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Internet Apocalypse #2
Agents of the Internet Apocalypse
A sharp-tongued social satire of a dystopian world without the Web from Cracked.com writer Wayne Gladstone
Gladstone, the so-called “Internet Messiah,” has not only failed to bring back the Web, but his search has landed him in a New York City psychiatric ward. The rest of the world isn't doing so well either. The economy continues to suffer, further stoking the discontent of frenzied former Internet users still looking for a fix. More importantly, the government has ramped up its draconian NET Recovery Act, interrogating and detaining anyone deemed a “person of interest.” For Gladstone, finding the Net has taken a backseat to winning over his ex-wife. But even though he follows her to Los Angeles, he still can't shake the demands of his followers when his former account of the Internet Apocalypse goes “paper viral.” This newfound celebrity makes him a target for desperate online addicts, anarchic members of Anonymous, and shadowy government agents who have their own plans for him.
Full of funny yet cutting social commentary, Agents of the Internet Apocalypse continues the trilogy that imagines a dystopian world without the Web.
Gladstone, the so-called “Internet Messiah,” has not only failed to bring back the Web, but his search has landed him in a New York City psychiatric ward. The rest of the world isn't doing so well either. The economy continues to suffer, further stoking the discontent of frenzied former Internet users still looking for a fix. More importantly, the government has ramped up its draconian NET Recovery Act, interrogating and detaining anyone deemed a “person of interest.” For Gladstone, finding the Net has taken a backseat to winning over his ex-wife. But even though he follows her to Los Angeles, he still can't shake the demands of his followers when his former account of the Internet Apocalypse goes “paper viral.” This newfound celebrity makes him a target for desperate online addicts, anarchic members of Anonymous, and shadowy government agents who have their own plans for him.
Full of funny yet cutting social commentary, Agents of the Internet Apocalypse continues the trilogy that imagines a dystopian world without the Web.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published July 21, 2015
9 people are currently reading
452 people want to read
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July 19, 2015
There are many apocalypses to fear-religious, zombie, nuclear-but to my knowledge only author Wayne Gladstone’s books imagine what is, to many of us online junkies, the scariest kind: an internet apocalypse. As Agents of the Internet Apocalypse begins, our eponymous hero Gladstone, formerly dubbed the Internet Messiah, is being held in a mental institution. After the internet seems to momentarily return, Gladstone is released and sets off to Los Angeles with the sole desire of winning back his ex-wife. But nothing online nor offline is as it was. As citizens become increasingly restless, a shady Government flexes its growing power and violence breaks out, Gladstone finds himself at the center of a dangerous search. Agents is a compelling read to find out whether Gladstone can reclaim the internet or the heart of the woman he loved (and maybe discover which one he really wants).
In the course of a fun, rapidly-paced action story, Wayne Gladstone gives us an insightful look at what it means to be connected, in all senses of the word. In a world where the internet is gone, Agents of the Internet Apocalypse brings all types of online interactions to our irl existence. In an hour on the web we can stalk an ex, fight with a troll, have a passing shared moment with a stranger, join a community of like-minds and find and lose ourselves. Gladstone’s novel holds these interactions up, compelling us to stop and notice moments we so often take for granted. While this is a book that you can read quickly, it made me take pause quite often, which is good because Gladstone doesn’t waste a word. I often have a tendency to skim, but I’ve found that there are no needless paragraphs to breeze by in Gladstone’s books and there is a lot of depth to his snappy, clever jokes.
This book is the second in the trilogy but like all successful artistic creations, it stands alone while simultaneously, fluidly giving the devoted reader plenty of "oh wow" and "aha!" moments of recognition. If you read Notes From the Internet Apocalypse and enjoyed it like I did, you’ll love Agents. If you didn’t read the first, you can jump in with this book and won’t find yourself confused. Agents made me want to re-read Notes, which I’m sure will make me want to re-read Agents and so on in a loop until the third book comes out and saves me. I love these books.
In the course of a fun, rapidly-paced action story, Wayne Gladstone gives us an insightful look at what it means to be connected, in all senses of the word. In a world where the internet is gone, Agents of the Internet Apocalypse brings all types of online interactions to our irl existence. In an hour on the web we can stalk an ex, fight with a troll, have a passing shared moment with a stranger, join a community of like-minds and find and lose ourselves. Gladstone’s novel holds these interactions up, compelling us to stop and notice moments we so often take for granted. While this is a book that you can read quickly, it made me take pause quite often, which is good because Gladstone doesn’t waste a word. I often have a tendency to skim, but I’ve found that there are no needless paragraphs to breeze by in Gladstone’s books and there is a lot of depth to his snappy, clever jokes.
This book is the second in the trilogy but like all successful artistic creations, it stands alone while simultaneously, fluidly giving the devoted reader plenty of "oh wow" and "aha!" moments of recognition. If you read Notes From the Internet Apocalypse and enjoyed it like I did, you’ll love Agents. If you didn’t read the first, you can jump in with this book and won’t find yourself confused. Agents made me want to re-read Notes, which I’m sure will make me want to re-read Agents and so on in a loop until the third book comes out and saves me. I love these books.
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July 23, 2015Received from NetGalley.
I started this in May, and set it aside when the protagonist, named Gladstone, in a Patrick Dennis sort of metafiction, escapes from a mental institution only to chase after his ex-wife and try to force a love letter on a woman who obviously has moved on. There was too much stalker behavior in that first third or so, too many repeats of data about a journal/book Gladstone had written (apparently book one that this is the sequel to) and not enough about the Internet being gone.
But when I picked it up again, it gradually became less a combination of Waiting For Godot pointless running around and stalker-guy being too clever, and inexorably became more interesting as we got into a brief history of the Internet, specifically the names behind its development and control.
The pacing begins to pick up speed, with some huge jolts along the way. Especially at the end, setting us up for a third book. I was left thinking that I really want to read the third book, especially if Gladstone goes after amoral rich SOBs.
The writing is satiric and observant, often funny, vivid, breezily profane and witty by turns, very heterosexual male-gaze but with gradually accumulating insight into the secondary characters. The insights also convinced me, at least, that Gladstone, though still stalking his wife, was basically a harmless stalker kind who genuinely loves one person and doesn't merely see her as an object. Getting to know his wife through his eyes took most of the book, but it pays off, and then .
With a few bobbles here and there he does a good job of invoking L.A. which was fun for this lifetime LA denizen.
A few quotes I marked:
There was the sound of skepticism, which is silence plus tiny movements.
and
"What's choking you up, Gladstone?" Quiff asked, but I wouldn't answer. How could I explain to him what I'd seen? How could I tell him about a father who had nothing, but found a way to create a moment of unbridled joy for his children? Were there right words to describe the hope, or at least the possibility, of this man patching together enough tiny moments that by the time his girls realized how desperately poor they were, they would have already had a happy childhood? Or could I explain what this father must have felt knowing in a world trying to crush him with everything . . .
That one is extra poignant on the reread.
and
I am not like my dad. . . But I am the choices he gave me. Some fathers can only teach you to be the man they are.
I started this in May, and set it aside when the protagonist, named Gladstone, in a Patrick Dennis sort of metafiction, escapes from a mental institution only to chase after his ex-wife and try to force a love letter on a woman who obviously has moved on. There was too much stalker behavior in that first third or so, too many repeats of data about a journal/book Gladstone had written (apparently book one that this is the sequel to) and not enough about the Internet being gone.
But when I picked it up again, it gradually became less a combination of Waiting For Godot pointless running around and stalker-guy being too clever, and inexorably became more interesting as we got into a brief history of the Internet, specifically the names behind its development and control.
The pacing begins to pick up speed, with some huge jolts along the way. Especially at the end, setting us up for a third book. I was left thinking that I really want to read the third book, especially if Gladstone goes after amoral rich SOBs.
The writing is satiric and observant, often funny, vivid, breezily profane and witty by turns, very heterosexual male-gaze but with gradually accumulating insight into the secondary characters. The insights also convinced me, at least, that Gladstone, though still stalking his wife, was basically a harmless stalker kind who genuinely loves one person and doesn't merely see her as an object. Getting to know his wife through his eyes took most of the book, but it pays off, and then .
With a few bobbles here and there he does a good job of invoking L.A. which was fun for this lifetime LA denizen.
A few quotes I marked:
There was the sound of skepticism, which is silence plus tiny movements.
and
"What's choking you up, Gladstone?" Quiff asked, but I wouldn't answer. How could I explain to him what I'd seen? How could I tell him about a father who had nothing, but found a way to create a moment of unbridled joy for his children? Were there right words to describe the hope, or at least the possibility, of this man patching together enough tiny moments that by the time his girls realized how desperately poor they were, they would have already had a happy childhood? Or could I explain what this father must have felt knowing in a world trying to crush him with everything . . .
That one is extra poignant on the reread.
and
I am not like my dad. . . But I am the choices he gave me. Some fathers can only teach you to be the man they are.
August 23, 2015
Those looking for the satirical spit-take at internet culture found in Gladstone's first book, "Notes from the Internet Apocalypse" will be (pleasantly, I should think) surprised at the intimate vulnerability of "Agents of the Internet Apocoplypse". The book begins with a rough spun blanket, speaking of a scratchy loneliness most humans have the misfortune to experience. Like watching someone trying to access the deep web to see if their partner is on the list of the soon-to-be famed philanderers of AshleyMadison.com the book is both darkly funny, and sad.
For those who've read "Notes"' you'll need to know that the Internet is still not back. The Messiah has been sidelined and institutionalized. The goofy gaggle of friends, Jeeves the Internet search engine and Toby, the pervert with a heart of gold, are nowhere to be seen. Happily, they reunite but I won't spoil it for you.
In 2008, Jack Handey wrote of the state of humour books being identifiable by their location in the book store: "If the bookstore has a second floor, the Humor section will be on the second floor, at the farthest point from the entrance. If the second floor has a window that can be jimmied open, and there’s a ledge outside, the Humor section will be at the very end of the ledge". It's a difficult time to write a funny book--especially a funny book, in print, that's about an online world. And yet, the humour that made Gladstone a favourite Cracked.com columnist and occasional McSweeny's Internet Tendency writer translates to paper exquisitely. The punchlines are difficult to articulate because they veer into "meta" territory: from the dingy bar, The Hash Tag to the character Gladstone's 'viral paper' success.
It's almost impossible to separate Gladstone the character from Gladstone the individual and at times it had me worried that a favoured Twitterer was desolately staring into his cheap scotch while still composing tweets to entertain the masses. While I can't know that this confusion was intentional--I feel as though it must be. It's Gladstone writing about the Internet, and maybe writing about himself, writing about the Internet. We're all spectators in this web.
The book is a love story and an adventure story, a mystery and a thriller. It's complicated--like Gladstone.
For those who've read "Notes"' you'll need to know that the Internet is still not back. The Messiah has been sidelined and institutionalized. The goofy gaggle of friends, Jeeves the Internet search engine and Toby, the pervert with a heart of gold, are nowhere to be seen. Happily, they reunite but I won't spoil it for you.
In 2008, Jack Handey wrote of the state of humour books being identifiable by their location in the book store: "If the bookstore has a second floor, the Humor section will be on the second floor, at the farthest point from the entrance. If the second floor has a window that can be jimmied open, and there’s a ledge outside, the Humor section will be at the very end of the ledge". It's a difficult time to write a funny book--especially a funny book, in print, that's about an online world. And yet, the humour that made Gladstone a favourite Cracked.com columnist and occasional McSweeny's Internet Tendency writer translates to paper exquisitely. The punchlines are difficult to articulate because they veer into "meta" territory: from the dingy bar, The Hash Tag to the character Gladstone's 'viral paper' success.
It's almost impossible to separate Gladstone the character from Gladstone the individual and at times it had me worried that a favoured Twitterer was desolately staring into his cheap scotch while still composing tweets to entertain the masses. While I can't know that this confusion was intentional--I feel as though it must be. It's Gladstone writing about the Internet, and maybe writing about himself, writing about the Internet. We're all spectators in this web.
The book is a love story and an adventure story, a mystery and a thriller. It's complicated--like Gladstone.
July 19, 2015
Gladstone's Quixotic adventure continues in this sequel to Notes From The Internet Apocalypse. Without wanting to give too much away about Notes, this novel is a much bigger, brighter and more cogent story than its prequel, without losing any of the thoughtful, contemporary existentialism that makes the first novel so special and un-put-downable. Unsurprisingly, I couldn't put this book down either.
The novel begins with Gladstone in a mental hospital, and soon takes us to Los Angeles, where an investigation unfolds that both echoes and progresses from the investigation in New York. We find Tobey in his natural habitat, Romaya as a real person, and Gladstone finds himself on a different mission than the one he set out to complete. The coastal switch is one of many inversions from the first novel, and another is that this storytelling has gone from deliberately fuzzy and fractured to driven and structured, but still thoughtful, witty, and funny in all the right places. Modern social and political issues are examined through the satirical lens the Internet Apocalypse landscape fosters so well – sometimes overt and bold, sometimes so incredibly subtle that I feel certain there'll be more to discover on a dozenth read. It's clear from much of his work that Wayne Gladstone strives for the perfect balance between intellectual sophistication and irreverent silliness, and despite how incredibly difficult it is to pull that off, he has succeeded here.
When I say Gladstone's adventure is Quixotic, I don't mean in the sense of being synonymous with foolish (although there is certainly an element of that) – I mean in the literary sense, in the sense of all the things that make Don Quixote wonderful. How is it that we came to love the world's most misguided and ineffectual protagonist so fiercely? The same way it's so easy to love the protagonist of the Internet Apocalypse series. Even as he punctuates his observations of the post-Internet world with scathing criticisms of the people in it, Gladstone passionately believes in humanity and optimism and love, the way that Don Quixote believes in heroism and chivalry. Like he says in the novel, Gladstone believes in "pure things". And like Quixote, he will never stop fighting for those beliefs, no matter how many beatings he takes or defeats he suffers. Both authors share a flair for somehow making obnoxious irreverence into something subversive and endearing, as well as meaningful use of metafiction and exploration of the author-protagonist relationship.
Reading this novel, I found that every discovery Gladstone makes about himself, and observation he makes about the internet-addicted world, is a self-discovery for the reader, or at least uncomfortably familiar. It's no easy thing to hold a mirror up to the world in a way that makes us look and think rather than turn away in abjection; it's a fine line to walk, and Wayne Gladstone walks it masterfully.
The novel begins with Gladstone in a mental hospital, and soon takes us to Los Angeles, where an investigation unfolds that both echoes and progresses from the investigation in New York. We find Tobey in his natural habitat, Romaya as a real person, and Gladstone finds himself on a different mission than the one he set out to complete. The coastal switch is one of many inversions from the first novel, and another is that this storytelling has gone from deliberately fuzzy and fractured to driven and structured, but still thoughtful, witty, and funny in all the right places. Modern social and political issues are examined through the satirical lens the Internet Apocalypse landscape fosters so well – sometimes overt and bold, sometimes so incredibly subtle that I feel certain there'll be more to discover on a dozenth read. It's clear from much of his work that Wayne Gladstone strives for the perfect balance between intellectual sophistication and irreverent silliness, and despite how incredibly difficult it is to pull that off, he has succeeded here.
When I say Gladstone's adventure is Quixotic, I don't mean in the sense of being synonymous with foolish (although there is certainly an element of that) – I mean in the literary sense, in the sense of all the things that make Don Quixote wonderful. How is it that we came to love the world's most misguided and ineffectual protagonist so fiercely? The same way it's so easy to love the protagonist of the Internet Apocalypse series. Even as he punctuates his observations of the post-Internet world with scathing criticisms of the people in it, Gladstone passionately believes in humanity and optimism and love, the way that Don Quixote believes in heroism and chivalry. Like he says in the novel, Gladstone believes in "pure things". And like Quixote, he will never stop fighting for those beliefs, no matter how many beatings he takes or defeats he suffers. Both authors share a flair for somehow making obnoxious irreverence into something subversive and endearing, as well as meaningful use of metafiction and exploration of the author-protagonist relationship.
Reading this novel, I found that every discovery Gladstone makes about himself, and observation he makes about the internet-addicted world, is a self-discovery for the reader, or at least uncomfortably familiar. It's no easy thing to hold a mirror up to the world in a way that makes us look and think rather than turn away in abjection; it's a fine line to walk, and Wayne Gladstone walks it masterfully.
May 6, 2015
disclaimer – i received a copy of this book via thomas dunne books in exchange for an honest review.
the internet is gone and gladstone, the internet messiah, hasn’t brought it back yet. the world is falling apart (well, okay, it’s falling even more apart than before the internet disappeared but it’s not gladstone’s fault because the world kind of sucked before he became the messiah so cut him so freaking slack, okay? sorry. what was i saying? oh yeah…)
searching for the internet has landed gladstone in a psychiatric hospital, the government has enacted the net recovery act which gives them scary powers over “persons of interest” in the net’s disappearance, the economy is tanking, and gladstone’s ex-wife is moving to california.
agents of the internet apocalypse is the second installment in wayne gladstone‘s internet apocalypse series and i was not disappointed. the satire and humour are still there but there’s more. more character, more soul, more questions about who we really are and what we’re really doing with our lives and our friendships. i was expecting all of this but i wasn’t expecting to care even more about gladstone and worry about his sanity. and i certainly wasn’t expecting to stay up all night in order to finish it.
five out of five stars
the internet is gone and gladstone, the internet messiah, hasn’t brought it back yet. the world is falling apart (well, okay, it’s falling even more apart than before the internet disappeared but it’s not gladstone’s fault because the world kind of sucked before he became the messiah so cut him so freaking slack, okay? sorry. what was i saying? oh yeah…)
searching for the internet has landed gladstone in a psychiatric hospital, the government has enacted the net recovery act which gives them scary powers over “persons of interest” in the net’s disappearance, the economy is tanking, and gladstone’s ex-wife is moving to california.
agents of the internet apocalypse is the second installment in wayne gladstone‘s internet apocalypse series and i was not disappointed. the satire and humour are still there but there’s more. more character, more soul, more questions about who we really are and what we’re really doing with our lives and our friendships. i was expecting all of this but i wasn’t expecting to care even more about gladstone and worry about his sanity. and i certainly wasn’t expecting to stay up all night in order to finish it.
five out of five stars
November 16, 2016
I am going to assume that you have read the first book and then poured yourself a glass of Jamesons.
The story opens with Gladstone exactly where he should be after the ending of the first book: a psych ward. The good news is he is using that time to sort himself out, and also learn about how the internet actually works. As far as his adventures from the first book, that much turns out to be true. The internet is down. There really isn't any bad news. He gets discharged and heads straight for California, in his hospital clothes and all.
This book is less surreal than the first one, which I didn't even realize how much it was until I read the second one. I'm not really sure how to describe that feeling but once you get through the ending of the first one, I did realize it was a bit like walking around in a daze. In a good way of course. This one, being grounded in reality had a different feel to it altogether. There is just as much insanity in this one as the last, but it's more tangible insanity. I'm not doing it justice at all, but I really can't come up with another way to put that.
This one was a perfect follow up and brilliantly executed. I was left drooling for the last book, which fortunately I had only days to wait for it to be released. Those were some pretty long days though!
The story opens with Gladstone exactly where he should be after the ending of the first book: a psych ward. The good news is he is using that time to sort himself out, and also learn about how the internet actually works. As far as his adventures from the first book, that much turns out to be true. The internet is down. There really isn't any bad news. He gets discharged and heads straight for California, in his hospital clothes and all.
This book is less surreal than the first one, which I didn't even realize how much it was until I read the second one. I'm not really sure how to describe that feeling but once you get through the ending of the first one, I did realize it was a bit like walking around in a daze. In a good way of course. This one, being grounded in reality had a different feel to it altogether. There is just as much insanity in this one as the last, but it's more tangible insanity. I'm not doing it justice at all, but I really can't come up with another way to put that.
This one was a perfect follow up and brilliantly executed. I was left drooling for the last book, which fortunately I had only days to wait for it to be released. Those were some pretty long days though!
September 20, 2015
The very first page of this book got me invested. The writing was beautiful in a way that caught me off-guard after the laughter and satire of the first book - and where Gladstone finds himself (in a psychiatrist's office) is so different from what the average series would do with a character that went through what our protagonist did in Notes.
A lot of authors would take the easy way out, and have Gladstone's problems all solved by personal revelation in book 2, but what we get instead is a protagonist who is straddling the "healthy" progress he made with his psychiatrist and the knowledge that much of what he wrote in his journal is true. He can't ever fully trust himself, and he's ever the reluctant hero. What he really wants is Romaya - and it seems that there is a part of her that wants him, too.
The story is gripping, and every page holds a new reveal about what was real, what was fake, and what was hidden in book 1. We discover these things alongside Gladstone and it's hard not to be happy when familiar faces reappear. There are some truly heart stopping moments in this one, and some truly heart crushing moments as well.
I am impatient for book 3.
A lot of authors would take the easy way out, and have Gladstone's problems all solved by personal revelation in book 2, but what we get instead is a protagonist who is straddling the "healthy" progress he made with his psychiatrist and the knowledge that much of what he wrote in his journal is true. He can't ever fully trust himself, and he's ever the reluctant hero. What he really wants is Romaya - and it seems that there is a part of her that wants him, too.
The story is gripping, and every page holds a new reveal about what was real, what was fake, and what was hidden in book 1. We discover these things alongside Gladstone and it's hard not to be happy when familiar faces reappear. There are some truly heart stopping moments in this one, and some truly heart crushing moments as well.
I am impatient for book 3.
July 5, 2015
Are you young enough to remember when the internet didn't exist? As a world we have become very dependent on the internet in our daily lives. Not only are we, as citizens of a country, but so are the leaders, movers and shakers of our countries, dependent on the internet. What if it disappeared? Can't imagine? Read Agents of the Internet Apocalypse. Thanks to Goodreads First Reads for this great read.
May 19, 2015
Gladstone has taken a seemingly improbable premise, the loss of the internet, and constructed a magnificent portrayal of society's reaction. It is both heartfelt and irreverent, delving into one man's supposed madness and revealing another man's complete callousness. This is a thoroughly enjoyable read that entertains and provokes all kinds of "what if" scenarios.
May 13, 2015
A fun and witty read following the challenges for Gladstone and his friends in attempting to find the Internet, however, this book has a deeper thought provoking side to our reliance on a media that could be gone as quickly as it came. Clever writing.
September 15, 2015
Better than the original. Great page turner. Heartbreaking love story, and a huge twist ending that left me anxious for the finale
May 25, 2017
For a little while I wasn't as into it as the first book, but by the end I was...and am... ready for book three!
January 10, 2023
As with the first one, Agents - the second novel in the series - feels like a novel designed to sell the next novel. In fact, despite the action arguably being ratcheted up a level for this book, it felt like a slow-down of the previous book meant to prepare us for the final book in the series. Many major plot points seemed to occur for the purpose of being shocking, rather than actually contributing to plot development.
While slightly worse than the first Internet Apocalypse book, I still felt this one merited two stars. I wouldn’t recommend it to serious readers, but if you enjoy Cracked, comedy writing, tech, or dystopian novels, you may enjoy this.
While slightly worse than the first Internet Apocalypse book, I still felt this one merited two stars. I wouldn’t recommend it to serious readers, but if you enjoy Cracked, comedy writing, tech, or dystopian novels, you may enjoy this.
December 16, 2017
I started this trilogy without knowing it was a trilogy. I saw the first book and thought the premise looked cool. I found out after I read the first one that there was 2 more. At under 250 pages, another quick read. Very enjoyable fun book. Can't wait to start the third book and see where the story goes.
December 18, 2020
In Agents of the Internet Apocalypse, we leave off where Notes of the Internet Apocalypse ended, climbing over the fourth wall and continue to wander, aimlessly but with a determination that can’t be broken, towards some very dark and interesting territory. Sharing with its predecessor its quick pace, thoughtfulness, emotion, and dick jokes, things start to really get real in Agents. While still a satire, much of the more strongly satirical elements from Notes have been downplayed as Gladstone finds himself in a world much closer to reality.
After Gladstone’s recovery from his mental breakdown and swim in the Hudson, he tries to sort out what really happened and what happened only in his mind from his ill fated investigation of the missing internet throughout New York City. After the internet makes a sudden and inexplicable comeback, only to disappear again as mysteriously as before, Gladstone travels from his comfort zone in NYC to the vapid wasteland of consumerism that is Los Angeles, a place where you have to drive to get anywhere and dreams go to die. It is here he hopes to reunite with his lost ex-wife Romaya and his friend, the “real” Tobey, the boyish comedy writer he’d imagined as his accomplice in his early investigations.
The very fourth wall has seemed to have come down, as Notes from the Internet Apocalypse, as we read it, has, thanks to Tobey, become “paper viral,” shared by young people pining for the simplicity of the time when communication, knowledge, and entertainment was a mere screen away. As Gladstone tries to repair his relationships, his journal sparks a resistance, and he becomes the reluctant figurehead of a new loose organization, the Internet Reclamation Movement.
At the same time, Gladstone rekindles his quixotic quest to return the internet to the masses. In spite of all indications to the contrary, Gladstone still seems important; he is hounded by government agents, wealthy assholes, Anonymous, and a psychic librarian, all convinced he holds the key in away he is clueless to discover. Of course, as the Internet Reclamation Movement takes off to demand the return of the web, bombs begin to go off across the country, bombs that seem connected to Gladstone’s own activities. In spite of this, there is a lot of pathos and emotion as Gladstone struggles to reconcile with his ex-wife, reflecting upon his childhood and his father. There’s a sentimental, almost soppy feeling to Gladstone before he is again with a gut punch that has the audience gasping.
What are the real costs of being so connected? What have we lost to technology? Is it worth what we’ve gained? I find it intriguing that Jeeves, the “psychic” who set Gladstone on his path as the Internet Messiah in the first place is a librarian- in spite of what stereotypes , librarians are often on the cusp of information technology and are the first to grapple with what its implications mean, for good or ill. At the same time the internet is dead, print media is resurging- could that be a coincidence? Ending with such a gut shot, I'm looking forward to see how all of this is resolved. I've added few more thoughts at my booklikes blog, Reading Rainstorm, as well.
After Gladstone’s recovery from his mental breakdown and swim in the Hudson, he tries to sort out what really happened and what happened only in his mind from his ill fated investigation of the missing internet throughout New York City. After the internet makes a sudden and inexplicable comeback, only to disappear again as mysteriously as before, Gladstone travels from his comfort zone in NYC to the vapid wasteland of consumerism that is Los Angeles, a place where you have to drive to get anywhere and dreams go to die. It is here he hopes to reunite with his lost ex-wife Romaya and his friend, the “real” Tobey, the boyish comedy writer he’d imagined as his accomplice in his early investigations.
The very fourth wall has seemed to have come down, as Notes from the Internet Apocalypse, as we read it, has, thanks to Tobey, become “paper viral,” shared by young people pining for the simplicity of the time when communication, knowledge, and entertainment was a mere screen away. As Gladstone tries to repair his relationships, his journal sparks a resistance, and he becomes the reluctant figurehead of a new loose organization, the Internet Reclamation Movement.
At the same time, Gladstone rekindles his quixotic quest to return the internet to the masses. In spite of all indications to the contrary, Gladstone still seems important; he is hounded by government agents, wealthy assholes, Anonymous, and a psychic librarian, all convinced he holds the key in away he is clueless to discover. Of course, as the Internet Reclamation Movement takes off to demand the return of the web, bombs begin to go off across the country, bombs that seem connected to Gladstone’s own activities. In spite of this, there is a lot of pathos and emotion as Gladstone struggles to reconcile with his ex-wife, reflecting upon his childhood and his father. There’s a sentimental, almost soppy feeling to Gladstone before he is again with a gut punch that has the audience gasping.
What are the real costs of being so connected? What have we lost to technology? Is it worth what we’ve gained? I find it intriguing that Jeeves, the “psychic” who set Gladstone on his path as the Internet Messiah in the first place is a librarian- in spite of what stereotypes , librarians are often on the cusp of information technology and are the first to grapple with what its implications mean, for good or ill. At the same time the internet is dead, print media is resurging- could that be a coincidence? Ending with such a gut shot, I'm looking forward to see how all of this is resolved. I've added few more thoughts at my booklikes blog, Reading Rainstorm, as well.
September 2, 2017
Imagine a world without the web - an Internet apocalypse , I was drawn to the story line and I was not disappointed. Gladstone uses humor and his satiric storyline made this an interesting and enjoyable read.
April 17, 2015
The sequel to Notes from the Internet Apocalypse:
Gladstone, the so-called ‘Internet Messiah,’ has not only failed to bring back the Web, but his search has landed him in a New York City psychiatric ward. The rest of the world isn't doing so well either. The economy continues to suffer, further stoking the discontent of frenzied former Internet users still looking for a fix.
Opening with Gladstone in a psychiatric ward works well, allowing a new reader to find out everything they might have missed in the first novel. We find out about his previous life, his ex-wife, his friends, and his mission. But the novel really gets going when Gladstone is released, and meets up with his friend Tobey. Tobey photocopies and disseminates Gladstone’s diary until it goes ‘paper viral’ – stirring up followers who rebel against the governments NET Recovery Act.
This is a funny book, with an interesting commentary on the internet and the people who like to hang out there, from your average Instagram user to a member of 4Chan or Anonymous. The parts I liked were the feeling that the author is someone who understands the web, who understand the horror of a lost signal, or no data and amplifies it by making that loss last forever.
It’s exaggerated and ridiculous and funny and it’ll still make you reach for your smartphone to make sure you’ve not lost it.
I like that some time is spent on how the web works, though I could’ve done with a little more depth. Perhaps he knows his audience and didn’t want to dig too deep into the technical side, sticking to memes and jokes.
The weakest part of the novel were the female characters, roles relegated to either his ex-wife or women he picks up, or wants to hit on. There are parallels with the Spike Jonze film ‘Her’ -- someone who doesn’t live in reality, hiding because real people are too hard to deal with.
Still, I’ll be on the lookout for the final part of the trilogy to see if we get our net back!
Gladstone, the so-called ‘Internet Messiah,’ has not only failed to bring back the Web, but his search has landed him in a New York City psychiatric ward. The rest of the world isn't doing so well either. The economy continues to suffer, further stoking the discontent of frenzied former Internet users still looking for a fix.
Opening with Gladstone in a psychiatric ward works well, allowing a new reader to find out everything they might have missed in the first novel. We find out about his previous life, his ex-wife, his friends, and his mission. But the novel really gets going when Gladstone is released, and meets up with his friend Tobey. Tobey photocopies and disseminates Gladstone’s diary until it goes ‘paper viral’ – stirring up followers who rebel against the governments NET Recovery Act.
This is a funny book, with an interesting commentary on the internet and the people who like to hang out there, from your average Instagram user to a member of 4Chan or Anonymous. The parts I liked were the feeling that the author is someone who understands the web, who understand the horror of a lost signal, or no data and amplifies it by making that loss last forever.
It’s exaggerated and ridiculous and funny and it’ll still make you reach for your smartphone to make sure you’ve not lost it.
I like that some time is spent on how the web works, though I could’ve done with a little more depth. Perhaps he knows his audience and didn’t want to dig too deep into the technical side, sticking to memes and jokes.
The weakest part of the novel were the female characters, roles relegated to either his ex-wife or women he picks up, or wants to hit on. There are parallels with the Spike Jonze film ‘Her’ -- someone who doesn’t live in reality, hiding because real people are too hard to deal with.
Still, I’ll be on the lookout for the final part of the trilogy to see if we get our net back!
April 19, 2015
I received an advance copy in return for an honest review. So here goes...
Without delving into the whys and hows, imagine that the internet was suddenly gone. No facebook, no twitter, no (gasp!) Goodreads. As a society we have been so dependent on the internet for everything from banking to email to movie reviews. In Wayne's new existence the internet is gone. So he starts trying to figure out why. And along the way we get to meet some of the quirky friends who want to help.
There are, of course, the obligatory masturbation jokes, and several other parts where I laughed out loud, but mostly it was a rather sweet story of a man torn between saving his marriage and saving the world. The ending was not exactly what I expected but I'm okay with that. Altogether it was a very enjoyable book.
Without delving into the whys and hows, imagine that the internet was suddenly gone. No facebook, no twitter, no (gasp!) Goodreads. As a society we have been so dependent on the internet for everything from banking to email to movie reviews. In Wayne's new existence the internet is gone. So he starts trying to figure out why. And along the way we get to meet some of the quirky friends who want to help.
There are, of course, the obligatory masturbation jokes, and several other parts where I laughed out loud, but mostly it was a rather sweet story of a man torn between saving his marriage and saving the world. The ending was not exactly what I expected but I'm okay with that. Altogether it was a very enjoyable book.
November 27, 2016
Partway through this one, I was wondering, just like our previously unreliable narrator, how much of this was real and how much was delusion? The attempts to woo Romaya were uncomfortable but not past believing. Tobey was pretty funny. Agent Rowsdower gets some filling out with character development. The cliffhanger ending is more tantalizing than that of the first. I'll have to keep an eye out for any sales or deals on #3 because now I'm committed.
Read
July 21, 2015I want to like this, but I didn’t. It felt like the story was trying too hard to be funny, and ended up failing. There was too much college frat boy humour for me to enjoy, and once you removed the humour, the story fell apart.
I read more than half of the story, but it just didn’t keep me interested enough to continue.
I read more than half of the story, but it just didn’t keep me interested enough to continue.
August 20, 2015
You would be crazy to have not read "Notes From the Internet Apocalypse" first, but Gladstone does such a great job re-visiting events of the first book that "Agents of the Internet Apocalypse" would still be tremendously satisfying as a standalone novel. His characters are perfectly flawed and completely believable in an unimaginable reality. I cannot wait for the third installment.
March 22, 2016
Apparently this is going to be a trilogy. I am interested in seeing what happens in the third book, because this one basically dropped the protagonist to the ocean floor by the end of it (figuratively).
May 10, 2019
Well, it's amusing. Sure, it's book 2 in a trilogy/series, but that doesn't seem to hamper it. It does end on a colossal cliffhanger, but that's okay. And I do like the cover. I was given this as part of a secret Santa book exchange, so make of that what you will.
August 7, 2015
Excellent and fun book. Makes you think how true it could be.
October 11, 2015
Meh!! But ROWSDOWER!!!
August 5, 2019
I enjoyed this book more than I expected. Gladstone and his friends are interesting characters, and I want to learn more about them though the story is complete in itself.
July 15, 2015
Review to come.
March 5, 2021
2 stars
review
It seems this is the second book in a series. I did not know this when I requested the book from NetGalley several years ago. I was interested because I enjoyed Gladstone’s writings on Cracked.com* and wanted to see what his fiction was like. This being the case, I have not read the first book in the series. As it turns out, not having read the first book in the series isn’t a problem with this book. Gladstone (the author, presumably the real human being that one could hit with a Frisbee given the correct circumstances) is a sufficiently experienced writer to give his readers enough background information that they can piece together the important things that took place in his first book without stopping the action of the second.
Storywise, this reads a bit like the movie Silver Linings Playbook, in that a screw-up gets out of an institution and goes to win back his ex-wife while bigger events take place around him that he reluctantly becomes a part of. It also has some kind of half-assed Internet sleuthing bringing in, well, 4chan and Anonymous which, from 2021, is off-putting. Anyway, the supporting characters are a little flat, but so is Gladstone (the character, but not the character version of himself that everyone continues to reference because of the first book), and things definitely get a bit recursive, but that was, as I recall, what the Internet was into in 2015, when this book was published.
And I must say, the period between 2010 and 2015 were my most active years on the Internet, and so the references and allusions this book makes are familiar, but to a modern reader will certainly feel dated and out of touch. This is the curse of being an older Millennial, I suppose. The humor is kind of funny, but feels a little off. Someone with a different experience of the Internet might not even find it funny, though they’d be able to recognize that it’s supposed to be. Overall, this is a quick read that stands well on its own, much like Gladstone’s writings on Cracked were when I was reading them, and if you are someone who can separate art from artist, and you were active on the Internet during the early- to mid- 2010s, this may be a book for you.
*Important note: Apparently in the intervening years things have come out about Gladstone (the author) and some of his colleagues at Cracked that casts a pall over not only this book, but that era of the Internet, and I’m sorry he and the others turned out to be that way.
rating scale
1 star - I was barely able to finish it. I didn't like it.
2 stars - It was okay. I didn't dislike it.
3 stars - It was interesting. I liked it.
4 stars - It was excellent. I really liked it.
5 stars - It was extraordinary. I really hope the author wrote more things.
review
It seems this is the second book in a series. I did not know this when I requested the book from NetGalley several years ago. I was interested because I enjoyed Gladstone’s writings on Cracked.com* and wanted to see what his fiction was like. This being the case, I have not read the first book in the series. As it turns out, not having read the first book in the series isn’t a problem with this book. Gladstone (the author, presumably the real human being that one could hit with a Frisbee given the correct circumstances) is a sufficiently experienced writer to give his readers enough background information that they can piece together the important things that took place in his first book without stopping the action of the second.
Storywise, this reads a bit like the movie Silver Linings Playbook, in that a screw-up gets out of an institution and goes to win back his ex-wife while bigger events take place around him that he reluctantly becomes a part of. It also has some kind of half-assed Internet sleuthing bringing in, well, 4chan and Anonymous which, from 2021, is off-putting. Anyway, the supporting characters are a little flat, but so is Gladstone (the character, but not the character version of himself that everyone continues to reference because of the first book), and things definitely get a bit recursive, but that was, as I recall, what the Internet was into in 2015, when this book was published.
And I must say, the period between 2010 and 2015 were my most active years on the Internet, and so the references and allusions this book makes are familiar, but to a modern reader will certainly feel dated and out of touch. This is the curse of being an older Millennial, I suppose. The humor is kind of funny, but feels a little off. Someone with a different experience of the Internet might not even find it funny, though they’d be able to recognize that it’s supposed to be. Overall, this is a quick read that stands well on its own, much like Gladstone’s writings on Cracked were when I was reading them, and if you are someone who can separate art from artist, and you were active on the Internet during the early- to mid- 2010s, this may be a book for you.
*Important note: Apparently in the intervening years things have come out about Gladstone (the author) and some of his colleagues at Cracked that casts a pall over not only this book, but that era of the Internet, and I’m sorry he and the others turned out to be that way.
rating scale
1 star - I was barely able to finish it. I didn't like it.
2 stars - It was okay. I didn't dislike it.
3 stars - It was interesting. I liked it.
4 stars - It was excellent. I really liked it.
5 stars - It was extraordinary. I really hope the author wrote more things.
November 13, 2016
110 pages in and there were more grammatical errors than I could count on one hand. I'm not sure if the author had an editor and a proof reader, if he did they missed a lot. There were several cases of extra words or missing words that made it too distracting to finish. It's a shame because I didn't notice this problem with book #1.
March 24, 2017
This was a mesmerizing journey through Gladstone's growth and the accompanying sadness and loss. The story of how the world adapts and moves on despite not having internet is fascinating, and a testament to peoples' ability to change with change.
The most beautiful thing I took from this book is the search for pure things. Pure things exist and are worth fighting for.
Would highly recommend.
The most beautiful thing I took from this book is the search for pure things. Pure things exist and are worth fighting for.
Would highly recommend.
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