Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumThere are 2 books i would like people to read, Daemon and Freedom(tm)
Last edited Sat Jan 30, 2016, 04:27 PM - Edit history (1)
By Daniel Suarez.
DANIEL SUAREZ is the author of the New York Times bestseller Daemon, Freedom, Kill Decision, and Influx. A former systems consultant to Fortune 1000 companies, he has designed and developed software for the defense, finance, and entertainment industries. With a lifelong interest in both IT systems and creative writing, his high-tech and sci-fi thrillers focus on technology-driven change. Suarez is a past speaker at TED Global, MIT Media Lab, NASA Ames, the Long Now Foundation, and the headquarters of Google, Microsoft, and Amazon -- among many others. Self-taught in software development, he is a graduate from the University of Delaware with a BA in English Literature. An avid PC and console gamer, his own world-building skills were bolstered through years as a pen & paper role-playing game moderator. He lives in Los Angeles, California.
Robin Cook on Daemon
Doctor and author Robin Cook is widely credited with introducing the word "medical" to the thriller genre. Thirty-one years after the publication of his breakthrough novel, Coma, he continues to dominate the category he created, including his most recent bestseller, Foreign Body, which explores a growing trend of medical tourism--first-world citizens traveling to third-world countries for 21st-century surgery.
Daemon is an ambitious novel, which sets out not only to entertain, which it surely does, but also to challenge the reader to consider social issues as broad as the implications of living in a technologically advanced world and whether democracy can survive in such a world.
The storyline portrays one possible world consequent to the development of the technological innovations that we currently live with and the reality that the author, Suarez, imagines will evolve, and it is chilling and tense (on www.thedaemon.com the reader can find evidence that the seemingly incredible advances Suarez proposes could in fact become real). Daemon is filled with multiple scenes involving power displays by the Daemon's allies resulting in complete loss of control by its enemies, violence with new and innovative weaponry, explosions, car crashes, blood, guts, and limbs-cut-off galore.
As far as computer complexity, Daemon will satisfy any computer geek's thirst. I was thankful for Pete Sebeck, the detective in the book whose average-person understanding of computers necessitates an occasional explanation about what is going on. I came away from the novel with a new understanding, respect, and fear of computer capability.
In the end, Suarez invites the reader to enter the "second age of reason," to think about where recent and imminent advances in computer technology are taking us and whether we want to go there. For me, it is this "thinking" aspect of the novel which makes it a particularly fun, satisfying, and significant read.
http://www.amazon.com/DAEMON-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451228731
Bottom line: Freedom is a solid sequel to Deamon and together they form a compelling thriller. For those that like big ideas and technological innovations you are in for a treat. No longer are big ideas and fully realized stories mutually exclusive. This is Michael Crichton meets Michael Chabon meets Joseph Campbell - ideas meets characters meets mythology. You do have to read Daemon first, but together they are a fun, intellectually stimulating joy ride through the near future.
Note: If you like the big ideas and technology behind the book, definitely check out Suarez's talk at the Long Now Foundation - Daniel Suarez: Daemon: Bot-mediated Reality.
http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-TM-Daniel-Suarez/dp/0451231899/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=080AP6HPDQZ7BPBN2EV3
Suarez has managed to capture the feelings that a lot of us feel, a lot that Occupy and The Bernie folks feel. I preferred the audio books as they are very good with an extremely good reader. I don't read as fast as I used to. They are a seat of the pants books, dealing with .001% greed, MIC, everything that we discuss here as a real techno thriller.
His site http://thedaemon.com
farleftlib
(2,125 posts)I'm always looking for my next book to read and these sound good. I hope these aren't too techy with the IT stuff. Whaddya think?
LiberalArkie
(15,728 posts)and gen-xers do to combat the .001%ers and the Monsantos and Goldman Sacks and the MIC out there. I started with the books and found the audio books had the best readers I had ever heard. So now I try to find other books with the same readers. They are long but are so worth it. I just finished my third reading of them. Seems that Bernie provoked me.
farleftlib
(2,125 posts)You must really like these books. I'm not terribly tech savvy but I love reading thrillers and the subject matter really does seem timely. Next time I have a few extra bucks for some new books, I'll check them out. Thanks for getting back to me.
LiberalArkie
(15,728 posts)Monsanto was doing to the small farmer, and wrote about the big multinational companies having traffic laws written to where they controlled everything and the news organizations were part of it, and etc and etc. What if someone wrote 2 books about all that and the reader could relate to all of it, because it is in the news. And what it the heros being the tech savvy young kids and the older adults. But the John Does out there watching their FOX and NBC etc had no idea of what was going on in the world.