The Definition of Experience: Inside the Contract Electronics Manufacturing Services Industry

by Jim Adameit

A Cautionary Tale:
One Man's Stand Against The Corporate Machine.
An edgy, racy, action-packed financial / business / techie thriller, about the global industry that manufactures and brings us all our smart phones, laptop computers cloud servers - and virtually any other electronics products you can think of.
Think this is boring stuff?
In a US$500 billion dollar global market - with THAT much money at stake?
Think again...
(please note that this novel contains 'some' mature content)

433 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 2, 2019

About the author

Jim Adameit is a 30-year veteran of the Contract Manufacturing / Electronics Manufacturing Services industry. The same global industry that manufactures everything from desktop & laptop computers, to smart phones, to cloud servers, video game consoles, sophisticated medical equipment - and virtually any product containing 'electronics'. Jim's debut novel, 'The Definition of Experience' is a fictional story - to be considered a cautionary tale - and is based on real-world events and could easily happen (if not happening already).

Companies in this industry all around the world compete within immense pressures of product time-to-market. Ethics can be situational. Intellectual property can be too easily stolen. Money and careers can be made and lost each day.

Jim is now writing his second novel in this series, called 'The Definition of a Secret'.

Reviews

[Mary Yarde · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Pawns are rarely left on the board at the end of the game..."

Dan Gamble was three short months away before he became fully vested in Stygian Electronics Manufacturing Company. He had sacrificed the last five years of his personal life, travelling all over the world at the company's beck and call, so that he could get to this moment. Dan had suffered the arrogant and ignorant corporate director, Calvin 'Cal' Beaudry's, jibes and the snide remarks, with quiet dignity. So it came as quite the shock when he was formally dismissed.

While Dan was tying up loose ends with Stygian, he noticed a document in his miscellanies file on his computer that he had never seen before. When he opened the document up, he could not believe what he was seeing. Someone was stealing product designs from companies that Stygian worked with. The question was, who?

The Definition of Experience (Dan Gamble, Book 1) by Jim Adameit is an action-packed Financial Thriller, filled to bursting with intrigue, lies, suspense, and drama.

The premise of this book piqued my curiosity, and even though I have no first-hand experience of the contract Electronics Manufacturing Services Industry, I was looking forward to reading and hopefully while reading, learning about it. When I started to read The Definition of Experience I did begin to have a few reservations, for this is an in-depth look into this industry, and I feared I would become lost in the technical jargon and the day to day activities of this vast industry. Thankfully Adameit is a competent tour guide, and he goes to some length to explain what things mean. When a lot of explanation is needed in a book, as this one does, it can sometimes make the narrative somewhat slow and cumbersome, but Adameit has made these explanations part of the story, and therefore it did not affect the pace of this novel at all, nor did it hamper my enjoyment. The short chapters also made this book feel incredibly fast-paced.

The protagonist of this novel, Dan Gamble, is an extremely likeable character. Dan is approaching retirement and knows the industry inside out. However, the rug is pulled out from under Dan when he loses his job. Still, Dan is a very pragmatic man who, although concerned about how employable he is with regards to his advancing years, is determined to secure the future retirement of himself and his wife. When he discovers that there is something sinister going on at Stygian, he becomes this very shrewd detective as he begins to piece things together. After the way he has been treated, he owes no loyalty to his former employer, and he is determined to see justice served. I thought Dan's depiction was fabulous. He is an unlikely hero that you can really get behind and root for. I enjoyed reading about him very much.

It is said that an antagonist can make or break a story, in the case of The Definition of Experience the antagonists, for there are several, made this book unputdownable. The first self-centred and self-important antagonist we meet is Cal Beaudry. Cal is despised at work and feared at home. He is this disgustingly creepy man who has all the charisma of a tormented serpent. Cal really made my skin crawl, and he is the kind of superior that no one wants to be under. Another antagonist that brought out strong emotions is Vincent Spagano. Vince reminded me of a leech. He is almost inseparable from Carson Hayworth "Bud" Styres, the CEO of Stygian. When Vince is not sliming up to Bud, he can be found in strip clubs. He certainly wasn't the nicest of characters.

The real villain in this tale is, however, Bud. He is an especially ruthless man who revels in his position of authority and power. And he gets a kick out of terrorising his subordinates. Adameit does give his readers a glimpse into Bud's life outside of Styres, and although I sympathised with his poor wife, I could not find any sympathy for Bud. He is, in all ways, a predator. Saying that however, his character drove this story forward, and for a villain in a suit, I thought Adameit portrayed him wonderfully.

There are many supporting characters in this book, each with their role to play. Juggling so many characters is always a risk, for sometimes such a considerable cast can confuse a reader. However, Adameit has firm control of his characters and his story, so I did not once find myself confused as to who everyone was and what part in the story they were going to play. Kudos, Mr Adameit.

If you love a good thriller, with an extremely entertaining and gripping plot, then look no further than The Definition of Experience (Dan Gamble Book 1) by Jim Adameit. It is, in all ways, a great success.

I Highly Recommend.

Review by Mary Anne Yarde.
The Coffee Pot Book Club.

[Matt Shepker · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Definition of Experience by Jim Adameit was recommended to me as a thriller and after reading the description I thought I'd give it a try. I work in a similar industry, I have consulted in the electronics manufacturing space, and the book has a really cool cover. Why not?

Unfortunately, this book proved to me, once again, that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. The premise of the book is great... industrial espionage on a massive scale by a company that produces the circuitry of modern life. As the description of the book intimates, this is a massive industry and I am sure this kind of stuff happens all the time. The problem is that the execution of the story left much to be desired...


To start with, 90% of the first half of the book could be eliminated without changing much of the overall storyline. It does a fair job of introducing all of the characters, but nothing truly plot-related happens until well past the 50% mark. It does show that the main character, Dan, is a likable guy, his best friend is a bit of a shyster, his boss is an asshole, the executives at his company are corrupt, and that the fired him for no good reason other than to improve profit margins. I almost DNF'd this at around 40% as it just wasn't going anywhere at all.

Once we get beyond the 50% mark, things to improve. Somewhat. We do finally figure out that something shady is going on at the main character's old company and he decides to start pulling at the thread to figure out where it goes. Dan starts to gather some old colleagues around him to bring down his old company. Out of the blue, Dan gets involved in a much larger investigation/scheme that aligns with his goals. The story got a bit discombobulated (or more so) at this point for me.

This mysterious agency/person/group give Dan three days to finish up his investigation. What happens during those three days is so far out of the realm of reality that it completely threw off the story for me. One character has a near-death experience, finds out he has cancer, begins chemo treatments, and decides that he isn't cut out for investigations except for some good ideas that he passes on to Dan. Dan manages to set up the main bad guy with a drug-induced sexcapade (that involves several nurses, payoffs, etc) with a stripper that happens to be the unrequited love/lust interest of bad guy #2. Dan doesn't know anything about the relationships and was just looking for some dirty pictures. But it just happened to be exactly what was needed to get baddie #2 to flip on the main bad guy. This was had to be the fullest (and most productive) three days that anyone has ever had.

Everything gets wrapped up in a neat little bow in the end. Sort of. There were a couple of characters that got their due, but almost everyone got away with it. Pretty unfulfilling.


I know that the author intends this to be a series. I like the main character and I felt sorry for him at the beginning, but he doesn't really have any real investigative or, really, special skill at all. His ability to resolve the issues was because he was in the right place at the right time and mostly due to other people's work. Hopefully, the author can expand his skillset and make the next stories rely a little less on Deus ex machina to resolve. I hope he also utilizes a fairly heavy-handed editor who can point out some of inconsistencies/improbabilities in his story.

Thanks to Jim Adameit, BooksGoSocial, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the eARC for this book and provide my honest feedback.

[Mary Yarde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to follow...!