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    Daemon
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    Daemon
    Unavailable
    Daemon
    Audiobook16 hours

    Daemon

    Written by Daniel Suarez

    Narrated by Jeff Gurner

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Daniel Suarez's New York Times bestselling debut high-tech thriller is "so frightening even the government has taken note" (Entertainment Weekly).

    Daemons are small computer programs that run silently in the background, waiting for a specific event or time to activate. Only then do they carry out their intended purpose. From printing to buying and selling stocks and much more, they make our networked world possible. But they also make it vulnerable...

    When the obituary of legendary computer game architect Matthew Sobol appears online, a previously dormant daemon activates, initiating a chain of events that begins to unravel our interconnected world. This daemon reads news headlines, recruits human followers, and orders assassinations. With Sobol's secrets buried with him, and as new layers of his daemon are unleashed, it's up to Detective Peter Sebeck to stop a self-replicating virtual killer before it achieves its ultimate purpose. And to do so, he must uncover what that purpose is...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 8, 2009
    ISBN9781101015155
    Unavailable
    Daemon
    Author

    Daniel Suarez

    Daniel Suarez is an independent systems consultant to Fortune 1000 companies. He has designed and developed enterprise software for the defense, finance, and entertainment industries. An avid gamer and technologist he lives in the Western Hemisphere.

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    Reviews for Daemon

    4/5

    1,006 ratings92 reviews

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    • 3/5
      A decent techno-thriller. Reasonably fast-paced and plenty going on to keep the reader interested. It's quite tech-oriented, and tech-savvy readers might appreciate that - there's very little bullshit techno-babble that will cause too much eye rolling. Non technically minded people won't feel too left out for not knowing the specifics of the techno jargon mentioned.And now on to the criticisms. Early on in the book there is a particular scene involving some rather distasteful sexual exploitation, and it's fairly graphically depicted. If this bothers you, just be prepared to skip forward a couple of pages - you won't be missing anything important, and it's not really worth ditching the book for. I understand it's about character development, but really, it isn't important to the story and the author could have just left it out. Other than that, there are one or two "oh come now, that's a bit much" moments (automated armoured motorcycles with robot-arm swords? Really?) Also note that this is effectively a single story over two books, so this book ends rather abruptly without any real resolution. Be prepared to read Freedom after this one, or it's going to seem oddly incomplete.
    • 5/5
      Loved this. I really can't think of the last time I enjoyed a book focusing on computer technology. Normally I'm pulling my hair out. This was just awesome.
    • 4/5
      I don’t read too many thrillers, but this was recommended for fans of “Ready Player One”. It’s kinda longish, but it does involve some interesting concepts. Far-fetched concepts to be sure (a dead software developer somehow has the wherewithall to turn the world into an AR game, control all the world’s money, and make autonomic cars with ninja swords. It’s like Dr. Light in Mega Man X, who despite being a hologram in a buried capsule, knows who Zero is–this guy ain’t dead).However, like most thrillers, interesting characters get less screentime for the sake of suspense. People become talking heads for explaining and furthering the plot via investigations and news updates. They don’t have much personality.It’s a techno-thriller, so there’s going to be a lot of focus on IT stuff. It’s not terrible writing, but it’s not great. It’s like Stephen King minus the New England color. Meant to be a bestseller thriller. I’m not sure I’d put this on a list of “If you like Ready Player One, you’ll like…” — the mood is completely different: bleak and noir — but I was intrigued enough to put the sequel on my “to read” list (but that’s because the book just ends with no resolution/the bad guys win).
    • 1/5
      A terrible thriller. I thought the initial scene, of the FBI entering Sobol's house, was meant to be genre satire. It's entirely gratuitous and unrelated to the rest of the book. I couldn't tell the characters apart. At some point in the middle it gets slightly better. But then Suarez doesn't even bother writing an ending, it just stops.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. At the very beginning of the book, I felt like some of the characterization was a little forced, or possibly just done in too calculating a method. However, that's only within the first few chapters, and after that the individual voices of the characters were clear enough that I forgave the earlier issues.

      The plot is tense and moves forward at a quick pace, as any great thriller should. The ideas behind this story are both fascinating and terrifying, the latter because the technology described in the book currently exists. In fact, the technology is so current, I almost hesitate the place the label science fiction on it.

      My only real issue with the book is the abruptness of the ending, which does not resolve nearly enough of the sub-plots. Apparently, there is a sequel being released next year, titled Freedom TM, which explains why so many parts of the story are left unresolved. I've read that this book was originally at least twice as long, but he was asked to split it into two books for publishing, which makes sense, and is the only reason that I'm taking off one star.

      This is an excellent read, and helps to shed light on just how vulnerable we have made our society by using homogeneous and centralized networks.
    • 4/5
      Holy moly! What a ride! Computer game designer, Matthew Sobol dies and leaves behind a plan of cultural cleansing to be carried out by hidden servers and AI programs. How to fight a ghost? Pretty much all of the intelligence agencies are involved but are facing a cyber wall that is impenetrable and is always steps ahead of them. It's like playing three-D chess with a hologram. Hang on to your hat!
    • 4/5
      Fans of the likes of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson will find much to enjoy in this techno-thriller. And anyone paying attention to the recent Wikileaks story and the subsequent DDoS shenanigans of some of its supporters will quickly see how fiction can be very relevant to the real world at times. As for the book itself, inconsistent pacing and focus were really all that kept it from being a rare five-star for me.

      Specifically, the first third of the book was absolutely terrific as it introduced a number of mysteries and set the table in terms of both the characters and the cybernetwork in which the eponymous daemon would reside. Unfortunately, the middle third of the book began to lag quite a bit and lose its focus as it shifted too far from its technical underpinnings at times and spent too many pages on some of the daemon's minor foot soldiers, going so far as to try to develop characters that really didn't merit development in the larger scheme of things. Much of it seemed like filler, frankly. Then, in the final portion of the book, an overlong Die Hard With Cool Toys section hurt the cause, but it was followed up by an unexpected and creative conclusion that is equal parts closure and introduction to the inevitable sequel. All in all, an impressive addition to the genre, with some brilliant characters I enjoyed meeting.
    • 4/5
      As a practitioner of computer technology all my life, I have to say that I was aggravated at times by the misuse of acronyms and by the non-sensical use of technologies. However, though the events are far fetched ( it is a work of great fiction) they are still possible. It would require genius billionaire like Mathew Sobol ( a la Lex Luthor ) to start the ball rolling. Suarez did a brilliant job in making it understood that this required attacks from without and within, that no computer program is omnipotent or omniscient, it is good as the inputs provided, the algorithm(s) it runs as well as the actuators ( computer controlled devices and/or humans).

      A good read, certainly a page turner and I'm off to the library tomorrow to get Freedom, it's sequel.
    • 4/5
      Its an interesting novel in the sense of technology gone wild.
    • 3/5
      Fast paced and fun. I'm a slow reader, but this was like watching a movie. I was always dying to know the next plot twist. It made me think about how dependence makes us vulnerable to exploitation. And we're all dependent on something: income, family, technology, privacy, security, etc. Like good Sci-Fi, it also made me think about the limits of technology and its ubiquity.

      I wanted to like it more. I didn't get the villain's motivation and it didn't seem to tie all his plans together. Maybe the next book explains more. Did he really think the inevitable social evolution would require so much violent coercion? Did he really think saving a corrupt world requires so many innocent deaths.

      I know this is Sci-Fi, but I couldn't suspend disbelief with some parts and other parts seemed thin. Intelligence agencies were chronically shortsighted, and only decisive in retreat. And the hardcore, "leet", pierced, hacker-gamer-criminal-footsoldiers. Gag. And would such a vast conspiracy of losers really be so well contained? And the AI that somehow flawlessly exploits human psychology. I don't know.
    • 3/5
      a detective novel wrapped in lots of geekry.
    • 3/5
      I don't know what to make of this book. It started out as being incredibly clever but then it went on a "Mutant Robot Craze" and got boring. Maybe because of it I didn't understand the ending. I'll think about it and write a proper review afterwards.

      UPDATE: The book is not a book, is the first chapter of a whole series. Had I known that then wouldn't had read it.
    • 5/5
      Masterpiece.
    • 5/5
      Hard science fiction brought into the 21st century. Bringing together elements from Asimov's "Foundation", Jones' "Colossus" or "The Forbin Project", and even from Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma". Suarez adroitly weaves together a tale of modern technology that is eerily realistic and absolutely riveting.Audible's presentation is top-notch and highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      Surprisingly innovative. Loved the storyline. Immediately started the follow up book.
    • 4/5
      Interesting plot, but the audio cuts out frequently during the last 3 chapters.
    • 1/5
      threat level midnight fanfic. excruciating.
    • 5/5
      Fast paced cyber thriller. A little rocky in places, covers a lot of ground quickly, a bit terse in the story line at times. But I couldn't stop reading it. Looking forward to the sequel, FreedomTM
    • 2/5
      When I started this story I was impressed that the author was taking care to describe technology accurately. For instance, when a character needs to hack into a wifi connection the process he uses is spot on for that type of encryption. It was sadly hamstrung in the audiobook by a reader who seemed much less familiar with the tech than the author. Stunted narration and odd pronunciations really made things seem awkward.

      Pretty quickly the story was filled with action and violence. The characters were diverse and interesting and it was a bit of a mystery where things would turn.

      And so it was pretty sad when the end let me down. Characters didn't fulfill their potential, and sometimes seemed to forget their own motivations. The big message wasn't really there, nor was there a sense of resolution. The book was holding a pretty strong 3.5 rating until that point. Oh well.
    • 1/5
      crazy over the top, too much to continue reading....
    • 5/5
      I read the sequel first. I knew I'd read the first book after a couple of chapters but I just couldn't stop. This one is an even better pageturner. It somewhat needlessly tries to grasp for plausibility but it's still sufficiently ridiculous and gratifying. All the characters are memorable even if somewhat one-dimensional (which probably helps) but the important thing here is the premise of a computer system taking over the world. This is the sort of apocalypse I can totally get behind.
    • 2/5
      Interesting premise, quite accurate technically but the writing is really bad, one of the worst written books I've read in a while.
    • 5/5
      Loved this. I really can't think of the last time I enjoyed a book focusing on computer technology. Normally I'm pulling my hair out. This was just awesome.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this book, it reminded of a more mature "Ready Player One" but it wasn't as much fun. I'm looking forward to getting started on the sequel.
    • 5/5
      A gripping novel detailing just how possible it is to have everything we know controlled by technology, a technology designed by a man who was a master of the video game world, and controlled things from his grave. Definitely a good read if you are into technology, some of the wild ideas thought of in this book are already a reality with HUD glasses, and a 3D world available only to the user wearing the glasses. Great read! I actually missed my bus stop at one point it was so good... :P
    • 3/5
      Had some moments, but very low on character development. I dislike the series sense of this. I expect a book to be self-contained, even with a sequel coming.
    • 2/5
      This high-tech thriller stayed unpredictable, but it felt like the computer geek version of a Dan Brown novel or a screenplay in need of an editor. My suspension of disbelief was exercised more than during a typical Fantasy novel by the characters' choices as well as events outside their control.

      The author also had a way of focusing on unpleasantness that reminded me of gross-out horror movies, which I think was meant to make the villains more threatening, but which I just found off-putting.
    • 4/5
      Good beginning to what I assume will be a techno-thriller trilogy. The author has a better understanding of computers and networks than most people and almost demonstrates a Clancy-like tendency to sort of rub everyone's face in it. He sometimes falls in love with his own wild imagination which really sticks out when he is going for a realistic feel. But it does feel more possible than not and as such is successful in being a thriller that actually delivers the thrills.
    • 5/5


      Pretty damn good, but hardly anything is wrapped up in the end. *sigh*
    • 2/5
      I was wildly tired last night, so picked this up. Pretty compulsive read so far.

      It was compulsive in parts, but once you got all the pieces, less so. I like the idea behind it - very scarey and he's good at pushing the concept - but the books is too dependent on action verbs and caractures. I skimmed pages and pages. Still I'll probably, at the very least, skim the second to find out what happens.