- Mass Market Paperback: 632 pages
- Publisher: Signet Book; Reprint edition (29 Dec 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0451228731
- ISBN-13: 978-0451228734
- Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 10.7 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,750,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Daemon
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Product Description
Review
Suarez's riveting debut would be a perfect gift for a favorite computer geek or anyone who appreciates thrills, chills and cyber suspense - Publishers Weekly (starred review).
Greatest. Techno-thriller. Period. Suarez presents a fascinating account of autonomous, logic-based terrorism, incorporating current and anticipated technologies to create a credible and quite clever story. Experts have long feared the Internet doomsday scenario; the Daemon is arguably more terrifying - Billy O'Brien, Director of Cybersecurity and Communications Policy, The White House.
Suarez is the best author of tech fiction since Bruce Sterling and Neal Stephenson - John Robb, author of Brave New War.
Daemon is the real deal - a scary look at what can go wrong as we depend increasingly on computer networks - Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist.
Daemon is better than early Tom Clancy … the tech is invoked with inside knowledge; the writing is better; and deeper issues are explored with greater imagination - Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and cofounder of The Long Now Foundation.
Damon is to novels what The Matrix was to movies. It will be how other novels that rely on technology will be judged - Rick Klau, Strategic Partner Development, Google. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Greatest. Techno-thriller. Period. Suarez presents a fascinating account of autonomous, logic-based terrorism, incorporating current and anticipated technologies to create a credible and quite clever story. Experts have long feared the Internet doomsday scenario; the Daemon is arguably more terrifying - Billy O'Brien, Director of Cybersecurity and Communications Policy, The White House.
Suarez is the best author of tech fiction since Bruce Sterling and Neal Stephenson - John Robb, author of Brave New War.
Daemon is the real deal - a scary look at what can go wrong as we depend increasingly on computer networks - Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist.
Daemon is better than early Tom Clancy … the tech is invoked with inside knowledge; the writing is better; and deeper issues are explored with greater imagination - Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and cofounder of The Long Now Foundation.
Damon is to novels what The Matrix was to movies. It will be how other novels that rely on technology will be judged - Rick Klau, Strategic Partner Development, Google. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'Suarez's riveting debut would be a perfect gift for a favorite computer geek or anyone who appreciates thrills, chills and cyber suspense' Publishers Weekly (starred review). 'Greatest. Techno-thriller. Period. Suarez presents a fascinating account of autonomous, logic-based terrorism, incorporating current and anticipated technologies to create a credible and quite clever story. Experts have long feared the Internet doomsday scenario; the Daemon is arguably more terrifying' Billy O'Brien, Director of Cybersecurity and Communications Policy, The White House. 'Suarez is the best author of tech fiction since Bruce Sterling and Neal Stephenson' John Robb, author of Brave New War. 'Daemon is the real deal - a scary look at what can go wrong as we depend increasingly on computer networks' Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist. 'Daemon is better than early Tom Clancy - the tech is invoked with inside knowledge; the writing is better; and deeper issues are explored with greater imagination' Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and cofounder of The Long Now Foundation. 'Daemon is to novels what The Matrix was to movies. It will be how other novels that rely on technology will be judged' Rick Klau, Strategic Partner Development, Google. 'This is a book that's got the shock of the new, that's so fresh and well-informed that it's still covered in metal shavings and PVC dust. Reality is everywhere in Daemon, and it's exciting and scary' Time Magazine. 'Daemon is relentlessly exciting' Daily Telegraph. 'This debut is superb, with some of the best set-action pieces I've ever read. For crime fans and lovers of sci-fi both' Independent on Sunday.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Not sure what the some of the others reviewers were expecting but I absolutely loved this book - enough to write my first Amazon review.
Suarez takes some of the most interesting modern technologies - mmorpg's, social networks, autonomous software agents, botnets, darknets. etc. - and combines them with the most pressing social problems - the growing gap between rich/poor, 1st world/3d world, l33t/newb, young/old - and extrapolates this into a gripping, all too believable(ish) thriller, probably the only book I've ever read that actually lives up to the title 'technothriller.'
The plot unfolds like a particularly well oiled machine, initial small scale incidents snowballing into a full on climax that Michael Bay would be proud of. The initial chapters read as a tech-savvy police procedural then build through FBI/CIA/NSA involvement and an evil version of Bruce Sterling's network gift economy into full on widescreen computer game madness. It's true that the later parts of the book push believability a bit, but I was so hooked at that point that I really didn't care.
An impressive book, especially for a debut novel. Roll on the sequel...
p.s Although written for a mass audience the tech/hacking sequence are kept pretty accurate but he's not writing for the black/grey/whitehat/script kiddy crowd so if your the kind of person that going to be put off by him mistyping a port number then this isn't for you.
Suarez takes some of the most interesting modern technologies - mmorpg's, social networks, autonomous software agents, botnets, darknets. etc. - and combines them with the most pressing social problems - the growing gap between rich/poor, 1st world/3d world, l33t/newb, young/old - and extrapolates this into a gripping, all too believable(ish) thriller, probably the only book I've ever read that actually lives up to the title 'technothriller.'
The plot unfolds like a particularly well oiled machine, initial small scale incidents snowballing into a full on climax that Michael Bay would be proud of. The initial chapters read as a tech-savvy police procedural then build through FBI/CIA/NSA involvement and an evil version of Bruce Sterling's network gift economy into full on widescreen computer game madness. It's true that the later parts of the book push believability a bit, but I was so hooked at that point that I really didn't care.
An impressive book, especially for a debut novel. Roll on the sequel...
p.s Although written for a mass audience the tech/hacking sequence are kept pretty accurate but he's not writing for the black/grey/whitehat/script kiddy crowd so if your the kind of person that going to be put off by him mistyping a port number then this isn't for you.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Daemon by Daniel Suarez is sold as being THE Great Techno Triller of our time. As a highly qualified IT techie bloke I would tend to dispute this on two accounts.
1. The book wasn't particularly thriling over all. Now it does have it's moments, but over all the way the story is structured does tend to kill any continuing narrative tension. There are 3 parts each with large time gaps. The characters are all wooden and aren't fleshed out. One of the major protaginists is an identity thief and we know nothing about who he was...not a good way to get a rapport with the reader.
2. The technology that is mentioned in the book is pretty much all available now, in fact most of it has been available for a while. Throwing in tech as a way to impress the reader is all well and good, as long as the tech is a way of furthering the story. Whilst Suarez obvioulsy knows what he is on about you get the feeling that his editor has asked him to remove anything that was really techie from the book.
You do have top suspend a HUGE ammount of belief in order to get the most out of the story and unfortunately my background didn't really let me do that. I have worked in IT for the last 15 years delivering technical solutions to clients and this book just didn't do it for me. The lack of any conclussion the novel also made it feel like the first part of a trilogy to me, but if it is I don't think I'll be after the other two.
1. The book wasn't particularly thriling over all. Now it does have it's moments, but over all the way the story is structured does tend to kill any continuing narrative tension. There are 3 parts each with large time gaps. The characters are all wooden and aren't fleshed out. One of the major protaginists is an identity thief and we know nothing about who he was...not a good way to get a rapport with the reader.
2. The technology that is mentioned in the book is pretty much all available now, in fact most of it has been available for a while. Throwing in tech as a way to impress the reader is all well and good, as long as the tech is a way of furthering the story. Whilst Suarez obvioulsy knows what he is on about you get the feeling that his editor has asked him to remove anything that was really techie from the book.
You do have top suspend a HUGE ammount of belief in order to get the most out of the story and unfortunately my background didn't really let me do that. I have worked in IT for the last 15 years delivering technical solutions to clients and this book just didn't do it for me. The lack of any conclussion the novel also made it feel like the first part of a trilogy to me, but if it is I don't think I'll be after the other two.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
You know those films that are in vogue lately? The one's were all semblance to a story is abandoned in favour of blowing stuff up? Well I present the written equivalent.
I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book; there's a lot of well-researched technical jargon, and to be fair there is "some" story, the problem is the, possibly interesting, story is consumed by needless, and frequently inconsistent, action.
So, the death of Sobol, a computer genius/gaming software company CEO, sets in motion a phenomenally (and unbelievably) well orchestrated series of events. What the intention of all this is we never really find out other than to cause as much chaos as possible and to shoehorn society into the particular structure that the deceased megalomaniac desires. He does (or rather did) this by setting up an impenetrable, multiply redundant, distributed computer network covering the entire globe which taps into the fact that most of us in the first world are willingly and irreversibly integrated into the network.
Sobol conscripts the disenfranchised of society: criminals, down and outs, obsessive computer gamers and the just plain bored to carry out his many, varied and finely tuned nefarious tasks. The combined forces of the NSA, CIA and any other US-centric TLA you care to imagine struggle unsuccessfully to defeat Sobol resulting in huge numbers of deaths.
The technology is pretty believable, set, as it is, five minutes from now: satnav and remotely controlled killer motor vehicles, GPS tracking, infiltration of mobile phones, in-game communication via avatars in virtual worlds; this is all doable right now and that does partially lift an otherwise unbelievable story.
The story suffers painfully from inconsistency and a lack of editing; there are a couple of characters who sort of thread through the entire story but far too many side characters are created, elaborated on for a few chapters, perform a single task and then disappear, on one occasion we get a page devoted to the life story of a guard who is killed at the top of the very next page. As for inconsistency, the player-characters are repeatedly informed by Sobol's various avatars that it is an algorithm and can only understand Yes or No responses, but then the same program code is analysing and responding to many thousands or tens of thousands of random human decisions acted out over many months (the book is inexplicably split into a number of sections relating to different periods of time) - and is prepared for each and every one of them (AI that's just being plain difficult?). If you're a computer gamer you'll probably enjoy the in-jokes that permeate this tale; it's obviously aimed at that particular target audience, it will however occasionally annoy such an audience by its "helpful" explanations - "JPEGs are a type of compressed image file" - erm, you don't say!
On the whole the book was enjoyable, but enjoyable in the way that diet soft drinks are: if you're that way inclined, drinking them will make you feel good about yourself, and there is that initial sweetness, but in the end it's just gassy stuff that leaves a nasty taste in your mouth. A very generous two stars.
I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book; there's a lot of well-researched technical jargon, and to be fair there is "some" story, the problem is the, possibly interesting, story is consumed by needless, and frequently inconsistent, action.
So, the death of Sobol, a computer genius/gaming software company CEO, sets in motion a phenomenally (and unbelievably) well orchestrated series of events. What the intention of all this is we never really find out other than to cause as much chaos as possible and to shoehorn society into the particular structure that the deceased megalomaniac desires. He does (or rather did) this by setting up an impenetrable, multiply redundant, distributed computer network covering the entire globe which taps into the fact that most of us in the first world are willingly and irreversibly integrated into the network.
Sobol conscripts the disenfranchised of society: criminals, down and outs, obsessive computer gamers and the just plain bored to carry out his many, varied and finely tuned nefarious tasks. The combined forces of the NSA, CIA and any other US-centric TLA you care to imagine struggle unsuccessfully to defeat Sobol resulting in huge numbers of deaths.
The technology is pretty believable, set, as it is, five minutes from now: satnav and remotely controlled killer motor vehicles, GPS tracking, infiltration of mobile phones, in-game communication via avatars in virtual worlds; this is all doable right now and that does partially lift an otherwise unbelievable story.
The story suffers painfully from inconsistency and a lack of editing; there are a couple of characters who sort of thread through the entire story but far too many side characters are created, elaborated on for a few chapters, perform a single task and then disappear, on one occasion we get a page devoted to the life story of a guard who is killed at the top of the very next page. As for inconsistency, the player-characters are repeatedly informed by Sobol's various avatars that it is an algorithm and can only understand Yes or No responses, but then the same program code is analysing and responding to many thousands or tens of thousands of random human decisions acted out over many months (the book is inexplicably split into a number of sections relating to different periods of time) - and is prepared for each and every one of them (AI that's just being plain difficult?). If you're a computer gamer you'll probably enjoy the in-jokes that permeate this tale; it's obviously aimed at that particular target audience, it will however occasionally annoy such an audience by its "helpful" explanations - "JPEGs are a type of compressed image file" - erm, you don't say!
On the whole the book was enjoyable, but enjoyable in the way that diet soft drinks are: if you're that way inclined, drinking them will make you feel good about yourself, and there is that initial sweetness, but in the end it's just gassy stuff that leaves a nasty taste in your mouth. A very generous two stars.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fantastic
This is a fantastic read. I bought it on the recommendation of a podcast and was immersed straight from the start. Read more
Published 3 days ago by An Honest Reviewer
Very good
A great thriller novel that handles fairly technical information in a clever way. Anyone interested in technology, video games and cyber warfare should give this book a go.
Published 16 days ago by R. Greeno
Fantastic read
Techno thriller really hits the nail on the head this time.
I absolutely loved this book. Read more
I absolutely loved this book. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Phil Reilly
It's good until the end
This book is good 80% of the way through. The tech aspect of the book is spot on except for the fps gaming section. Read more
Published 3 months ago by 00Dog
Implausible thriller
This fast-paced technothriller is a bit too fanciful with the potential of computer technology to be believeable. Read more
Published 4 months ago by NiteSprite
Excellent, Gripping and Prophetic
An excellent gripping technological thriller with many twists and turns. Exhibits a deep level of thought. Many parallels can be drawn with the real world. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Alf43
One of my favourite books of recent times
I read this book a while back now but have come back to amazon to see if the next book was available by this author. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Sean Downey
Technology better than the writing
Having worked in IT for over 20 years I generally find the technology bits in thrillers a bit chringeworthy - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo being a good example. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Lendrick
A banquet for geeks and warning for the rest of us
Well I've read all the poor reviews but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down. Read more
Published 8 months ago by A. Halfacre
Brilliant
The book arrived quickly and in great condition. Happy with the service.
The book itself is amazing and recommend anyone with an interest in computers to read this.
The book itself is amazing and recommend anyone with an interest in computers to read this.
Published 8 months ago by Geek_reading_paper
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