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In the video, I go through the following:
- This is a techno-thriller. The author is in software development and an avid gamer. His expertise pervades the novel which I think fans of the Matrix will enjoy. If you have any interest in tech, and like fast-paced thrillers with some violence, this is for you.
- PLOT: Matthew Sobol, the head of Cyberstorm entertainment dies at age 34 and on his death he releases a program into cyberspace that uses aspects of multi-player online gaming and augmented reality.
- The book starts slowly with a murder of some employees of Cyberstorm – we find out that news posts on the internet determine what will happen next – as the program (the daemon) learns of certain events, it will trigger the next action in the program. When the FBI try to enter Sobol’s house, they are attacked and many killed by Sobol’s programmed defenses in order to protect his servers , and then the action escalates fast.
- The man is dead but has started all these initiatives that continue to trigger as different steps are taken to stop it. He has created a distributed company Daemon Industries with incredible power by owning the system administration for top companies and holding their data to ransom for the power, he destroys some companies that disobey the orders of the Daemon and manipulates share prices, aiming to dissolve nation states, moving power from large corporations into the hands of smaller groups who basically become parts in the multi-player game of reality the Daemon has created. It uses GPS coordinates over the world and vectors with augmented reality glasses that people use to see this overlaid world.
- It also has access through the games he created to people all over the world who start getting recruited to do tasks in the real world, including creating physical machinery. The government tries to spin the daemon as a hoax with no real power, but within months it’s taking over the world and declaring war on the establishment.
- Characters: Detective Pete Sebeck is involved when assigned to the initial case and he receives a video email from the (now dead) Sobol admitting to murders and hinting of what’s to come – what he doesn’t know is how much the Daemon will take from him personally before the story ends – much more would be a spoiler!
- Evil character known as Loki, who is brilliant at the multi-player games Cyberstorm created. After blitzing a top level, he is recruited by Sobol within the game to act as a physical representative in the world. The technical stuff behind this is wickedly creative, from someone who isn’t a gamer! He is transformed from a no-hoper into a powerful destroyer who uses AutoM8 (automated vehicles) and Razorbacks to wreak destruction on those the Daemon targets as parasites – including massacring spammers and government agents.
- Jon Ross - freelance computer programmer who plays the technical sidekick to Sebeck and acts as a moral figure in the gaming side, someone who understands and sympathizes with both sides. He becomes a warrior within the game and in the real world.
- What I particularly liked: Learning all about this other world of artificial intelligence, augmented reality, gaming, an underground culture. The technical side is skillfully woven into the plot and in a way that’s easy for anyone to understand. It’s a techno-thriller but not too technical. I also enjoyed the way the author twisted the good guys and the bad guys. Sobol starts off as this evil manipulator who is destroying the world from the grave, but as the story progresses, you wonder who the bad guy really is…
- What’s amazing is people are already talking about how augmented reality could soon be everywhere, the technologies explored in the novel are almost all real right now. On the author’s homepage, he has a tech news feed you can subscribe to which is scary for the cutting edge technology that is taking over.
- The first few chapters are a little slow so if you get a sample on the Kindle or Nook, read on. It’s a seriously great novel. I immediately bought the sequel ‘Freedom’ as soon as I’d finished. Brilliant! It is a violent novel in places, but it fits with the story.
Author website: TheDaemon.com
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