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 observations and the clash of the artificial organism of the Daemon vs. the artificial organism of the military-industrial complex (geh, I hate that phrase) is thought-provoking and almost plausible.

My only reservation is giving this book a five star review is that the writing, while excellent for a first time novelist, needs some polish and drama with science turns into science fiction in a few ways I find clumsy.

Writing:
+Well done descriptions of events and frequent but not excessive similes that paint a reasonable picture.
+Periodic gems like "rhyme and meter are cultural checksums".
-Overdone descriptions of physical actions. Things like combat are terribly difficult to portray in text and either stupid detail or broad strokes are necessary. Everything in between tends to falter.
-Some dialog is excessively tech-laden in ways that I think are inauthentic and seem to seek to just relay "techiness".
-Most of the book is reasonable in picking up things that are doable with current technology, some things (razorbacks) stretch credulity. This may be a device to let the author wipe away the fear that sometimes comes from "this could happen".

Plotting:
+The attentive reader is well rewarded. I kept feeling that I had figured something out which was then verified or disconfirmed within a chapter or two so nothing was ever too confusing for too long nor did I feel bored.
+Threads tied together nicely even though narrative shifts around a lot.
-The 3-letter agency scenes and Sobol's exposition seem heavy-handed at times. I think there's a lighter space between this and obscurantism.