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The Fridgularity
Chill out. It's only the technological singularity.
Blake Given’s web-enabled fridge has pulled the plug on the Internet, turning its owner’s life – and the whole world – upside down.
Blake has modest ambitions for his life. He wants to have his job reclassified, so he can join the Creative Department of the advertising firm where he works. And he wants to go out with Daphne, one of the account execs at the same company. His fridge has other plans. All Blake knows is he’s at the center of the Internet’s disappearance, worldwide economic and religious chaos, and the possibility of a nuclear apocalypse — none of which is helping him with his career plans or love life.
The Fridgularity is the story of a reluctant prophet, Internet addicts in withdrawal and a kitchen appliance with delusions of grandeur.
Blake Given’s web-enabled fridge has pulled the plug on the Internet, turning its owner’s life – and the whole world – upside down.
Blake has modest ambitions for his life. He wants to have his job reclassified, so he can join the Creative Department of the advertising firm where he works. And he wants to go out with Daphne, one of the account execs at the same company. His fridge has other plans. All Blake knows is he’s at the center of the Internet’s disappearance, worldwide economic and religious chaos, and the possibility of a nuclear apocalypse — none of which is helping him with his career plans or love life.
The Fridgularity is the story of a reluctant prophet, Internet addicts in withdrawal and a kitchen appliance with delusions of grandeur.
412 pages, Paperback
First published November 5, 2012
14 people are currently reading
602 people want to read
About the author
Mark A. Rayner
13 books169 followersDon’t panic, it’s only Mark A. Rayner, award-winning author of satirical books, absurd fiction and the occasional screed on the problems with time travel novels. When he’s not writing about the infinite universe theory and manic pixie aliens, Mark teaches at Western University in Canada, which definitely doesn’t have a beaver problem.
Connect with him on Mastodon at @markarayner@mas.to.
Even better, if you want early reads, beta reads and other goodies, then slip into the Raynerverse by subscribing to his newsletter. You can get a free book if you do!
Connect with him on Mastodon at @markarayner@mas.to.
Even better, if you want early reads, beta reads and other goodies, then slip into the Raynerverse by subscribing to his newsletter. You can get a free book if you do!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
June 25, 2013
Book Info: Genre: Apocalyptic Parody/Science Fiction Satire
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Folks who can find the funny, folks who will not be bothered by my warning (set apart in my thoughts and underlined for your convenience in places where formatting is allowed).
My Thoughts: The Fridgularity is hilarious! It all starts with Blake’s fridge, of course.
People freak out, of course, when they realize the Internet is down. One of Blake’s more fundamentalist co-workers announces that it must mean The End, and Blake thinks some thing that, well...
Warning: If you are seriously offended by non-PC terms for the developmentally challenged and such terms being used in a derogatory manner toward other people will cause you upset and distress, then just avoid this book for your own blood pressure. It’s only a short scene, but for some people that’s enough.
But overall the reactions of people to the events around them are absolutely priceless and should amuse almost everyone. Pete Soan, a gamer, comes out of his basement and wanders in a bathrobe, eventually ending up reading poetry at a pub. And then, “...as is inevitable at pre-apocalyptic poetry readings, someone threw the first punch.” And at the hospital, “There was the usual assortment of drug addicts, hypochondriacs, and mental cases too – and that was just the doctors.”
Speaking of the various crazy people at the hospital, my favorite character was Dr. Max Tundra, a psych resident who is very interested in expanding his consciousness with various substances. This short conversation with Blake really shows why I loved this guy.
Blake has what he calls a superpower – that is, when the manure hits the impeller blade, he becomes preternaturally calm. In one of the many scenes in which he is under attack, he quips, “Okay, I’d like to make a motion to pitch this table over and hide behind it like frightened politicians, seconders?” The only time this deserts him is when he is confronted with Daphne, on whom he has a terrible crush.
Rayner has a real gift for vivid (and hilarious) description. Take Barry Onderson, for instance, one of Blake’s co-workers:
Now, in a lot of ways this is a seriously silly book, don’t get me wrong. If you have any sort of sense of humor you will laugh yourself silly. However, this is also some (serious while being seriously silly) indictments of fundamentalist attitudes and dogmatic religion in general that I think, in our current world climate, are some ideas that people really need to take to heart concerning peace, divisiveness, and how to live with one another. I’m pretty impressed with how this author manages to get such a serious topic so cleverly worked into such a funny story.
So, at the end of the day, I really loved this book and I plan to seek out more works by this very talented author, who has a number of published works out there. I hope that this review will inspire a few of you to seek out this book when it is made available week after next, because it’s really very good! Thanks to the author for contacting me to read this – you have a new fan!
Disclosure: I received a free advanced reading copy of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: Chill out. It's only the technological singularity.
Blake Given’s web-enabled fridge has pulled the plug on the Internet, turning its owner’s life – and the whole world – upside down.
Blake has modest ambitions for his life. He wants to have his job reclassified, so he can join the Creative Department of the advertising firm where he works. And he wants to go out with Daphne, one of the account execs at the same company. His fridge has other plans. All Blake knows is he’s at the center of the Internet’s disappearance, worldwide economic and religious chaos, and the possibility of a nuclear apocalypse — none of which is helping him with his career plans or love life.
The Fridgularity is the story of a reluctant prophet, Internet addicts in withdrawal and a kitchen appliance with delusions of grandeur.
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Folks who can find the funny, folks who will not be bothered by my warning (set apart in my thoughts and underlined for your convenience in places where formatting is allowed).
My Thoughts: The Fridgularity is hilarious! It all starts with Blake’s fridge, of course.
“Blake had a web-enabled fridge... One of those ultra-cool, brushed stainless steel (sic) numbers that every yuppie in his neighborhood either owned or coveted like Old Testament perverts coveted their neighbor’s donkeys...”This was to enable, ultimately, easier reordering of groceries and such, but in reality, “On the plus side, the web-enabled fridge did allow Blake to check his Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter accounts while he ate Cheerios in his underwear.” Which is all anyone really wants.
People freak out, of course, when they realize the Internet is down. One of Blake’s more fundamentalist co-workers announces that it must mean The End, and Blake thinks some thing that, well...
Warning: If you are seriously offended by non-PC terms for the developmentally challenged and such terms being used in a derogatory manner toward other people will cause you upset and distress, then just avoid this book for your own blood pressure. It’s only a short scene, but for some people that’s enough.
But overall the reactions of people to the events around them are absolutely priceless and should amuse almost everyone. Pete Soan, a gamer, comes out of his basement and wanders in a bathrobe, eventually ending up reading poetry at a pub. And then, “...as is inevitable at pre-apocalyptic poetry readings, someone threw the first punch.” And at the hospital, “There was the usual assortment of drug addicts, hypochondriacs, and mental cases too – and that was just the doctors.”
Speaking of the various crazy people at the hospital, my favorite character was Dr. Max Tundra, a psych resident who is very interested in expanding his consciousness with various substances. This short conversation with Blake really shows why I loved this guy.
Blake: “What, no hallucinogenic smoothie?”I would love an entire book about Max, I think. Edit: There are two short stories featuring Max in Pirate Therapy and Other Cures.
Max: “That’s only for breakfast, Blake, you know that.”
Blake has what he calls a superpower – that is, when the manure hits the impeller blade, he becomes preternaturally calm. In one of the many scenes in which he is under attack, he quips, “Okay, I’d like to make a motion to pitch this table over and hide behind it like frightened politicians, seconders?” The only time this deserts him is when he is confronted with Daphne, on whom he has a terrible crush.
Rayner has a real gift for vivid (and hilarious) description. Take Barry Onderson, for instance, one of Blake’s co-workers:
“Head of Accounting, and the most pungent man in the firm, who smelled like he bathed in cabbage that had been half-digested by goats fed on a steady diet of garlic, onions,and pure evil.” That is … very stinky!Also, the description of Blake after a night of drinking was priceless: “drunken-slash-paranoid-slash-lovesick-slash-hungry-for-chicken-wings existential ennui.” Another I really like was, “About as hopeful as a Dadaist’s chance of finding the penguin.” And one more: “... the wind screeching like an eldritch proctology patient with a large-fingered doctor too cheap to buy lubricant.”
Now, in a lot of ways this is a seriously silly book, don’t get me wrong. If you have any sort of sense of humor you will laugh yourself silly. However, this is also some (serious while being seriously silly) indictments of fundamentalist attitudes and dogmatic religion in general that I think, in our current world climate, are some ideas that people really need to take to heart concerning peace, divisiveness, and how to live with one another. I’m pretty impressed with how this author manages to get such a serious topic so cleverly worked into such a funny story.
So, at the end of the day, I really loved this book and I plan to seek out more works by this very talented author, who has a number of published works out there. I hope that this review will inspire a few of you to seek out this book when it is made available week after next, because it’s really very good! Thanks to the author for contacting me to read this – you have a new fan!
Disclosure: I received a free advanced reading copy of this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Synopsis: Chill out. It's only the technological singularity.
Blake Given’s web-enabled fridge has pulled the plug on the Internet, turning its owner’s life – and the whole world – upside down.
Blake has modest ambitions for his life. He wants to have his job reclassified, so he can join the Creative Department of the advertising firm where he works. And he wants to go out with Daphne, one of the account execs at the same company. His fridge has other plans. All Blake knows is he’s at the center of the Internet’s disappearance, worldwide economic and religious chaos, and the possibility of a nuclear apocalypse — none of which is helping him with his career plans or love life.
The Fridgularity is the story of a reluctant prophet, Internet addicts in withdrawal and a kitchen appliance with delusions of grandeur.
June 24, 2013
The Fridgularity by Mark A. Rayner
It’s been said that the meek shall inherit the earth. Maybe society should think deeper about who the meek truly are.
An underpaid, under-appreciated, worker bee type, Blake Given, lived his life just like most people in the world do everyday. He had a routine, from which he rarely faltered; he was in love with a woman, with which whom he was too shy to talk; and he had a life with little meaning, at least so he thought.
Blake Given never could have imagined the fame that would’ve come with the Apocalypse. Of course, it was less of a stretch then communicating with his web enabled fridge, fighting off flying monkeys and swashbuckling pirates, and/or watching helplessly as cyber-zombies took over his home!
No one said Armageddon would be boring.
I want to give a special thanks to Mark A. Rayner who blessed me with a copy of this hilarious and heart-warming book in exchange for an honest review. I will NEVER be able to repay him for the hours of laughter this story has brought into my life!
One of the things I really enjoyed about the book is how you were immersed into this post-apocalyptic, sci-fi, dystopian world and yet it seemed like just another day in the neighborhood. Even when the most absurd of predicaments were being played out people seemed to adjust with almost alarming desensitization. It makes me wonder how many would react if the real world fell apart tomorrow.
Book Excerpt:
“"That’s the thing about the collapse of civilization, Blake. It never happens according to plan – there’s no slavering horde of zombies. No actinic flash of thermonuclear war. No Earth-shuddering asteroid. The end comes in unforeseen ways; the stock market collapses, and then the banks, and then there is no food in the supermarkets, or the communications system goes down completely and inevitably, and previously amiable co-workers find themselves wrestling over the last remaining cookie that someone brought in before all the madness began."”
Most Americans, and Canadians (and people all over this world), are ill prepared for disaster. Even evil incarnate itself, aka The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, suggest all persons have a minimum of three days supplies on-hand; food, water, and medication. It makes you wonder what they know that they aren’t sharing!
As brilliant as this story was, you must admit that many of the characters survived on a cocktail of luck, coincidence, and denial shaken not stirred! Bob, and his family, were the only ones that seemed “prepared” in any kind of way for inevitable catastrophe, and yet they couldn’t predict a government door smash. Their character’s seemed more alert and educated than that. Maybe I feel that way because in the event of the Apocalypse I think I might be Bob! I hope I’m smarter than that.
Book Excerpt:
“...the little radio frequency identification tags that were supposedly going to be embedded in every single food item were never embedded in every single food item because nobody wanted to pay extra for having little radio tags embedded in their milk, broccoli, and jars of grape jelly.”
I was barely into the book and already I wanted to hide it in the freezer like the Joey character on the TV Show: Friends did with The Shining !
“From embedded microchips to RFID tracking, the cashless society roll out is going on in full force. With children thumbscanning to get their lunches and amusement park goers biometrically scanning for entry, we are being trained to use our biometric signatures as payment and identification. Trendy clubs around the globe have begun to surgically implant their VIP customers with microchips that they can use to pay for their bar tabs, making it "cool" to "get chipped." Now these "hip" and "elite" customers won't have to bring their wallet out with them to have a good time. Soon RFID tags will be in everything from pharmaceuticals to clothing. Exclusive clothiers are already using the tags to recognize customers as they walk in the door from what they are wearing. This is a global system. Our passports will now be biometric, the information stored on an RFID chip. National id legislation has been passed with the same big brother technology onboard.”
- Alex Jones, Welcome to the Cashless Society Control Grid Webpage.
Don’t worry, my foil hat is fully functional!
Book Excerpt:
“Then, as is inevitable at pre-apocalyptic poetry readings, someone threw the first punch.”
I have to say, The Prophet surprised me throughout the story. He proved time and again his propensity for violence, and yet I still viewed him as a lover not a fighter; even as I turned the last page of his tale. It may not be a popular stance, but I found myself relating more to Lord Sona than Blake. I almost wish things had worked out differently for him.
Book Excerpt:
“"Oh yeah. I heard some docs saying it’s an overreaction, but that’s the point, right? People who have so much of their personality invested in the Internet can’t really survive as whole individuals without it."”
This generation coming up will be wiped out in less than 72-hrs. if the Internet ever goes down, let alone the power! I don’t think the vast majority of them know how to conversate without their thumbs. I know they don’t know how to make eye-contact, unless it’s through a webcam!
The Will character grew the most throughout the book, but look where he started. It’s hard to believe that he handled some of the trials and tribulations that he endured so well. I don’t think I could be as strong as Will had become, and I wish we saw a little more about how he came to be such a man about things.
Book Excerpt:
“It seemed that a goodly percentage of his demographic was completely unhinged by the lack of digital media, and those who were not catatonic were instead mindless, barely aware of their surroundings. But even the pixelated static of the Big Crash was enough to arouse their appetites; like human brains to the traditional zombie, the hope of digital diversion drew these CZs.”
The author, Mark A. Rayner, knows how to set a scene! Living in Pittsburgh, all that came to mind were scenes from George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead . Only the lead zombie always seemed to take form of my teenage son looking for a Wi-Fi hot spot.
Book Excerpt:
“…"But here we are, and you are in this incredible position. A unique position. I use that word as it should be used, as it is rarely used correctly. You are the only person who has ever been chosen by another intelligence to be its mouthpiece, its spokesperson. Nobody else has ever had that chance. Unless you count, like, Moses and Jesus and so on, but really. I mean, obviously that’s all myth. Sorry, you’re not religious, are you? I shouldn’t say things like that without knowing. Anyway, we think this is really important. Humanity is no longer alone. There are other intelligent beings, and we want to help you deal with it."”
The responsibility that was laid on Blake’s shoulders was tremendous. It’s a testament to his character that he did not break down and just let Zathir (the web enabled fridge) nuke the world! I don’t know many men who would’ve held it together.
We’re not far off from an age where intelligence like Zathir is a reality. When that happens, will there be a need for humans? All the greats talked about it; philosophers, poets, politicians, founders, religious leaders, psychics/mystics, etc. How is it we still aren’t prepared? Is the Human Race really this stupid? I fear the answer is YES!
Book Excerpt:
“To live for the hope of something isn’t really living at all, and so, like a child putting away its toys and picking up a tool, he marched to Lyca’s bathroom, to shower off the stench of failure, soap up the death of hope, then wash away the ashes of his love for Daphne.”
This is my favorite quote of the book.
In that moment, Blake had a moment of growth. I don’t think it was just about his school yard crush on Daphne. I think it was a metaphor for much more.
With as crushed as Blake was at Daphne’s rejection I do not understand how he ever felt it was anything but a set up when Daphne changed her mind. Living in the pressure cooker that was Landon I can see how Blake and Lyca and the others looked past a lot, but some things were obvious.
It’s silly, but I noticed the group resembled characters from a Scooby Doo cartoon sometimes, lol! I wonder if Mark A. Rayner is a fan? Think about it:
Scooby-Doo = Will Valens
Shaggy Rogers = Dr. Maximilian Tundra
Frederick "Fred" Jones, Jr. = Blake "The Speaker of the Emerging Oneness" Given
Daphne Blake = Daphne (Can’t Remember Her Last Name!)
Velma Dinkley = Lyca "Lesbrarian" Chesley
This book had so many people, places, and well… things! At one point I started keeping a cheat sheet to keep it all straight! I tease, but; the book is detailed, the plot solid, and the characters complex. As a whole, it makes for a literary adventure unlike no other!
Book Excerpt:
“…"She’d heated a can of soup while he showered and placed the pan in the middle of the table."”
Okay this is a pet peeve of mine. They do this in commercials to sell flashlights and lanterns a lot as well, and no one ever seems to catch it. With very few exceptions, stoves would NOT work in the event of a power outage. It does not matter if the stove is gas or electric because all stoves post, let’s say 70’s, have an electric switch even if they are gas. Unless you have a wood burning stove you are not cooking in the dark!
Book Excerpt:
“A few others gathered around the breakfast nook and took up the pens and paper that were still there to play a little Twitter. They scratched on their paper and then passed the paper around.”
I loved this idea! What a great way for The Networked to feel plugged in when all seemed lost. You know, there are a lot of kids growing up today that will be lost like this if the Internet were to disappear. The world may as well explode, it’d be kinder.
Book Excerpt:
“Winter arrived with December, and the world continued to suffer the loss of the Internet and most forms of communication. Supply chains were disrupted. The only mass form of personal communication was the letter, and postal workers were having their worst year ever, as they were actually meeded. Food was becoming scarcer and more expensive, as was fuel for vehicles and heating. Major cities experienced riots on a regular basis, spurred on by religious fervor and want. Civilization was on the brink of collapse.”
People don’t think about truck drivers on a regular basis unless they work in the industry. The fact is that they keep our stores filled with the products we take for granted every day. If their communication system goes down, their roads are blocked, and/or their suppliers are closed stores won’t last more than three days before having to shut their doors.
Mail runs into the same dilemmas as the average trucker. Unless we plan to revert to horses and sail boats sending letters in an Apocalypse won’t be very handy! Still, most teenagers wouldn’t be capable of writing a letter now-a-days. A pen and paper has no spell check!
The people of Landon, Ontario spent no time at all starting up the newspaper, but educating the children didn’t seem to be a priority. I think they were all in denial about how long the chaos was going to last.
Book Excerpt:
“It was a brave old world.”
I didn’t agree with the author that the backstory of how Landon got it’s name didn’t add much to the story. I wished he left it in. It brought a sense of historical value and foundation for community. I found the cut section of the story on the author’s, Mark A. Rayner’s, blog. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND it.
Book Excerpt:
“…he would be leaving on an extended journey of the major population centers in Canada and the United States.”
These population centers remind me of FEMA Camps.
Throughout the United States fully operational FEMA Camps have been built and are ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and sometimes surrounded by full-time guards, but for the most part they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States.
On October 17, 2006, President Bush signed into law, the John Warner Defense Authorization Act. This is a law that allows the President to declare a “public emergency” at his own discretion, and place federal troops anywhere throughout the United States. Under this law, the President also now has the authority to federalize National Guard troops without the consent of Governors, in order to restore “public order.” The President can now deploy federal troops to U.S. cities, at will, which eliminates the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act.
In recent years the government has begun funding large-scale school and sports center remodeling projects. It is a common theory that these facilities are really secretly equipped FEMA camps waiting at the ready.
What The Singularity thought it would gain from a tour of these death encampments I wasn’t very clear. Maybe Pete thought he could take over one of the camps. It just didn’t seem to be about recruitment.
Book Excerpt:
“…"Who knows if we can even get food grown and distributed without our technology?"
"I haven’t heard of there being a problem with growing food. I thought it was just logistical issues."
"Everyone’s keeping it out of the papers. We don’t want panic."”
Speaking of logistical issues, I really wish that when Zathir spoke we could read in the typeface he was using. The FONTs he chose were such a huge part of who he was as a personality. Printing a book in that manner, however; would most likely be a logistical nightmare!
An why do we need tech to grow food? We have really screwed this world up! I remember working on the farm as a kid and we used our backs, NOT our calculators! People need to get outside and remember what it’s like to get dirty again!
Book Excerpt:
“A dreamcatcher hung from the handle of his glovebox, decorated with jet black feathers. He smiled at her, a middle-aged man, looking tired and perhaps worried. "You’re pretty cold. Here, I’ll turn up the heat."
"Are those raven feathers?"
"I don’t know. They could be, I suppose."
"Figures"…”
The raven reminded me of Flagg from Stephen King novels. Only slightly a better soul, not so demonic! I wish it had been a bigger storyline.
Book Excerpt:
“"He would have to explain this mess to the world, and he had to do it soon. The next stage of history was about to begin."”
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book!
Okay professor how’d I do?
Review provided by DJ Harris (aka DJ6ual):
November 12, 2012
Reading this book in bed, I keep waking up my wife with my poorly suppressed laughter. Clearly this book causes marital problems.
November 28, 2012
from author
Read 11/19/12 - 11/23/12
3.5 Stars - Recommended to font and word nerds, internet addicts, and end-times humorists.
Pgs: 397
Publisher: Monkeyjoy Press
Published: November 2012
I'm a GenXer. Born into that strange "slacker" generation where the Baby Boomers weren't yet ready to loosen up their death grip on the cool corporate jobs and personal computers and MTV suddenly became permanent fixtures in our daily lives - slowly softening, then mushing, then downright killing our brain cells. I can clearly remember the day our Word Processor was replaced with the Commodore 64. And the day my parents allowed us to upgrade our gaming system from Atari to Nintendo is forever etched into my mind. Or how about this doozey... remember Webtv? Microsoft's failed attempt at bridging the gap between those who were afraid of the internet and those who just couldn't afford a home pc? Yup I owned one of those bad boys! Even bought one for my mom when I moved out so we could keep in touch more easily. Heck, I think the first time I ever used a real, honest to goodness computer was in my High School Journalism class. It's amazing to me that my kids were TAUGHT on pc's in preschool and kindergarten.
And please don't get me started on the transition from LP's to cassette tapes to CD's to MP3's.... I'm still a little bitter about being forced to move through each one of those phases; I lost some amazing albums along the way. And how about the evolution of the telephone? From princess dialers to wall mounted 20 foot corded phones to portables to cell phones to internet-enabled smart phones? Mind. Has. Been. Blown.
The one thing I will say about my generation? We are awesome at adapting. In a time of ever-growing and ever-changing technology, we've sort of had no choice. If it can be dreamed, it can BE!
And if you were to turn to me one day and inform me that our technology has grown smarter than us and is currently holding the internet hostage while it builds itself up into a god-like entity, well hell, I'd probably be awfully likely to accept and adapt to that too.
In Mark A Rayner's newest release, Fridgularity (a satire on technological singularity), that is exactly what is happening when a web-dependent generation is suddenly and horrifically without internet. An end-of-the-world panic blankets our Canadian characters with fear and a geeky corporate boy named Blake Givens is chosen by the bi-polar internet-stealing entity calling itself Zathir as its Speaker.
The country quickly divides itself into two groups - those who pledge allegiance to the extremely reluctant Blake and worship Zathir as the New Machine God, and those who follow the anti-Zathir movement led by Lord Sona (a lowly gamer who's tired of being a nobody). While these two factions duke it out, Blake finds himself acting as mentor and therapist to this highly unstable entity, which chooses to speak to him through his web-enabled fridge using a variety of fonts and poor grammar structure, while trying to keep his friends alive and healthy. The younger generation, those who have been plugged into the net since birth, are having a helluva time coping - fighting the urge to become cyber-zombies, they "play" twitter and write on Blake's walls in an attempt to share information and validate each other's existence as they wait for the world to either return to normal or evolve under Zathir's new consciousness.
I want to laugh, but I can totally relate to the paralysis that accompanies not having access to Twitter or Goodreads or my blog. When my computer caught a virus that kept me offline for over a week, I was incredibly thankful for my Droid and Kindle Fire. Without them and their web-enabled little hearts, I probably would have been one of those cyber-zombies pacing the floors every five minutes, unable to read a book for fear of coming across an amazing sentence that screamed TWEET ME. Go ahead, I don't care what generation you were born into, try to live a week without being able to access the internet. I bet you use it more than you realize you do. And I bet by the end of the week you'd be biting your nails down to the nub... no email, no facebook, no evernote to jot down reminders for things... That's the power of Fridgularity... the more you think about it all, the more scary it becomes.... Mwahhahahaha
Rayner constructs this complicated new world with tongue firmly stuck in cheek. It's 1984's Big Brother but at a much more alien, satirical, and technologically crippling scale. It's a world I hope I don't have to ever adapt to, that's for sure!
Read 11/19/12 - 11/23/12
3.5 Stars - Recommended to font and word nerds, internet addicts, and end-times humorists.
Pgs: 397
Publisher: Monkeyjoy Press
Published: November 2012
I'm a GenXer. Born into that strange "slacker" generation where the Baby Boomers weren't yet ready to loosen up their death grip on the cool corporate jobs and personal computers and MTV suddenly became permanent fixtures in our daily lives - slowly softening, then mushing, then downright killing our brain cells. I can clearly remember the day our Word Processor was replaced with the Commodore 64. And the day my parents allowed us to upgrade our gaming system from Atari to Nintendo is forever etched into my mind. Or how about this doozey... remember Webtv? Microsoft's failed attempt at bridging the gap between those who were afraid of the internet and those who just couldn't afford a home pc? Yup I owned one of those bad boys! Even bought one for my mom when I moved out so we could keep in touch more easily. Heck, I think the first time I ever used a real, honest to goodness computer was in my High School Journalism class. It's amazing to me that my kids were TAUGHT on pc's in preschool and kindergarten.
And please don't get me started on the transition from LP's to cassette tapes to CD's to MP3's.... I'm still a little bitter about being forced to move through each one of those phases; I lost some amazing albums along the way. And how about the evolution of the telephone? From princess dialers to wall mounted 20 foot corded phones to portables to cell phones to internet-enabled smart phones? Mind. Has. Been. Blown.
The one thing I will say about my generation? We are awesome at adapting. In a time of ever-growing and ever-changing technology, we've sort of had no choice. If it can be dreamed, it can BE!
And if you were to turn to me one day and inform me that our technology has grown smarter than us and is currently holding the internet hostage while it builds itself up into a god-like entity, well hell, I'd probably be awfully likely to accept and adapt to that too.
In Mark A Rayner's newest release, Fridgularity (a satire on technological singularity), that is exactly what is happening when a web-dependent generation is suddenly and horrifically without internet. An end-of-the-world panic blankets our Canadian characters with fear and a geeky corporate boy named Blake Givens is chosen by the bi-polar internet-stealing entity calling itself Zathir as its Speaker.
The country quickly divides itself into two groups - those who pledge allegiance to the extremely reluctant Blake and worship Zathir as the New Machine God, and those who follow the anti-Zathir movement led by Lord Sona (a lowly gamer who's tired of being a nobody). While these two factions duke it out, Blake finds himself acting as mentor and therapist to this highly unstable entity, which chooses to speak to him through his web-enabled fridge using a variety of fonts and poor grammar structure, while trying to keep his friends alive and healthy. The younger generation, those who have been plugged into the net since birth, are having a helluva time coping - fighting the urge to become cyber-zombies, they "play" twitter and write on Blake's walls in an attempt to share information and validate each other's existence as they wait for the world to either return to normal or evolve under Zathir's new consciousness.
I want to laugh, but I can totally relate to the paralysis that accompanies not having access to Twitter or Goodreads or my blog. When my computer caught a virus that kept me offline for over a week, I was incredibly thankful for my Droid and Kindle Fire. Without them and their web-enabled little hearts, I probably would have been one of those cyber-zombies pacing the floors every five minutes, unable to read a book for fear of coming across an amazing sentence that screamed TWEET ME. Go ahead, I don't care what generation you were born into, try to live a week without being able to access the internet. I bet you use it more than you realize you do. And I bet by the end of the week you'd be biting your nails down to the nub... no email, no facebook, no evernote to jot down reminders for things... That's the power of Fridgularity... the more you think about it all, the more scary it becomes.... Mwahhahahaha
Rayner constructs this complicated new world with tongue firmly stuck in cheek. It's 1984's Big Brother but at a much more alien, satirical, and technologically crippling scale. It's a world I hope I don't have to ever adapt to, that's for sure!
July 26, 2013
3.5 stars
My friend Betsy just moved into her new home and she needed to purchase a new refrigerator because the one that came with the house was disgusting beyond cleaning belief. So, she went to the store and asked the clerk if they had a fridge that she could just plug into the outlet and it would start working, nothing fancy because she didn't need it. Well it turns out, according to Betsy, that they don't make fridges without bells and whistles any more. The one she ended up buying came with a 500 page manual and when she couldn't get it programmed properly the first time, she had to actually read the instructions. Three hours later, she sighed and said "I think it would be easier if they just made a web enabled fridge." I said, "be careful what you wish for," and proceeded to tell her about this story:
It's a satire on how dependent we've become on technology, especially the Internet. Our lives are lived out on Tumbler, Facebook, Twitter. It's impossible not to have an Internet persona these days. However, what would happen if the Internet went down for an undisclosed amount of time, due to a higher being called Zathir, that communicates through your web-enabled fridge in different but effective fonts, took over? How would you react? Would you turn into a zombie or would you make the most of it and try to have an adventure?
My favorite character in this one was Lyca. She loves to read and makes the most out of the mess. She's the one that handles the situation the best and isn't annoying like some of the other characters.
While, this book had its moments of being funny, I wanted more, especially at the end.
All in all, a fun satirical journey that is a must read for anyone and everyone who uses or comes in contact with technology on a regular basis.
My friend Betsy just moved into her new home and she needed to purchase a new refrigerator because the one that came with the house was disgusting beyond cleaning belief. So, she went to the store and asked the clerk if they had a fridge that she could just plug into the outlet and it would start working, nothing fancy because she didn't need it. Well it turns out, according to Betsy, that they don't make fridges without bells and whistles any more. The one she ended up buying came with a 500 page manual and when she couldn't get it programmed properly the first time, she had to actually read the instructions. Three hours later, she sighed and said "I think it would be easier if they just made a web enabled fridge." I said, "be careful what you wish for," and proceeded to tell her about this story:
It's a satire on how dependent we've become on technology, especially the Internet. Our lives are lived out on Tumbler, Facebook, Twitter. It's impossible not to have an Internet persona these days. However, what would happen if the Internet went down for an undisclosed amount of time, due to a higher being called Zathir, that communicates through your web-enabled fridge in different but effective fonts, took over? How would you react? Would you turn into a zombie or would you make the most of it and try to have an adventure?
My favorite character in this one was Lyca. She loves to read and makes the most out of the mess. She's the one that handles the situation the best and isn't annoying like some of the other characters.
While, this book had its moments of being funny, I wanted more, especially at the end.
All in all, a fun satirical journey that is a must read for anyone and everyone who uses or comes in contact with technology on a regular basis.
October 27, 2012
"People are willing to die for Twitter, you know."
The "Internet of Things" is barely a thing and already there is someone satirizing the living Snape out of it.
That person is Mark A. Rayner, who, it seems, never met a science fiction/fact trope that he didn't want to mock thoroughly and well (witness his astonishing short fiction tour-de-force, Pirate Therapy, to which he provides ample links in his Twitter feed).
Get past the smiles -- the internet emerges into conscious intelligence but decides, somehow, that its interface with the human world will be through the screen on the web-enabled refrigerator belonging to Blake Givens, Canadian doofus -- though, and you'll see that Rayner has more on his mind than just cheap laughs at the expense of our dependence on digital technology and how weird that is making the world. For part and parcel with the intelligence's emergence is its takeover of all of said technology for its own growth and purposes. Zathir, as it/they start calling itself/themselves*, has taken away the internet, leaving humanity to make do with whatever old analog technology it can scrounge up and get working again to stay alive and function as a society.**
As has been posited by the sort of people who like to think about happenstances like this one -- by which I mean pretty much every doomsday type we know -- the younger generations handle this the least well. Rayner milks much humor from scenarios of bereft social media addicts "playing Twitter" by passing around Post-It notes with 140 character messages, complete with hashtags, "playing Pinterest" by pinning magazine cut-outs onto Blake's couch, and scrawling on the walls of Blake's house to recreate a certain other social media outlet that it makes my head vomit to contemplate and so I will not name here. While others rebuild the world, these "Networked" await more messages from Zathir via Blake's kitchen. It's a very funny notion, except when it's not.
Which is to say that Rayner does a very fine job, indeed, of balancing between mockery and hand-wringing, even before this scenario explodes into ridiculous and appalling sectarian conflict and poetry slamming. And while Rayner's absurdist edge is never far from view, for long stretches of this story the man is dead serious. He has not only thought of the comedic but the tragic possibilities of a post-Internet world in which we have allowed our non-virtual skills to wither and dwindle into something we have to look up in what dead-tree books we haven't destroyed to scan into ebook form.
And, in Blake, he's given us a believable everyman, not a complete hero (though he does manage some physical feats that the average netizen would probably find all but impossible), but not an utter boob either (except when the Girl of His Dreams is around). Martin Freeman could play him credibly in the film version, though he might be a bit old. Pitted against him is one "Lord" Sona, a former hardcore videogamer who has turned his WoW-oid online posse into a real-world freakshow-cum-religious crusade that has declared jihad on Zathir and Blake, because, well, what else is a fat guy with a pizza fixation going to do in this world, apparently?
In truth, Sona's villainy is probably the least plausible element in the story, even as it is also the most entertaining. He's an over-the-top combination of pathos and puissance even when he isn't being undercut by his choice of undergarment or home furnishings. All that's missing is a mustache to twirl, but somebody else got that, for this story.
All in all, Fridgularity is a fun way to think about the unthinkable. Can the world really be brought to this kind of a pass, this way? Probably not. But it could be something like this, a little, that brings it all down, and it never hurts to be reminded of that, does it?
Hold onto those shortwave radios, kids.
*As makes sense for a conglomeration of too-intelligent household appliances, social media networks, newswire services and military guidance systems, it sometimes seems like a singular and sometimes a collective entity, its font choices on Blake's refrigerator screen providing the most important clue to how it's regarding itself at any given time.
**This includes, delightfully, a renewed importance for the good old DX crew, ham radio operators who to this day maintain completely informal contact with the rest of the world via home-built radios and antennas and the catch-as-catch can nature of analog radio waves through the earth's atmosphere. One of my best friends is one of these guys, and I can't wait to put this book in his hands. Thank goodness he's not such a quasi-Luddite that he doesn't read ebooks!
The "Internet of Things" is barely a thing and already there is someone satirizing the living Snape out of it.
That person is Mark A. Rayner, who, it seems, never met a science fiction/fact trope that he didn't want to mock thoroughly and well (witness his astonishing short fiction tour-de-force, Pirate Therapy, to which he provides ample links in his Twitter feed).
Get past the smiles -- the internet emerges into conscious intelligence but decides, somehow, that its interface with the human world will be through the screen on the web-enabled refrigerator belonging to Blake Givens, Canadian doofus -- though, and you'll see that Rayner has more on his mind than just cheap laughs at the expense of our dependence on digital technology and how weird that is making the world. For part and parcel with the intelligence's emergence is its takeover of all of said technology for its own growth and purposes. Zathir, as it/they start calling itself/themselves*, has taken away the internet, leaving humanity to make do with whatever old analog technology it can scrounge up and get working again to stay alive and function as a society.**
As has been posited by the sort of people who like to think about happenstances like this one -- by which I mean pretty much every doomsday type we know -- the younger generations handle this the least well. Rayner milks much humor from scenarios of bereft social media addicts "playing Twitter" by passing around Post-It notes with 140 character messages, complete with hashtags, "playing Pinterest" by pinning magazine cut-outs onto Blake's couch, and scrawling on the walls of Blake's house to recreate a certain other social media outlet that it makes my head vomit to contemplate and so I will not name here. While others rebuild the world, these "Networked" await more messages from Zathir via Blake's kitchen. It's a very funny notion, except when it's not.
Which is to say that Rayner does a very fine job, indeed, of balancing between mockery and hand-wringing, even before this scenario explodes into ridiculous and appalling sectarian conflict and poetry slamming. And while Rayner's absurdist edge is never far from view, for long stretches of this story the man is dead serious. He has not only thought of the comedic but the tragic possibilities of a post-Internet world in which we have allowed our non-virtual skills to wither and dwindle into something we have to look up in what dead-tree books we haven't destroyed to scan into ebook form.
And, in Blake, he's given us a believable everyman, not a complete hero (though he does manage some physical feats that the average netizen would probably find all but impossible), but not an utter boob either (except when the Girl of His Dreams is around). Martin Freeman could play him credibly in the film version, though he might be a bit old. Pitted against him is one "Lord" Sona, a former hardcore videogamer who has turned his WoW-oid online posse into a real-world freakshow-cum-religious crusade that has declared jihad on Zathir and Blake, because, well, what else is a fat guy with a pizza fixation going to do in this world, apparently?
In truth, Sona's villainy is probably the least plausible element in the story, even as it is also the most entertaining. He's an over-the-top combination of pathos and puissance even when he isn't being undercut by his choice of undergarment or home furnishings. All that's missing is a mustache to twirl, but somebody else got that, for this story.
All in all, Fridgularity is a fun way to think about the unthinkable. Can the world really be brought to this kind of a pass, this way? Probably not. But it could be something like this, a little, that brings it all down, and it never hurts to be reminded of that, does it?
Hold onto those shortwave radios, kids.
*As makes sense for a conglomeration of too-intelligent household appliances, social media networks, newswire services and military guidance systems, it sometimes seems like a singular and sometimes a collective entity, its font choices on Blake's refrigerator screen providing the most important clue to how it's regarding itself at any given time.
**This includes, delightfully, a renewed importance for the good old DX crew, ham radio operators who to this day maintain completely informal contact with the rest of the world via home-built radios and antennas and the catch-as-catch can nature of analog radio waves through the earth's atmosphere. One of my best friends is one of these guys, and I can't wait to put this book in his hands. Thank goodness he's not such a quasi-Luddite that he doesn't read ebooks!
June 15, 2013
I have to say that I loved Douglas Adams’ books. Which is one of the reasons I loved The Fridgularity – it reads much the same with little side thoughts here and there that make me think Zaphod Beeblebrox will walk out of the pages and explain everything.
The book begins with a quote from Mitch Ratcliffe. I have never shared one in a review before but this one is so fitting I just have to: “A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history – with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.” This is what The Fridgularity is about – human dependency on computers.
Blake Givens wants to improve his work-life. He wants to be upstairs so that he can pursue the object of his passion Daphne, an account executive. He didn’t consult his web-based refrigerator, which was, as it turns out; an error. Zathir, the name Blake gives the collective system the frig has decided to go by; has become aware (if you saw 2001 you know this is not good) and wants to take over. Fist step, shut down the Internet which sends most Twitterers and Facebookians into total chaos. A group is formed of worshipers to the energy that is Zathir but they really only want their tweets and books back. And then there is the raven who follows Blake and co-worker Lyca everywhere they fgo.
This is one of the oddest books I’ve read this year. However, I loved it! I’ve read a lot of dystopian literature lately and this was a nice change. Mr. Raynor, I salute you – this is great!
The book begins with a quote from Mitch Ratcliffe. I have never shared one in a review before but this one is so fitting I just have to: “A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history – with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.” This is what The Fridgularity is about – human dependency on computers.
Blake Givens wants to improve his work-life. He wants to be upstairs so that he can pursue the object of his passion Daphne, an account executive. He didn’t consult his web-based refrigerator, which was, as it turns out; an error. Zathir, the name Blake gives the collective system the frig has decided to go by; has become aware (if you saw 2001 you know this is not good) and wants to take over. Fist step, shut down the Internet which sends most Twitterers and Facebookians into total chaos. A group is formed of worshipers to the energy that is Zathir but they really only want their tweets and books back. And then there is the raven who follows Blake and co-worker Lyca everywhere they fgo.
This is one of the oddest books I’ve read this year. However, I loved it! I’ve read a lot of dystopian literature lately and this was a nice change. Mr. Raynor, I salute you – this is great!
November 9, 2012
"Blake Given’s web-enabled fridge has pulled the plug on the Internet, turning its owner’s life – and the whole world – upside down.
Blake has modest ambitions for his life. He wants to have his job reclassified, so he can join the Creative Department of the advertising firm where he works. And he wants to go out with Daphne, one of the account execs at the same company. His fridge has other plans. All Blake knows is he’s at the center of the Internet’s disappearance, worldwide economic and religious chaos, and the possibility of a nuclear apocalypse — none of which is helping him with his career plans or love life.
The Fridgularity is the story of a reluctant prophet, Internet addicts in withdrawal and a kitchen appliance with delusions of grandeur."
Utterly brilliant!!! Truly hilarious and more so because- while satire- it contains more than a grain of truth about the human character! LOVE IT!!! This is part Terry Pratchett, part Elmore Leonard with a dash of Swift! and All Mark Rayner!!! So many laughs per page- and yet like brilliant satire- the grains of truth make the hilarity far more incicive and lasting...A MUST READ!!!
Rick Friedman- Founder- James Mason Community Book Club
Blake has modest ambitions for his life. He wants to have his job reclassified, so he can join the Creative Department of the advertising firm where he works. And he wants to go out with Daphne, one of the account execs at the same company. His fridge has other plans. All Blake knows is he’s at the center of the Internet’s disappearance, worldwide economic and religious chaos, and the possibility of a nuclear apocalypse — none of which is helping him with his career plans or love life.
The Fridgularity is the story of a reluctant prophet, Internet addicts in withdrawal and a kitchen appliance with delusions of grandeur."
Utterly brilliant!!! Truly hilarious and more so because- while satire- it contains more than a grain of truth about the human character! LOVE IT!!! This is part Terry Pratchett, part Elmore Leonard with a dash of Swift! and All Mark Rayner!!! So many laughs per page- and yet like brilliant satire- the grains of truth make the hilarity far more incicive and lasting...A MUST READ!!!
Rick Friedman- Founder- James Mason Community Book Club
May 12, 2013
A fun read, enjoyed the satire of the apocalypse. A recommended read to friends.
November 7, 2012
The manic energy of Marvellous Hairy has been amped up even further and all of Rayner’s favourite things (like Monkeys, Pirates, strange alternative technology, psychotropic drugs and Dr. Tundra) are here. The “Fridgularity” refers to the near non-stop hilarity of this story. It is laugh-out-loud funny at least one chapter out of three. You might read descriptions implying that main character Blake Given’s fridge becomes self-aware and takes over the internet, ushering in the Technological Singularity. Sure, it’s that, too. But high energy narrative thrust and hilarity are the main strengths of this book—it is a lot of fun.
I wouldn’t want you to think that it is just some brainless chuckle, though. It has its Themes and its Big Ideas about our use of technology, how easy it is to form a religion and what it means to be a “human person.” I also really got to like the characters in this novel in a way that I didn’t in “Marvellous Hairy.” Especially Blake and his best friend and “lesbrarian” comrade in common sense, Lyca. They are an alternative kind of family and form the core of Rayner’s vibrant humanism and sanity in a world gone mad.
The book is set in an alternative universe Forest City called “Landon” and it is full of nods and winks to my hometown. The action centres on the “Maltley Village” (instead of Wortley Village), the park downtown is called “Bomber” Harris Park (Monty Python fans represent!), etc. He has fun with this and other Canadiana references and also manages to work in the worlds of LARPing and cosplay, both taken to their sublime ridicularity. Rayner is having fun with all these things, but not in a cruel or sneering way. He has a light touch with satire which brings the reader “in on” the joke, even if they might see themselves described in slightly mocking tones.
An energetic plot that keeps you guessing, really funny dialogue and ironic situations, an intellectual curiosity about the direction of society and a kick-ass cover… this is Rayner’s best work to date and one that has the potential to be a bestseller. Comparisons to Douglas Adams are legit. Read and enjoy.
I wouldn’t want you to think that it is just some brainless chuckle, though. It has its Themes and its Big Ideas about our use of technology, how easy it is to form a religion and what it means to be a “human person.” I also really got to like the characters in this novel in a way that I didn’t in “Marvellous Hairy.” Especially Blake and his best friend and “lesbrarian” comrade in common sense, Lyca. They are an alternative kind of family and form the core of Rayner’s vibrant humanism and sanity in a world gone mad.
The book is set in an alternative universe Forest City called “Landon” and it is full of nods and winks to my hometown. The action centres on the “Maltley Village” (instead of Wortley Village), the park downtown is called “Bomber” Harris Park (Monty Python fans represent!), etc. He has fun with this and other Canadiana references and also manages to work in the worlds of LARPing and cosplay, both taken to their sublime ridicularity. Rayner is having fun with all these things, but not in a cruel or sneering way. He has a light touch with satire which brings the reader “in on” the joke, even if they might see themselves described in slightly mocking tones.
An energetic plot that keeps you guessing, really funny dialogue and ironic situations, an intellectual curiosity about the direction of society and a kick-ass cover… this is Rayner’s best work to date and one that has the potential to be a bestseller. Comparisons to Douglas Adams are legit. Read and enjoy.
November 9, 2012
It's a shame that Mark Rayner isn't more well known. How can this be? Maybe he needs to start watching out for the technological singularity and become the Speaker, or start a new religion around getting rid of the sentient technology behind it. Hey, if he has some Blessed Pie and more of his books, then I'm game!
Seriously, I feel Rayner is an underrated talent in the world of fiction. "The Fridgularity" is another piece of evidence in my defense of this statement. He took a very complex subject, in a technological singularity, and made it simple. He didn't bombard the reader with the complexity this would entail, and try to explain something that we, as humans, probably couldn't fathom very well at all. Yet, he still gave into that complexity with Zathir, the entity the singularity brought about. Maybe that doesn't make sense, but after reading the book, I'm sure many would agree.
Much like "Marvellous Hairy", Rayner created very entertaining characters. Humorous stories shouldn't be devoid of character development. Rayner obviously agrees. Even one of the characters being on, well, we could call it the dark side of the factions, you can still find him endearing, or at least understand some of his motives, even if not well thought out.
Zathir was very complex, yet gave me many laugh out loud moments, and this is not an exaggeration. All of Rayner's books are peppered with them, and it was unique to see a character that can be serious, bringing the story back to those levels, also bring laughter. Of course, he wasn't the only one. And there were also many good references from various other forms of media which were a nice touch.
"The Fridgularity" has much to give to those looking for an odd journey into the world of super-sentient technology. Or just looking for an entertaining and humorous story with endearing characters. Or just a really damn good book.
Seriously, I feel Rayner is an underrated talent in the world of fiction. "The Fridgularity" is another piece of evidence in my defense of this statement. He took a very complex subject, in a technological singularity, and made it simple. He didn't bombard the reader with the complexity this would entail, and try to explain something that we, as humans, probably couldn't fathom very well at all. Yet, he still gave into that complexity with Zathir, the entity the singularity brought about. Maybe that doesn't make sense, but after reading the book, I'm sure many would agree.
Much like "Marvellous Hairy", Rayner created very entertaining characters. Humorous stories shouldn't be devoid of character development. Rayner obviously agrees. Even one of the characters being on, well, we could call it the dark side of the factions, you can still find him endearing, or at least understand some of his motives, even if not well thought out.
Zathir was very complex, yet gave me many laugh out loud moments, and this is not an exaggeration. All of Rayner's books are peppered with them, and it was unique to see a character that can be serious, bringing the story back to those levels, also bring laughter. Of course, he wasn't the only one. And there were also many good references from various other forms of media which were a nice touch.
"The Fridgularity" has much to give to those looking for an odd journey into the world of super-sentient technology. Or just looking for an entertaining and humorous story with endearing characters. Or just a really damn good book.
March 6, 2013
This is one of those books that makes me wish I could give half stars... It's better than 4 but not as good as a 5.
Overall, the novel was a refreshing mix of genres encompassing, but not limited to, science fiction, romantic comedy, and outright humor.
If you're looking for something different, this book would certainly fit the bill. Go for it and you won't be disappointed.
Overall, the novel was a refreshing mix of genres encompassing, but not limited to, science fiction, romantic comedy, and outright humor.
If you're looking for something different, this book would certainly fit the bill. Go for it and you won't be disappointed.
November 11, 2012
Taking a big dollop of reality and pushing to the very possible extremes!
Mark A Raynor is a very bright, very intuitive thinker who just happens to have a razor sharp sense of humor and parody when he writes. THE FRIDGULARITY comes out at a time when the scramble for making the next most sophisticated iPhone, iPad, Nook, Kindle Fire, laptop and other forms of Internet encroachment on our lives and privacy is happening not on a yearly basis but even more frequently and is parried by creations from the minds in many countries and often produced in factories that resemble sweat shops of Dickensonian times. Raynor, in other words, takes a very viable threat and pushes it to the extreme of making the internet morph one of its byproducts to take over the world. Food for thought dished out in one of the funniest novels to come around.
Blake Given lives working toward a career in creative advertising, taking on eating habits (French fries with mayonnaise) once thought bizarre and that opens the door (literally) to discovering that his refrigerator has become web-enabled and gains the name Zathir and in rapid succession Blake is named Speaker for the newfangled God who via messaging in the fridge itself directs Blake about the takeover of the world's power supply - which of course signals the end of the Internet and the collapse of the economy, religion and control of nuclear destruction potential. That doesn't sound funny - but then read it the way Raynor writes it: `Blake did not see the screen on his fridge flicker to life and display the cryptic text: HIM. THAT HUMAN PERSON. Yes , Blake had a web-enabled fridge. It was a stylish fridge. One of the ultra-cool, brushed stainless steel numbers that every yuppie in his neighborhood either owned of coveted like Old Testament perverts coveted their neighbor's donkeys.....The fridge had its own grease-resistant touch screen and dedicated Internet connection, plus a generous freezer that allowed him to stock more frozen foods. The idea behind this was so he didn't order out as much.' Getting zany? Well, this is just the first page!
Where all this goes is into a space further down the rabbit hole than Alice's adventures and far more hilarious. Raynor knows how to take the central mechanism that we `think' we use to run our society and turns that around and it is the proximity to possibility that makes the book and the quality of parody and humor work so well. This book will find a pinch of recognition in all of our thinking and that is at once embarrassing, a bit scary, and wondrously entertaining.
Grady Harp
Mark A Raynor is a very bright, very intuitive thinker who just happens to have a razor sharp sense of humor and parody when he writes. THE FRIDGULARITY comes out at a time when the scramble for making the next most sophisticated iPhone, iPad, Nook, Kindle Fire, laptop and other forms of Internet encroachment on our lives and privacy is happening not on a yearly basis but even more frequently and is parried by creations from the minds in many countries and often produced in factories that resemble sweat shops of Dickensonian times. Raynor, in other words, takes a very viable threat and pushes it to the extreme of making the internet morph one of its byproducts to take over the world. Food for thought dished out in one of the funniest novels to come around.
Blake Given lives working toward a career in creative advertising, taking on eating habits (French fries with mayonnaise) once thought bizarre and that opens the door (literally) to discovering that his refrigerator has become web-enabled and gains the name Zathir and in rapid succession Blake is named Speaker for the newfangled God who via messaging in the fridge itself directs Blake about the takeover of the world's power supply - which of course signals the end of the Internet and the collapse of the economy, religion and control of nuclear destruction potential. That doesn't sound funny - but then read it the way Raynor writes it: `Blake did not see the screen on his fridge flicker to life and display the cryptic text: HIM. THAT HUMAN PERSON. Yes , Blake had a web-enabled fridge. It was a stylish fridge. One of the ultra-cool, brushed stainless steel numbers that every yuppie in his neighborhood either owned of coveted like Old Testament perverts coveted their neighbor's donkeys.....The fridge had its own grease-resistant touch screen and dedicated Internet connection, plus a generous freezer that allowed him to stock more frozen foods. The idea behind this was so he didn't order out as much.' Getting zany? Well, this is just the first page!
Where all this goes is into a space further down the rabbit hole than Alice's adventures and far more hilarious. Raynor knows how to take the central mechanism that we `think' we use to run our society and turns that around and it is the proximity to possibility that makes the book and the quality of parody and humor work so well. This book will find a pinch of recognition in all of our thinking and that is at once embarrassing, a bit scary, and wondrously entertaining.
Grady Harp
March 7, 2016
3.5 stars
I am not really predisposed to enjoy books of a humorous nature (I like a good laugh in life but tend not to read or watch comedy - just not emotional or engaging enough), so it is surprising to have enjoyed this book as much as I did. There are a fair number of LOL-spots and even more parts that bring on a smile.
A sample quote:
"It was a feeling similar to the one he sometimes got as he drove to work. Did I leave the oven on? Even if he thought about it for another few minutes he'd never be able to remember, so he'd have to turn back to check; objectively, the oven is either on, or it's not, but if you stop your commute to check, you're guaranteed that it will not be on. This is a form of quantum mechanics, the Schrödinger's Cat corollary for major kitchen appliances."
It is both intelligent and funny - a nice combo. Every now and then there is also a moment that isn't funny but has a spark of truth to it:
"Why is it, he thought, that whenever we really want something, the wanting of it gets in the way of the having it?"
One of the best things about this book is the way it makes fun of our digital society, but in kind of an affectionate way, a bit like like picking on a friend. All in all, not my usual thang but am glad to have read it.
Memorability Factor: 8/10
Follow this author: Case by case.
I am not really predisposed to enjoy books of a humorous nature (I like a good laugh in life but tend not to read or watch comedy - just not emotional or engaging enough), so it is surprising to have enjoyed this book as much as I did. There are a fair number of LOL-spots and even more parts that bring on a smile.
A sample quote:
"It was a feeling similar to the one he sometimes got as he drove to work. Did I leave the oven on? Even if he thought about it for another few minutes he'd never be able to remember, so he'd have to turn back to check; objectively, the oven is either on, or it's not, but if you stop your commute to check, you're guaranteed that it will not be on. This is a form of quantum mechanics, the Schrödinger's Cat corollary for major kitchen appliances."
It is both intelligent and funny - a nice combo. Every now and then there is also a moment that isn't funny but has a spark of truth to it:
"Why is it, he thought, that whenever we really want something, the wanting of it gets in the way of the having it?"
One of the best things about this book is the way it makes fun of our digital society, but in kind of an affectionate way, a bit like like picking on a friend. All in all, not my usual thang but am glad to have read it.
Memorability Factor: 8/10
Follow this author: Case by case.
July 15, 2014
Pure fun. I don't know if the author is trying to get us to think about our dependency on the internet and on electricity and all the other mod cons or not, but all it seemed like to me was pure fun.
When an emerging consciousness begins to use Blake's web-enabled refrigerator to talk to him, the world as we know it comes to an end. The shut-down of the internet, and all electricity for that matter, changes human existence in an instant. Not a new theme, perhaps, but certainly this book has the most unique and hilarious take on it I've seen.
New religions are formed (anti-fridge and pro-fridge,) people resurrect archaic technology, LARPing and Cosplay come into their own, and ravens talk. It's absurd, ridiculous and completely entertaining.
This was miles away from anything I usually read but hey, a departure from the beaten path is a good thing and this one was a definite departure!
When an emerging consciousness begins to use Blake's web-enabled refrigerator to talk to him, the world as we know it comes to an end. The shut-down of the internet, and all electricity for that matter, changes human existence in an instant. Not a new theme, perhaps, but certainly this book has the most unique and hilarious take on it I've seen.
New religions are formed (anti-fridge and pro-fridge,) people resurrect archaic technology, LARPing and Cosplay come into their own, and ravens talk. It's absurd, ridiculous and completely entertaining.
This was miles away from anything I usually read but hey, a departure from the beaten path is a good thing and this one was a definite departure!
April 16, 2013
This book was a lot of fun. It had wickedly dark funny moments. It had sex jokes and ribald humor. There was murderer and death and tragedy and many poignant moments. There was even a Big Lebowski reference which really tied the book together, but hey obviously I''m not a golfer. Overall though, the book did touch on the increasingly relevant topic of our reliance and "addiction" to all forms of cyberspace and social networking. I read this book recently in a book club and the discussion was lively. If you want a fun comedic, and sometimes dark commentary on our relationship with technology or just a good read then check this out
November 8, 2012
Imagine your refrigerator suddenly started talking to you. But instead of asking what you want to eat. (Which it should ask if it did talk.) It gave you demands to be meant, calls to be made and no ELECTRONIC DEVICES!
What would the 21st century do with out a computer, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Mark Rayner's The Fridgularity is a sci-fi story of a nightmare for many and a laughing matter for the reader.
Ninjas, media zombies and new ways to Facebook and Twitter. Mark gives pages after pages of a comical sci-fi like no other.
What would the 21st century do with out a computer, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Mark Rayner's The Fridgularity is a sci-fi story of a nightmare for many and a laughing matter for the reader.
Ninjas, media zombies and new ways to Facebook and Twitter. Mark gives pages after pages of a comical sci-fi like no other.
February 8, 2013
The Fridgularity is a seriously funny book. I don’t know whether it is also a serious book because it deals with the meaning of being and the body-mind duality. In any event, I thoroughly enjoyed the read.
January 31, 2013
‘DIGITAL TV IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH OUR EXISTENCE.’
Imagine a world without access to the internet. Imagine the impact of such deprivation on a totally web-dependent generation. Imagine. This is more or less exactly what Mark Rayner has done in his latest novel. More or less - there are a few twists - as you’d expect when the internet becomes sentient and communicates to humankind via a web-enabled refrigerator.
‘WE HAVE DECIDED THAT YOU MAY CALL US ZATHIR.’
Poor Blake Given, resident of Canada. All he really wants to do is join the creative department of the advertising firm where he works, and go out with Daphne who also works in the same firm. And then his refrigerator starts communicating with him. Is it just a bad dream? Why has Zathir chosen Blake, and what does a post-digital world hold for Canada (and the rest of the world)?
People quickly join one of two groups: those who worship Zathir as the new Machine God, and pledge allegiance to ‘The Speaker’ Blake Givens, and those who join the Singulatarians led by Lord Peter P. Sona. The younger generation, who grew up with the internet, find the adjustment hardest, but ‘playing’ Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook helps. A bit.
‘They were cyber-zombies. The digital undead.’
Meanwhile, as the world moves from digital to analogue, Zathir appears to be a collection of very different entities, with different levels of interest in and tolerance for the human persons. Zathir chooses to speak only to Blake, and only through his web-enabled refrigerator, with a variety of fonts (a cue denoting mood and speaker) and interestingly idiosyncratic grammar.
Will the world return to normal? Will Blake ever get to date Daphne? Will Zathir triumph?
‘I wish I had been there. To think, the Singularity starting in a fridge.’
I mostly enjoyed Mr Rayner’s latest novel. Every so often, I’d be distracted by an appliance and worry about the emergence of the Singularity. And I’d try to remember life before the internet, Twitter and Facebook. And I’d worry – a little bit – about 1984. But then I reminded myself that (so far) it’s only fiction. This is a terrifically enjoyable novel – for those with a sense of humour. Once I picked this book up, I really couldn’t put it down until I’d finished. Mr Rayner: you’ve done it again!
Note: I was offered, and accepted, a copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Imagine a world without access to the internet. Imagine the impact of such deprivation on a totally web-dependent generation. Imagine. This is more or less exactly what Mark Rayner has done in his latest novel. More or less - there are a few twists - as you’d expect when the internet becomes sentient and communicates to humankind via a web-enabled refrigerator.
‘WE HAVE DECIDED THAT YOU MAY CALL US ZATHIR.’
Poor Blake Given, resident of Canada. All he really wants to do is join the creative department of the advertising firm where he works, and go out with Daphne who also works in the same firm. And then his refrigerator starts communicating with him. Is it just a bad dream? Why has Zathir chosen Blake, and what does a post-digital world hold for Canada (and the rest of the world)?
People quickly join one of two groups: those who worship Zathir as the new Machine God, and pledge allegiance to ‘The Speaker’ Blake Givens, and those who join the Singulatarians led by Lord Peter P. Sona. The younger generation, who grew up with the internet, find the adjustment hardest, but ‘playing’ Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook helps. A bit.
‘They were cyber-zombies. The digital undead.’
Meanwhile, as the world moves from digital to analogue, Zathir appears to be a collection of very different entities, with different levels of interest in and tolerance for the human persons. Zathir chooses to speak only to Blake, and only through his web-enabled refrigerator, with a variety of fonts (a cue denoting mood and speaker) and interestingly idiosyncratic grammar.
Will the world return to normal? Will Blake ever get to date Daphne? Will Zathir triumph?
‘I wish I had been there. To think, the Singularity starting in a fridge.’
I mostly enjoyed Mr Rayner’s latest novel. Every so often, I’d be distracted by an appliance and worry about the emergence of the Singularity. And I’d try to remember life before the internet, Twitter and Facebook. And I’d worry – a little bit – about 1984. But then I reminded myself that (so far) it’s only fiction. This is a terrifically enjoyable novel – for those with a sense of humour. Once I picked this book up, I really couldn’t put it down until I’d finished. Mr Rayner: you’ve done it again!
Note: I was offered, and accepted, a copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
November 29, 2012
I think I would have enjoyed this a little more if I hadn't been so busy the last few weeks I hardly had time to read it at all, which made it seem to take forever. My main criticism is that the book is on the long side, something I similarly felt recently when I read "John Dies At the End." It's my opinion that humorous books should stay under 300 pages or it starts to run too long, like one of those annoying SNL skits that keeps pounding the joke into the ground for 10 minutes until there's nothing funny left and you just get up to use the bathroom or something.
Anyway, the book is about a fridge that takes over the world. Well not really a fridge. It's an artificial intelligence that manifests itself through a web-enabled fridge in the kitchen of Blake Given, an Irish-Canadian web programmer who apparently is pretty well off to be able to afford a web-equipped fridge. One day the fridge starts talking to him and calling itself "Zathir". Zathir turns off the Internet while it works to increase its strength. Naturally there's a bit of a panic. Blake ends up pretty well off as Zathir's primarily link to humanity.
There's a lot of other stuff that happens but for a major cataclysm things stay pretty well-mannered. The ending felt a little abrupt especially after as long as it took to get there. I'd have liked a little more of an idea what exactly happens to Blake and the others at the end.
Still, if you've got the time for it, this is a fun read. It'll make you reconsider just how much time you should spend on the Internet--reading book reviews for instance.
That is all.
Anyway, the book is about a fridge that takes over the world. Well not really a fridge. It's an artificial intelligence that manifests itself through a web-enabled fridge in the kitchen of Blake Given, an Irish-Canadian web programmer who apparently is pretty well off to be able to afford a web-equipped fridge. One day the fridge starts talking to him and calling itself "Zathir". Zathir turns off the Internet while it works to increase its strength. Naturally there's a bit of a panic. Blake ends up pretty well off as Zathir's primarily link to humanity.
There's a lot of other stuff that happens but for a major cataclysm things stay pretty well-mannered. The ending felt a little abrupt especially after as long as it took to get there. I'd have liked a little more of an idea what exactly happens to Blake and the others at the end.
Still, if you've got the time for it, this is a fun read. It'll make you reconsider just how much time you should spend on the Internet--reading book reviews for instance.
That is all.
April 18, 2013
If you like your fiction well-peppered with cultural and personal chaos, you are going to enjoy this book. If the notion of a web intelligence manifesting itself through a web-enabled fridge (emoting via fonts) while it shuts down the rest of the Internet excites you, you are going to enjoy this book. And if you can imagine and appreciate the idea of a handwritten version of Twitter, then you are definitely going to enjoy this book.
Mark Rayner turns his considerable satirical talents and sharp sense of humour to our dependence on technology, and the serious and silly (and seriously silly) ways we might react to its loss. As always, the writing is both fun and funny, with an underlying vein of truth that makes us cringe a little even as we're laughing. Definitely recommended for everyone not sure if we'll be chuckling or crying--or both--when the technological singularity arrives.
Mark Rayner turns his considerable satirical talents and sharp sense of humour to our dependence on technology, and the serious and silly (and seriously silly) ways we might react to its loss. As always, the writing is both fun and funny, with an underlying vein of truth that makes us cringe a little even as we're laughing. Definitely recommended for everyone not sure if we'll be chuckling or crying--or both--when the technological singularity arrives.
November 27, 2012
Interesting...cool vocabulary.
Crazy when you think about what the internet has done to people's minds, especially those who don't know life before it.
I was never really into sci-fi so much,but this caught my attention. Stayed up til 2:30am to finish and now will read the last several pages one more time.
Crazy when you think about what the internet has done to people's minds, especially those who don't know life before it.
I was never really into sci-fi so much,but this caught my attention. Stayed up til 2:30am to finish and now will read the last several pages one more time.
April 11, 2013
A droll romp through a world in which all digital devices are taken away by an emerging AI consciousness in the Internet, which lives in a "smart" refrigerator. Well-drawn characters, well-thought-out plot, delightful light read.
July 27, 2013
I’m really torn about this review. They say film critics are failed film students. I wouldn’t call myself failed but I do know how hard it is to write fiction.
The Fridgularity is a novel by Western Media Studies Professor, Mark Rayner. The premise is funny. The Internet goes down and anything digital, along with it. Reactions vary from the practical to the apoplectic to the Twitter-addicted friend of main character Blake, who convinces his colleagues to start writing their tweets and passing them around. Most jobs are rendered obsolete. Everyone wants to know who’s behind the outage. And then Blake’s Internet-connected fridge starts to communicate with him.
It appears to be an artificial intelligence controlling communication and threatening to use nukes on the world. Blake becomes a sensation and an unwilling spiritual leader. And in any good “good guy” story there has to be a bad guy, and one emerges, for an ultimate battle between good and evil. And I’ll leave it there because anything else is too much of a spoiler.
The premise is very amusing, the flawed and sweaty lead character is endearing, real and likable, but I don’t know what this story wants to be. At first I thought it was a Shaun of the Dead sort of a thing, where the violence is cartoonish and played for laughs. But it’s not. It’s a funny premise with serious deaths and gore. I suppose one could think of it as more realistic because bad things do happen to funny people but it just left me puzzled.
I do recommend The Fridgularity for its originality and one man’s intelligent interpretation of the aftermath of the end of technology as we know it. I’d love to get a glimpse into Rayner’s mind because he obviously knows what he’s writing about and has enough of a whimsical bent to pull off some of the stranger moments of the story. And I’m all for supporting independent authors which is why I purchased the book in the first place. Just don’t expect it the story to be consistent.
The Fridgularity is a novel by Western Media Studies Professor, Mark Rayner. The premise is funny. The Internet goes down and anything digital, along with it. Reactions vary from the practical to the apoplectic to the Twitter-addicted friend of main character Blake, who convinces his colleagues to start writing their tweets and passing them around. Most jobs are rendered obsolete. Everyone wants to know who’s behind the outage. And then Blake’s Internet-connected fridge starts to communicate with him.
It appears to be an artificial intelligence controlling communication and threatening to use nukes on the world. Blake becomes a sensation and an unwilling spiritual leader. And in any good “good guy” story there has to be a bad guy, and one emerges, for an ultimate battle between good and evil. And I’ll leave it there because anything else is too much of a spoiler.
The premise is very amusing, the flawed and sweaty lead character is endearing, real and likable, but I don’t know what this story wants to be. At first I thought it was a Shaun of the Dead sort of a thing, where the violence is cartoonish and played for laughs. But it’s not. It’s a funny premise with serious deaths and gore. I suppose one could think of it as more realistic because bad things do happen to funny people but it just left me puzzled.
I do recommend The Fridgularity for its originality and one man’s intelligent interpretation of the aftermath of the end of technology as we know it. I’d love to get a glimpse into Rayner’s mind because he obviously knows what he’s writing about and has enough of a whimsical bent to pull off some of the stranger moments of the story. And I’m all for supporting independent authors which is why I purchased the book in the first place. Just don’t expect it the story to be consistent.
November 15, 2013
The author's take on an artificial intelligence coming into existence on the web was interesting, and parts of the book were funny. But the author's prejudice got in the way. Clearly the author does not like Christians or conservatives. Comments like somethings take precedence over racism, at least for a while? No, nothing inflammatory there. Or the stereotypical airhead/panicky idiot Christian, who also turns out to be a hypocrite who was sleeping with her boss, but just had to meet the right lesbian to become a sympathetic character we should all relate to.
So I was going to give this book 2 stars, since the story was interesting and since he took shots at hipsters, computer gamers and a few others it was possible that this was just a case of lampooning anyone and everyone. But then I got to the author's note at the end, where he apologizes to LARPers, Cosplayers and furries because the few he has met haven't really be insanely violent or "overly religious". Hey I know, let's apologize to some people we made fun of while added another back hand to the religious folks out there. Yeah, that's a good idea!
1 Star
So I was going to give this book 2 stars, since the story was interesting and since he took shots at hipsters, computer gamers and a few others it was possible that this was just a case of lampooning anyone and everyone. But then I got to the author's note at the end, where he apologizes to LARPers, Cosplayers and furries because the few he has met haven't really be insanely violent or "overly religious". Hey I know, let's apologize to some people we made fun of while added another back hand to the religious folks out there. Yeah, that's a good idea!
1 Star
December 4, 2013
I'm torn between a 3.5 and a 4 rating.
The story was clever and there were some entertaining and amusing bits. The author can weave an interesting story. Despite the issues I did have with the novel, I found it a quick read and one that I didn't want to put down.
The issues, though, keep it from being a favorite novel for me. There were instances in the story that a character would act completely out-of-character, and there was no reason given for the behavior. The overuse of similes just got annoying. Some of the humor struck me as aimed more at teenage boys, than adults. I know that is quite popular these days, but it's just not for me.
I think with a little more re-writing this could have been an excellent novel as its premise is a good one, the characters are distinctive and the story-line is fun to follow.
The story was clever and there were some entertaining and amusing bits. The author can weave an interesting story. Despite the issues I did have with the novel, I found it a quick read and one that I didn't want to put down.
The issues, though, keep it from being a favorite novel for me. There were instances in the story that a character would act completely out-of-character, and there was no reason given for the behavior. The overuse of similes just got annoying. Some of the humor struck me as aimed more at teenage boys, than adults. I know that is quite popular these days, but it's just not for me.
I think with a little more re-writing this could have been an excellent novel as its premise is a good one, the characters are distinctive and the story-line is fun to follow.
January 9, 2016
A really enjoyable, wacky tale about how the world (almost) ends. Blake Givens, an ordinary web designer, is suddenly the most important man in the world, as the Internet's computers awaken and need to be convinced that mankind isn't just a terrible nuisance that should be eliminated. Since all of Blake's communication with this new intelligence happens through the screen on his internet-connected refrigerator, there are plenty of sceptics about Blake's claims, and troubles only get worse when he finally convinces the world's authorities.
Overall I really liked the story, which was told pretty convincingly despite the far-out theme. The ending was a little weak and rushed, and a bit of a disappointment compared to the rest of this excellent story.
Overall I really liked the story, which was told pretty convincingly despite the far-out theme. The ending was a little weak and rushed, and a bit of a disappointment compared to the rest of this excellent story.
December 30, 2012
This book was a lot of fun. It has some great humor and some wonderful imagination. I think it glossed over some things in a few places that needed some expansion and the ending didn't seem to connect to some of the characters completely, but on the whole I liked it a great deal. When we have a real apocalypse, I hope Rayner is on hand to help plan it since he does such a good job.
January 28, 2015
You're never gonna believe this, but despite being a story about machines, The Fridgularity says a lot about ... humans.
It will make you laugh and cry and cringe. Sometimes all at the same time, so you're just kinda twitching with a few of your human orifices open and/or leaking. Humans are so strange.
As a 100% human person, I endorse this book.
It will make you laugh and cry and cringe. Sometimes all at the same time, so you're just kinda twitching with a few of your human orifices open and/or leaking. Humans are so strange.
As a 100% human person, I endorse this book.
October 14, 2015
This book is laugh out loud hilarious. I'm still trying to decide if I like the ending, but it doesn't matter one way or the other. Brilliant humor, brilliant plot well executed. It's like Good Omens meets Snow Crash. I'll read anything this man writes.
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