May 2015 - Sci-Fi: Daemon by Daniel Suarez

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon, Not a book hipster!]

Our sci-fi read for May is Daemon by Daniel Suarez.

Please remember to mark any spoilers by using the spoiler tag -- type < spoiler> your spoiler here < /spoiler>, without the spaces. Posts containing unmarked spoilers may be deleted.

[Robyn]

I started reading this last week. I wouldn't label myself tech savvy nor would I call myself unknowledgeable. But I am completely lost after only reading a few pages. I'm going to try again tonight. Maybe it will make more sense the second time around. :)

[Elise]

I started yesterday evening. I hope I won't get lost like you, Robyn!

[Robyn]

You probably won't! I'm just special. lol

I didn't have time to read any of it last night. But I'm looking forward to hearing ya'lls thoughts. :)

[Elise]

It helps to have an IT boyfriend ;)

[Robyn]

Ahh! I see! That's so unfair. lol

[Sinistmer]

I started this a couple of days ago. It's not bad so far!

[Sinistmer]

I'm about 300 pages in now. It's not bad, but I'm still not completely drawn in. Like Robyn, I am somewhat bogged down by all the IT. I think my main problem is I'm not really clicking with most of the characters.

What is bugging me is how Sobol managed to set all of this up. I understand he is very smart, but I am having trouble believing that he saw all contingencies and planned this so well. I am having trouble believing that someone would be good enough to pull that off.

I am going to finish this though.

What are others' thoughts?

[Nan]

I'm about 100 pages in. I'm entertained but also not that absorbed by the plot. It seems to me that all the oh-so-specific IT makes this book seem already a bit dated. (Maybe that's one pitfall of including such detail?)

[Elise]

Sinistmer wrote: "What is bugging me is how Sobol managed to set all of this up. I understand he is very smart, but I am having trouble believing that he saw all contingencies and planned this so well. I am having trouble believing that someone would be good enough to pull that off."

Perhaps he had a lot of free time and built in every possible series of events that might happen?

It actually creeps me out a bit. I understand enough of the IT crap to make me wonder if this is actually possible. And if someone is mad enough to build it.

[Øystein]

I'm not that far in yet(about 35 min into the audio book), but I have seen some of this IT and technical stuff already. I am an IT guy myself, so I have no trouble understanding it, but I am not sure it adds anything to the story, not beyond a small measure of credibility due to sounding "technical". It all feels a bit forced, I mean really, it felt like he put that whole "whois" ip-lookup thing in there just to sound impressive. Same thing with the 3-phase 480v power stuff. This could all be referenced later in the story though, so it may not be as unnecessary as it feels at the moment.

EDIT: I just got in another 35 minutes, and my two earlier examples pales in comparison to what I just listened to. Acronyms upon acronyms and technical jargon just for the fuck of it. I am not saying I dislike the book, so far I actually kind of like it, but all this stuff is not necessary!

Also, Gragg needs to be shot in the dick.

[Elise]

Ah! Comments from an IT guy, that's good!! Maybe the book is good when you are wowed by the technical jargon, because it sounds important :)

I like the idea of the book!

[Rina]

I've finished the book, and enjoyed it enough that I'm reading the next one. That said, I think it takes some suspension of disbelief to get through it without rolling your eyes. As Sinistmer said, even for the smartest guy to have ever existed, he did a lot more than seems reasonable. Humans are unpredictable, and to account for every contingency seems improbable.

As for the technology already starting to feel dated, I had the same thought. It made me wonder how readable this book will be in another ten years or so. By then, the idea of a guy using the technology of the early '00s to do everything he did might be (more?) laughable.

As a computer nerd and game geek, though, I am enjoying the premise of the story. Even more so as I get through the 2nd book, (view spoiler)[and the world becomes more and more video game-like. (hide spoiler)] (It is a very, very minor spoiler there, if it could even really be called one. But since it is not strictly about this book, I figured I'd be extra cautious.)

[Øystein]

Yes, a lot of the technology is already old. That is also one of the reasons i feel all the technical jargon adds absolutely nothing to the quality of the book, and sometimes even detract from it. If he had stuck to more general terms (which he could have done with no problems whatsoever), this book could be "relevant" a lot longer. I mean, why would you think it's a good idea to start blabbing about specifics in any computer technology when you know it will be completely outdated in a year?

[Elise]

Is it at least consistent with the time in which it was written? Or did he make up parts of the technology?

[Øystein]

I'm only about 20% in so far, but i haven't spotted any glaring flaws. I am listening to the audiobook though, so it's fairly easy to miss some of the tech-speak.

As a programmer, I am having wet dreams about the AI running all this stuff (and also the game AI, but I have a feeling they are connected).

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

My degree is in computer programming so I don't know if that's why I liked this book a lot. To me, it was an excellent fun read.

[Elise]

I am now at about 80 percent and am starting to get bored..... Uhoh!

[Elise]

Finished!

(view spoiler)[He should have definitely let Sebeck remain dead......... I hate when good guys are being brought back to life! As I was bored for the last 20 percent of the book and slightly bored a good while before that, I rated it 2 stars. Ok, but nothing special like I hoped in the beginning. (hide spoiler)]

[Alison]

I just finished reading this and thought it was great. I'm not the most tech-savvy person butI 've played my fair share of MMORPGS and my boyfriend writes code and makes mods, so I found this utterly fascinating. It left me wondering what would happen if someone was disturbed enough to actually try and succeed at writing a program like the daemon in the book.

[Øystein]

Finished some time ago, just forgot to comment on it!

I agree totally with you Elise in that (view spoiler)[ Sebeck REALLY didn't need a resurrection. Even worse was the reason for him coming back to life... (hide spoiler)]

As I've mentioned earlier, I do like the concept, but it got a little extreme towards the end. It suddenly went from being a ok-paced crime/detective/AI-novel to a high octane book version of Fast and Furious melded with Die Hard with killer robots tossed in.
So, I liked most of the book, but not the ending.

[Dawn, Dawnerys, Mother of Modding]

I finally started this yesterday. Only about 10% in and so far it's not bad. I'm still waiting for it to either fully grab me or fully turn me off... Right now it's just kind of whatever.

Deep thoughts by Dawn.

[Dawn, Dawnerys, Mother of Modding]

I made it to about 20% but now I have to put it on pause. Not because I'm not interested in it, I plan on finishing it, another book just came up that I Really want to read Now. So I'm knocking that one out before continuing with this :)

[Chris , cookie guilt]

I approve of that distraction :)