daemon to be very intriguing right from the start with it’s unique usage of an intentionally “computer generated” type female voice that delivered news throughout the book.

This book was very tech savy. Not once did I have to sneer at the author’s limited knowledge of tech and internet related material. If anythi More...

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Jun 27, 2010

Margaret rated it:

Two points about this book - Thing One: While I filed this on my mystery / suspense shelf, I admit that this is Lazy Me b/c this book really needs a "starts out mystery, morphs to mystery / sci-fi, ends in sci-fi with a dash of political intrigue" shelf. That title being too long, I'm sticking w/ mystery / suspense. So those of you who, like me, think, ah, a lovely southern California who-dunnit police procedural based on the first few chapters will be quickly disappointed, b/c it ai More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 11, 2010

Ian rated it:

Thinking about how I've told people about this book, as "a geeky action flick of a book" doesn't really do it justice, although I can't really put it any more succinctly. The truth is that this is probably one of the best books I have ever read, and finishing it was extremely bittersweet because I really wanted to read more.

What Daemon does is mix suspense, action and technology into a story that is rich with heroes, villains and a surprisingly plausible plot about a compu More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 12, 2010

Matthew rated it:

If you liked Prey by Michael Crichton, you'll absolutely love this book. Suarez has created a new genre of Science Fiction that caters exclusively to the geek culture. He uses terms like DDOS, SIP, VOIP, SSID, WEP frequently without boring us with descriptions of what these mean. Non-geeks will put this one down immediately but true geeks will make the connections easily. That's true artistic courage in my opinion.
The story is dramatic and engaging although the bullshit alarm goes off a f More...

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Apr 07, 2010

Alex rated it:

I finished Daemon a few days ago and it's really been sticking with me. It starts as a murder mystery and quickly spirals out into a much broader story about how our world is held together, or not. It warrants the comparisons to stuff by Neal Stephenson and William Gibson. Like these other authors the story centrally features technology without it just being about that technology. On a few occasions it reminded me elements of Spook Country and Cryptonomicon. Suarez is not as funny and discursive More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 31, 2010

Xirxe rated it:

Boah, was für ein Buch! Aber gleich vorweg: Leute, die mit IT nichts am Hut haben, Netzwerke für Ausrüstungsgegenstände von Fischern halten und die Faszination von Computerspielen nicht mal ansatzweise nachvollziehen können, sollten die Finger davon lassen.
Nun zum Inhalt: Mathew Sobol, milliardenschweres Computergenie, erliegt Anfang 30 einem Gehirntumor. Just in diesem Augenblick sterben auf mysteriöse Art und Weise Mitarbeiter seiner Firma und bald wird klar, dass Sobol dahinter steckt. More...

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Mar 24, 2010

Les rated it:

Reading Daemon felt like I was riding a roller coaster. My interest in the story went up and down and up and down. I loved how the book started out, it read like a computer thriller/myster and then it quickly dissolved into sci-fi.

My only real issue with the book was one I find quite often. The issue is with the sense that the protagonist never seems to make a mistake. It's always rerfect and has always thought of every contingent. It's plans always succeed and it never seems to enc More...

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Feb 27, 2010

John rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (4 people liked it)