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The Phone Company
HELLO, I AM THE TETHER - The Phone Company has been around for a long time. As civilization grew, so did PCo’s power, slowly spreading its lines across the continent. Today it’s in everything. It’s in the air around us.
I CAN TRACK YOUR KIDS FOR YOU - Now PCo is building a cell tower in the isolated town of Cracked Rock, Montana, bringing with it infrastructure, opportunity, and the world’s smartest phone: the brand-new Tether.
I CAN SPY ON YOUR NEIGHBORS - But the Tether isn’t just a phone. It knows everything about you. It can give you anything you want. It can even connect you with the dead.
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS GET CONNECTED - As the Tether digs up the town’s dirtiest skeletons, one father must make a stand to save what’s left of his family, his town, and humanity itself—or succumb to his own desires.
THE TETHER: I’M NOT TECHNOLOGY
I CAN TRACK YOUR KIDS FOR YOU - Now PCo is building a cell tower in the isolated town of Cracked Rock, Montana, bringing with it infrastructure, opportunity, and the world’s smartest phone: the brand-new Tether.
I CAN SPY ON YOUR NEIGHBORS - But the Tether isn’t just a phone. It knows everything about you. It can give you anything you want. It can even connect you with the dead.
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS GET CONNECTED - As the Tether digs up the town’s dirtiest skeletons, one father must make a stand to save what’s left of his family, his town, and humanity itself—or succumb to his own desires.
THE TETHER: I’M NOT TECHNOLOGY
548 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 24, 2014
56 people are currently reading
696 people want to read
About the author
David Jacob Knight
3 books10 followersTHE CONSPIRACY
David Jacob Knight has written under many pseudonyms during his writing career, each with their own rich backstory and fake lives. He has endured great hardship with a past publisher, and this experience--along with the difficulties of maintaining multiple personas--has shaped the narrative of his first book, THE PEN NAME. You can interact with DJK on Facebook (facebook.com/DavidJacobKnight) and Twitter (twitter.com/AuthorDJK).
THE TRUTH
Jacob Kier and D.L. Snell are the writing team behind David Jacob Knight. They consider themselves ghostwriters, not because it's an accurate term for what they do, but because it sounds cooler than co-authors. Kier is the founder of Permuted Press, and Snell is a critically acclaimed author from the Pacific Northwest. Learn more at their websites, facebook.com/TheJacobKier and dlsnell.com.
David Jacob Knight has written under many pseudonyms during his writing career, each with their own rich backstory and fake lives. He has endured great hardship with a past publisher, and this experience--along with the difficulties of maintaining multiple personas--has shaped the narrative of his first book, THE PEN NAME. You can interact with DJK on Facebook (facebook.com/DavidJacobKnight) and Twitter (twitter.com/AuthorDJK).
THE TRUTH
Jacob Kier and D.L. Snell are the writing team behind David Jacob Knight. They consider themselves ghostwriters, not because it's an accurate term for what they do, but because it sounds cooler than co-authors. Kier is the founder of Permuted Press, and Snell is a critically acclaimed author from the Pacific Northwest. Learn more at their websites, facebook.com/TheJacobKier and dlsnell.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
December 23, 2014
This is a very interesting book. I really didn't think I would like it, because the title is just plain retarded. It doesn't do the story any justice. Because, it's a fascinating story. And, if you're addicted to your smartphone, like most people are, this book may very well scare the living shit out of you.
This book is the story of how The Phone Company is controlling everyone's lives. I mean, literally. Because their new super fancy phone, the Tether, actually connects to your brain, and allows the Provider to control you like a motherfucking drone.
It's also the story of one man who refuses to sign up with this new Provider. He likes his old Nokia phone just fine, thank you very much. So, he's the only one in town that isn't a mindless zombie. And it's up to him to stop the Provider from making his son and several other children kill themselves as sacrifices to the Provider.
What? Sacrifices to a cell phone provider? What the bloody fuck is going on? When did the Provider turn into a goddamn religion that requires sacrifices? This part of the book made absolutely no fucking sense. There was no reason for it.
I mean, there's this great story, with apps that allow you to spy on everyone in town. Hell, there's even an app to strangle someone's cat. And someone uses an app to pilot a plane, and crash it into the local middle school. So the story is great, without the religious Provider nonsense. I think it would have been a much better book, if it had just stuck with the awesome sci-fi elements, and left the religion and fantasy out of it.
That being said, it's still a compelling read. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who is paranoid about their cellphones running their lives. Or anyone who's paranoid about google knowing their every thoughts. Because it's true. Google knows everything about you. Your deepest, darkest secrets. Nothing is safe anymore.
This book is the story of how The Phone Company is controlling everyone's lives. I mean, literally. Because their new super fancy phone, the Tether, actually connects to your brain, and allows the Provider to control you like a motherfucking drone.
It's also the story of one man who refuses to sign up with this new Provider. He likes his old Nokia phone just fine, thank you very much. So, he's the only one in town that isn't a mindless zombie. And it's up to him to stop the Provider from making his son and several other children kill themselves as sacrifices to the Provider.
What? Sacrifices to a cell phone provider? What the bloody fuck is going on? When did the Provider turn into a goddamn religion that requires sacrifices? This part of the book made absolutely no fucking sense. There was no reason for it.
I mean, there's this great story, with apps that allow you to spy on everyone in town. Hell, there's even an app to strangle someone's cat. And someone uses an app to pilot a plane, and crash it into the local middle school. So the story is great, without the religious Provider nonsense. I think it would have been a much better book, if it had just stuck with the awesome sci-fi elements, and left the religion and fantasy out of it.
That being said, it's still a compelling read. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who is paranoid about their cellphones running their lives. Or anyone who's paranoid about google knowing their every thoughts. Because it's true. Google knows everything about you. Your deepest, darkest secrets. Nothing is safe anymore.
December 21, 2014
I received an electronic copy of this book in exchange for a review.
I thought, before reading it, that this was a science fiction book. A very spooky sci fi book, but still sci fi. Where, you know, the fiction is usually at least somewhat backed up by science, even if it's fake science.
But no. This book is horror, backed up by a complete lack of even handwaving to cover the fiction. In this story, an evil phone company is taking over the country, possibly the world, and they can -- gasp, shock of horror -- affect reality with their phones. You would think they could do great things with that, but no, they mostly use it for cheap thrills, killing and bullying. There is a grand plot to all of this, but frankly, it's hugely disappointing. That one man, a perfectly ordinary Luddite, could foil the plans of a megacorporation with powers over reality... I mean, were they *planning* on losing? Seriously.
The storytelling was done well, but the characterization was spotty, and the plot... ::shakes head:: Let's not talk about the plot, shall we?
Maybe I'd like it better if I liked horror or hadn't been spoiled by years of reading good sci fi, but honestly, probably not.
I thought, before reading it, that this was a science fiction book. A very spooky sci fi book, but still sci fi. Where, you know, the fiction is usually at least somewhat backed up by science, even if it's fake science.
But no. This book is horror, backed up by a complete lack of even handwaving to cover the fiction. In this story, an evil phone company is taking over the country, possibly the world, and they can -- gasp, shock of horror -- affect reality with their phones. You would think they could do great things with that, but no, they mostly use it for cheap thrills, killing and bullying. There is a grand plot to all of this, but frankly, it's hugely disappointing. That one man, a perfectly ordinary Luddite, could foil the plans of a megacorporation with powers over reality... I mean, were they *planning* on losing? Seriously.
The storytelling was done well, but the characterization was spotty, and the plot... ::shakes head:: Let's not talk about the plot, shall we?
Maybe I'd like it better if I liked horror or hadn't been spoiled by years of reading good sci fi, but honestly, probably not.
November 27, 2015
This is one weird book I never was able to get into, oh yes I tried many times after putting it down telling myself that I wasn’t in the correct mood for a bizarre, kind of nightmarish read. In effect, from my perspective this turned fast into a slow and far too dragging horror to pick my interest from the start and hold it all through….I never reached the end…..
The premise is original: a cellphone service company bestows cellphones on the citizen in a small town but the phones are evil…. What follows is creepy. All through we have lunacy and strangeness happening with phones taking over the lives of the residents….
Although this book was no meant for me it may be yours. I am not saying the plot is not a well-written one and the characters not interesting. It simply this kind of story that never gelled and I simply abandoned it half through… My take on this book may not give a fair assessment but it is the way I see it……
The premise is original: a cellphone service company bestows cellphones on the citizen in a small town but the phones are evil…. What follows is creepy. All through we have lunacy and strangeness happening with phones taking over the lives of the residents….
Although this book was no meant for me it may be yours. I am not saying the plot is not a well-written one and the characters not interesting. It simply this kind of story that never gelled and I simply abandoned it half through… My take on this book may not give a fair assessment but it is the way I see it……
February 9, 2015
I liked The Phone Company enough that I purchased The Pen Name by David Jacob Knight half way through reading this book.
I hope they release an audio version because I would like to share this with my mom (who is a Stephen King fan).
I hope they release an audio version because I would like to share this with my mom (who is a Stephen King fan).
August 10, 2017
I grabbed a free copy of this wild novel, and though the title was not very enticing, reminiscent of a lot of Bentley Little titles, the book was hard to put down. Happy I took a chance. Stange, bizarre even, but filled with ordinary - mostly - people dealing with an increasingly insidious corporation that slowly, implacably, infilttrates every conceivable aspect of their lives.
It's a wild ride with plenty of twists and turns. I like this one a lot.
It's a wild ride with plenty of twists and turns. I like this one a lot.
June 24, 2016
*I received the ebook copy from Booklikes giveaway but this has not affected my review and rating in any way.
This was the most horrible book I read - I only finish it as a penance for asking it through giveaways (be careful what you wish for) and in order to write this review. I simply cannot give it even one star as it would be unjust towards other books on my list having the same rating while not suffering from lack of style, characters, motivation, meaningful story... (*update - I had to put one star on it in the end, as missing rating lowers the chance for new giveaways)
I was interested in this book because whole my career has been around telephony and contact centers, not mentioning technology, and it had that quote from Arthur Clarke in the description ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."). It also had more than ok reviews. It turned out that it is just a poor mish mash of (badly written) contemporary scares from high school shooting to plane hijacking, from referencing Stephen King (Needful things, Dead zone, King himself, even his famous: "Don't pass go"...) to attempt at tapping Lovecraft, from Invasion of body snatchers to indigenous curse connected to the cracks in the earth, from technology scares to privacy concerns... It is simply a trope of horror commonplaces in which authors keep jumping from one to the other at will.
This novel is attempt at horror but the only horrible thing is the prose itself! Here are some quotes to illustrate:
He realized on some level, in his paranoid reptilian brain, he was afraid Bill might be right. Ever since The Phone Company had blown into town like some weed, everything had started to fall apart. Steve had been the only one to see that, until now. So Bill seemed to be on his side. But at the same time, Steve knew Bill was totally insane.
Steve found himself getting hot from the yolk of sun spilling into his lap.
The sensation shifted, and it felt more like he’d swallowed a bunch of change, which he was pretty sure he hadn’t.
Explicitly admitted absence of motivation:
The Phone Company was evil. Who could even grasp their motives, their needs?
Some unexplained shifts in main character's actions:
He just knew this was his fault, and he could fix it.
then after a couple of paragraphs:
No, he was done saving the world. He had failed, and now it was someone else’s turn to pull the sword from the rock.
On top of that some universal questions:
The question he struggled with the most, though, was this: if there was so much evil in the world, and it was so pervasive, was there an equal or greater opposite force?
and cocktail party topics to amaze:
And now the NSA’s building quantum computers so they can break through any encryption. They can spy on anything they want to, only someone’s already done that. I was looking it up, and I guess Tesla was talking about cell phones over a century ago, can you believe that?
It is an exemplary read of what should be avoided if you are aspiring writer.
This was the most horrible book I read - I only finish it as a penance for asking it through giveaways (be careful what you wish for) and in order to write this review. I simply cannot give it even one star as it would be unjust towards other books on my list having the same rating while not suffering from lack of style, characters, motivation, meaningful story... (*update - I had to put one star on it in the end, as missing rating lowers the chance for new giveaways)
I was interested in this book because whole my career has been around telephony and contact centers, not mentioning technology, and it had that quote from Arthur Clarke in the description ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."). It also had more than ok reviews. It turned out that it is just a poor mish mash of (badly written) contemporary scares from high school shooting to plane hijacking, from referencing Stephen King (Needful things, Dead zone, King himself, even his famous: "Don't pass go"...) to attempt at tapping Lovecraft, from Invasion of body snatchers to indigenous curse connected to the cracks in the earth, from technology scares to privacy concerns... It is simply a trope of horror commonplaces in which authors keep jumping from one to the other at will.
This novel is attempt at horror but the only horrible thing is the prose itself! Here are some quotes to illustrate:
He realized on some level, in his paranoid reptilian brain, he was afraid Bill might be right. Ever since The Phone Company had blown into town like some weed, everything had started to fall apart. Steve had been the only one to see that, until now. So Bill seemed to be on his side. But at the same time, Steve knew Bill was totally insane.
Steve found himself getting hot from the yolk of sun spilling into his lap.
The sensation shifted, and it felt more like he’d swallowed a bunch of change, which he was pretty sure he hadn’t.
Explicitly admitted absence of motivation:
The Phone Company was evil. Who could even grasp their motives, their needs?
Some unexplained shifts in main character's actions:
He just knew this was his fault, and he could fix it.
then after a couple of paragraphs:
No, he was done saving the world. He had failed, and now it was someone else’s turn to pull the sword from the rock.
On top of that some universal questions:
The question he struggled with the most, though, was this: if there was so much evil in the world, and it was so pervasive, was there an equal or greater opposite force?
and cocktail party topics to amaze:
And now the NSA’s building quantum computers so they can break through any encryption. They can spy on anything they want to, only someone’s already done that. I was looking it up, and I guess Tesla was talking about cell phones over a century ago, can you believe that?
It is an exemplary read of what should be avoided if you are aspiring writer.
August 6, 2015
Frankly, I think this story is about everyone’s worst nightmares. We all have phones. We all depend on them for everything under the sun. In this book, the author takes this to an extreme. In fact, after reading this book, I will never look at my cell phone the same way again. A phone company moves into Cracked Rock, Montana, helping things in the town begin to look up. There is new infrastructure, new opportunity, new ideas, and the best part is free phones for everyone. The new phone, the Tether, is the world’s smartest smart phone. It can do just about everything from spying on your neighbors to tracking your kids. Is this good or what? The story delves into a world that may well come to be some day in the future as phones become more and more an integral part of our lives, a part no one can live without. However, is this really all that good? The book provides an answer through a fantastic plot, centered around this new phone company, the phone and the citizen’s lives of Cracked Rock, Montana. The end results are perhaps not what you might expect, but they can happen and ring pretty true.
This is a fairly well written book, bringing to mind the eerie novels of Stephen King or Lovecraft. It’s a horror story with a distinct modern twist, one we all can envision happening and can all understand and appreciate. There’s creativity in the concept behind the book as well as in the follow through and in some of the apps the author includes. The story is riveting and almost too true to life. I am not one of the people who is currently tethered to my cell phone, but, then, I existed for many years in a world/era where there were no cell phones and everyone had to depend on plain, old landlines, without the many phone features and apps found today. Things were certainly different then. This book definitely brings this point home. This is a good book for anyone who enjoys a realistic, futuristic horror story, though it is a bit disjointed and can drag at times (I wanted things to move along quickly so I could see what the end result was NOW!). It may seem far-fetched to some, but it is not beyond the impossible, not what you look around to see how things are today. I do not normally read books that are in this genre (I am trying to move beyond my “box”, which is one reason why I chose this one), but this one definitely held my interest and attention. I received this from Library Thing to read and review.
This is a fairly well written book, bringing to mind the eerie novels of Stephen King or Lovecraft. It’s a horror story with a distinct modern twist, one we all can envision happening and can all understand and appreciate. There’s creativity in the concept behind the book as well as in the follow through and in some of the apps the author includes. The story is riveting and almost too true to life. I am not one of the people who is currently tethered to my cell phone, but, then, I existed for many years in a world/era where there were no cell phones and everyone had to depend on plain, old landlines, without the many phone features and apps found today. Things were certainly different then. This book definitely brings this point home. This is a good book for anyone who enjoys a realistic, futuristic horror story, though it is a bit disjointed and can drag at times (I wanted things to move along quickly so I could see what the end result was NOW!). It may seem far-fetched to some, but it is not beyond the impossible, not what you look around to see how things are today. I do not normally read books that are in this genre (I am trying to move beyond my “box”, which is one reason why I chose this one), but this one definitely held my interest and attention. I received this from Library Thing to read and review.
December 24, 2014
*free ebook copy received from author in exchange for an honest review*
I found The Phone Company to be an excellent story and would actually rate it 4 1/2 stars. The plot line was well developed with a superb Lovecraftian style ending.
David Jacob Knight has a wonderful ability to craft true horror. He takes something completely supernatural that feels totally impossible and then intricately weaves it through reality allowing the reader to feel that the story could really be true. At least until the ending when it leaps into its frenetic conclusion. So many of the horrific instances in the book are just exaggerated versions of true technologies and real life situations.
I would have given the story 5 stars had it not been for 2 minor parts. The first was a character's name. One of the female character's name was Aaron. I see that as the male spelling of the name where it should have been Erin. Perhaps this is me being picky? Perhaps I am wrong and it can be used for both genders. Still it had a tendency to confuse me as to who the author was talking about for the first half of the book.
Secondly, I found the very end of the book to be too ambiguous. It left it so that you didn't really know if one of the main characters died or not. It could have been read to have gone either way. I just would have liked to have that one final question answered.
I would highly recommend The Phone Company to all fans of horror stories in the veins of H.P. Lovecraft and fans of Stephen King's books. I would also recommend it to anyone looking to read a great horror book.
I found The Phone Company to be an excellent story and would actually rate it 4 1/2 stars. The plot line was well developed with a superb Lovecraftian style ending.
David Jacob Knight has a wonderful ability to craft true horror. He takes something completely supernatural that feels totally impossible and then intricately weaves it through reality allowing the reader to feel that the story could really be true. At least until the ending when it leaps into its frenetic conclusion. So many of the horrific instances in the book are just exaggerated versions of true technologies and real life situations.
I would have given the story 5 stars had it not been for 2 minor parts. The first was a character's name. One of the female character's name was Aaron. I see that as the male spelling of the name where it should have been Erin. Perhaps this is me being picky? Perhaps I am wrong and it can be used for both genders. Still it had a tendency to confuse me as to who the author was talking about for the first half of the book.
Secondly, I found the very end of the book to be too ambiguous. It left it so that you didn't really know if one of the main characters died or not. It could have been read to have gone either way. I just would have liked to have that one final question answered.
I would highly recommend The Phone Company to all fans of horror stories in the veins of H.P. Lovecraft and fans of Stephen King's books. I would also recommend it to anyone looking to read a great horror book.
January 27, 2015
PCo decides to set up its data centre in the town and hands a phone called Tether to its customers. Unlike the usual phone characters in the apps of this phone seems real.It updates personal data of user by itself and people all over the world can rate you on basis of whatever you did or do!Steve is attached to his old phone unlike his two kids, he doesn't get why everyone in the town worship PCo. Steve's worry becomes serious when everything done in virtual world of the phone becomes real.And people he loves and knows start to change.
As I finished half the book I ha to force myself to continue reading. The climax though was fast paced and interesting.It was difficult in the starting for me to grasp what the plot was but it was only towards the end that the story started to make sense to me so I think it's good after all that I decided to push on with it!
As I finished half the book I ha to force myself to continue reading. The climax though was fast paced and interesting.It was difficult in the starting for me to grasp what the plot was but it was only towards the end that the story started to make sense to me so I think it's good after all that I decided to push on with it!
January 23, 2015
Not really sure where to start with this book. After reading the blurb it was a very promising story of how phones can literally take over your life/world and being myself a lover of technology I couldn’t wait to see what happened. However as I got further through the book, it just got weird. For me the ending really lacked and was confusing, as it left me with more answers than questions as to what the Phone Company actually was.
May 29, 2025
Very cool original book!
March 13, 2022
Great read
I recommend this book to all fans of Stephen King's earliest novels. Great characters and a unique plot, different from the usual.
I recommend this book to all fans of Stephen King's earliest novels. Great characters and a unique plot, different from the usual.
January 3, 2015
The Tether. The name drums up an image of something that holds you in place, latches on to you, and links you to others that are also connected in a similar fashion. The Tether in The Phone Company is the name of the latest mobile device being offered by the eponymous organization to their customers. PCo, for short, didn’t make the Tether, but they have taken full advantage of its endless capabilities as a device to connect everyone to each other. Just sign up, get connected, and work to become one of the Top 12 of the PCo family. Its aps are remarkable, giving its customers almost magic-like abilities to peak into the world of their neighbors, to control machinery, and to retrieve virtually any information instantaneously.
PCo has set up shop in Cracked Rock, Montana, building a data center on the cemetery where the town founders have been buried. While there are protests about what they have done, most of the citizens are too excited about the free phones being offered to students and other members of the community to have a problem with it. Cracked Rock is a town that is hurting. Several years earlier a boy went on a shooting spree at the local middle school, tearing the town apart. While this was happening, Steve, one of the teachers in the high school, avoided his kids being victims because they were facing another nightmare at the local hospital: the death of Janice, his wife, due to lung cancer.
Steve and Bill, his best friend and a deputy sheriff in town, are about the only two members of the community not thrilled with the new Tethers and the increased presence of PCo. Both are given free Tethers as public servants, but Steve would rather stick with his old phone that both he and his wife used years before and Bill isn’t interested in agreeing to the background check the Tether requires to grant him access to all the neat law enforcement tools it has to offer.
It doesn’t take long for this thriller to migrate to more of a supernatural horror, with strange events occurring all around town. It seems that everyone is discovering unique aps on their phones, like JJ, Steve’s son, who discovers he can inhabit the bodies of soldiers and rebels doing battle in a variety of wars across the globe. Sarah, Steve’s daughter, realizes she has a popularity ap that not only gauges her popularity against the other girls in her high school, it also provides guidance on what she can do to claw her way to the top of the list.
If you have read the author’s previous work, The Pen Name, it becomes clear very quickly that both these tales inhabit the same eerie world. The mysterious publishing company from the first book pays a brief visit here, and the main character from that tale had been laid off from the phone company prior to being sucked into his own mystery. The author’s prior work seemed a bit more subtle as the world around the main character unraveled in bits and pieces. In Cracked Rock, things seem to tumble down the rabbit hole in a more abrupt fashion, though everyone seems fairly happy with the results. The mysterious Provider, who is behind the all-consuming need to be connected, is spoken about with a reverence bordering on religiously zealotry by the faithful.
This story, like its predecessor, has flavors of Lovecraft mixed in with King and begins as a thriller that migrates more into the realm of supernatural horror before the story is complete. The writing is solid though Steve, the main character, doesn’t feel as strongly developed as Ben was in The Pen Name. Perhaps because it felt like Steve didn’t seem to sense what was going wrong all too quickly in the pages of the story. He seems to be more of a passive reactionary to a great deal of what is happening, at least until everything has gone off the rails entirely. He is unhappy, discontented, but slow to engage with Graham, the ever present PCo representative, and all too willing to hope for the best.
Overall, The Phone Company is still a very intriguing story. It pokes and prods at how worthwhile it is to live in a world where we are hyper-connected to one another, where there is an ap for everything and our lives are on display for everyone via social media. We bemoan our loss of privacy and yet cannot look away, or stop contributing to the deluge of information shared with one another. The book takes that in a supernatural direction, turning the need for connection into a religious fervor that devours everyone who submits.
PCo has set up shop in Cracked Rock, Montana, building a data center on the cemetery where the town founders have been buried. While there are protests about what they have done, most of the citizens are too excited about the free phones being offered to students and other members of the community to have a problem with it. Cracked Rock is a town that is hurting. Several years earlier a boy went on a shooting spree at the local middle school, tearing the town apart. While this was happening, Steve, one of the teachers in the high school, avoided his kids being victims because they were facing another nightmare at the local hospital: the death of Janice, his wife, due to lung cancer.
Steve and Bill, his best friend and a deputy sheriff in town, are about the only two members of the community not thrilled with the new Tethers and the increased presence of PCo. Both are given free Tethers as public servants, but Steve would rather stick with his old phone that both he and his wife used years before and Bill isn’t interested in agreeing to the background check the Tether requires to grant him access to all the neat law enforcement tools it has to offer.
It doesn’t take long for this thriller to migrate to more of a supernatural horror, with strange events occurring all around town. It seems that everyone is discovering unique aps on their phones, like JJ, Steve’s son, who discovers he can inhabit the bodies of soldiers and rebels doing battle in a variety of wars across the globe. Sarah, Steve’s daughter, realizes she has a popularity ap that not only gauges her popularity against the other girls in her high school, it also provides guidance on what she can do to claw her way to the top of the list.
If you have read the author’s previous work, The Pen Name, it becomes clear very quickly that both these tales inhabit the same eerie world. The mysterious publishing company from the first book pays a brief visit here, and the main character from that tale had been laid off from the phone company prior to being sucked into his own mystery. The author’s prior work seemed a bit more subtle as the world around the main character unraveled in bits and pieces. In Cracked Rock, things seem to tumble down the rabbit hole in a more abrupt fashion, though everyone seems fairly happy with the results. The mysterious Provider, who is behind the all-consuming need to be connected, is spoken about with a reverence bordering on religiously zealotry by the faithful.
This story, like its predecessor, has flavors of Lovecraft mixed in with King and begins as a thriller that migrates more into the realm of supernatural horror before the story is complete. The writing is solid though Steve, the main character, doesn’t feel as strongly developed as Ben was in The Pen Name. Perhaps because it felt like Steve didn’t seem to sense what was going wrong all too quickly in the pages of the story. He seems to be more of a passive reactionary to a great deal of what is happening, at least until everything has gone off the rails entirely. He is unhappy, discontented, but slow to engage with Graham, the ever present PCo representative, and all too willing to hope for the best.
Overall, The Phone Company is still a very intriguing story. It pokes and prods at how worthwhile it is to live in a world where we are hyper-connected to one another, where there is an ap for everything and our lives are on display for everyone via social media. We bemoan our loss of privacy and yet cannot look away, or stop contributing to the deluge of information shared with one another. The book takes that in a supernatural direction, turning the need for connection into a religious fervor that devours everyone who submits.
February 6, 2015
David Jacob Knight is one of my favorite independent horror authors. After his debut with The Pen Name, last year, I was eager to get into his next work. David Jacob Knight had a very Stephen King meets David Lynch-esque style with surrealism mixed with horror. The Phone Company continues this trend, taking on nightmarish qualities of a dream set in a small town where everything goes wrong.
The premise is about an evil Apple-esque cellphone company which sets up shop in the aforementioned small town. We know from the beginning they're involved in all sorts of occult shenanigans but not what they want. They proceed to pass out cellphones which allow their owners to spy on each other, perform impossible actions, talk back, and even play psychotic games where you commit murder with mind-controlled surrogates.
The citizens of said town shown a remarkably blase attitude to the fact their phones are acting like they're possessed well before the really weird stuff starts happening. In real-life, people routinely throw fits about things like Grand Theft Auto or Manhunter but we have the moral guardians missing their children playing the most realistic "murder simulator" ever created.
The fact I'm expected to take the idea of an "evil video game" making people psychotic is a misstep in this novel I can't quite forgive given how much I've had to deal with idiots who believe it's a danger in real-life without the aforementioned occult shenanigans. It's a bit like David Jacob Knight writing a third novel and it starring the Satanic power of Dungeons and Dragons.
Thankfully, the book gains some of its social satire bite by switching to the more realistic problem of cyber-bullying and privacy issues. The Phone Company's supernatural abilities allow the all-too-influenceable minds of the town's teenagers to fall prey to using their phones to destroy their rivals at school and publicize their darkest secrets. Given real-life children have committed suicide because of the ability for embarrassment to reach the entire world, this is not a bad angle to handle.
The book goes a bit too far, though, keeping an ongoing subplot with a school shooting it suffered as that detracted from the main story. There's enough material to satirize with the evils of social media and human banality without having to dip your toe into that particular well of blackness. On the plus side, the book emphasizes several times technology is not evil but serves as a reflection of humanity. The book's opinion of humanity is, of course, that we're vain, petty, superficial little trolls.
Which I agree with!
Much of the book's strength is it doesn't attempt to do the Stephen King thing of starting things off normal and getting progressively weirder. No, things start off pretty weird get weirder until they're absolutely bat**** crazy. There's many memorable dream-like scenes which are truly horrifying in their sureality. One of my favorites was an homage to Carrie only cranked to the eleven.
Fans expecting to start at a "normal" town will be confused, however, as things have always been weird here. The ending, in particular, is just plain crazy and rivals The Illuminatus Trilogy for sheer random "what the **** was that?"-ness. I was back and forth on the leads with sometimes them being strong characters and sometimes not, but they were more a backdrop for the author's vivid imagination in horror than "realistic" characters.
In conclusion, this is a good horror novel but not a traditional one. It's best read for its nightmarish and random imagery. Like Silent Hill, it's strong when it focuses on the metaphorical and visual rather than the character interaction. None of the characters are bad, mind you, but it's when things go bizarre that the book gets enjoyable. I couldn't care less about the lead family's internal problems, for instance. I also did like the books attempt at social satire, even if it took on too many targets.
7.5/10
The premise is about an evil Apple-esque cellphone company which sets up shop in the aforementioned small town. We know from the beginning they're involved in all sorts of occult shenanigans but not what they want. They proceed to pass out cellphones which allow their owners to spy on each other, perform impossible actions, talk back, and even play psychotic games where you commit murder with mind-controlled surrogates.
The citizens of said town shown a remarkably blase attitude to the fact their phones are acting like they're possessed well before the really weird stuff starts happening. In real-life, people routinely throw fits about things like Grand Theft Auto or Manhunter but we have the moral guardians missing their children playing the most realistic "murder simulator" ever created.
The fact I'm expected to take the idea of an "evil video game" making people psychotic is a misstep in this novel I can't quite forgive given how much I've had to deal with idiots who believe it's a danger in real-life without the aforementioned occult shenanigans. It's a bit like David Jacob Knight writing a third novel and it starring the Satanic power of Dungeons and Dragons.
Thankfully, the book gains some of its social satire bite by switching to the more realistic problem of cyber-bullying and privacy issues. The Phone Company's supernatural abilities allow the all-too-influenceable minds of the town's teenagers to fall prey to using their phones to destroy their rivals at school and publicize their darkest secrets. Given real-life children have committed suicide because of the ability for embarrassment to reach the entire world, this is not a bad angle to handle.
The book goes a bit too far, though, keeping an ongoing subplot with a school shooting it suffered as that detracted from the main story. There's enough material to satirize with the evils of social media and human banality without having to dip your toe into that particular well of blackness. On the plus side, the book emphasizes several times technology is not evil but serves as a reflection of humanity. The book's opinion of humanity is, of course, that we're vain, petty, superficial little trolls.
Which I agree with!
Much of the book's strength is it doesn't attempt to do the Stephen King thing of starting things off normal and getting progressively weirder. No, things start off pretty weird get weirder until they're absolutely bat**** crazy. There's many memorable dream-like scenes which are truly horrifying in their sureality. One of my favorites was an homage to Carrie only cranked to the eleven.
Fans expecting to start at a "normal" town will be confused, however, as things have always been weird here. The ending, in particular, is just plain crazy and rivals The Illuminatus Trilogy for sheer random "what the **** was that?"-ness. I was back and forth on the leads with sometimes them being strong characters and sometimes not, but they were more a backdrop for the author's vivid imagination in horror than "realistic" characters.
In conclusion, this is a good horror novel but not a traditional one. It's best read for its nightmarish and random imagery. Like Silent Hill, it's strong when it focuses on the metaphorical and visual rather than the character interaction. None of the characters are bad, mind you, but it's when things go bizarre that the book gets enjoyable. I couldn't care less about the lead family's internal problems, for instance. I also did like the books attempt at social satire, even if it took on too many targets.
7.5/10
December 27, 2014
I received a digital copy of this book in exchange for a review.
I went into "The Phone Company" with a lot of reasons to like it. First off, I very much enjoyed David Jacob Knight's first book, "The Pen Name" and was excited to read more from him.
Secondly, "The Phone Company" is a book about smartphone apps that are so advanced as to be indistinguishable from magic, and the havoc that ensues from them. This is a fantastic concept for a book.
Maybe it's my inner paranoid Luddite talking, but it creeps me out that there are real-world apps that track where you are and what you're doing in order to "deliver better results." And I find it even creepier that people not only allow this, but love it. I had high expectations for a book that appeared to be an exploration of what happens when this trust is exploited to the Nth degree.
The book starts strong, setting the scene with a warm, engaging prose that feels like the voice of an old friend. Everything in Cracked Rock, Montana is all hunky dory until the titular Phone Company (or "PCo" as they're known) rolls into town with Apple-Store-style fanfare and starts handing out the most sophisticated smartphones in the world. Then everything starts to turn nightmarish.
These phones have apps that basically erase the concept of privacy. Anyone can know anything about you. Your neighbor can watch you in the shower. Your boss can look up a lie you told in the third grade. The police know what you did last summer. It's a chilling setup. And this, unfortunately, is where the book starts to go off the rails.
The concept of "What happens when there are no secrets?" makes for a fascinating study on human nature. Would you spy on your neighbors? If so, for what reasons? Prurient? Extortionist? Vindictive? Or would you try to take the moral high ground?
And what about your own behavior? Would you act differently if you knew anyone could be watching you at any moment? What would you do if you had a deep dark secret in your past that anyone could easily find out with a swipe of a greasy finger against glass?
I was all-in for that book. This book, however, is something else. It does touch upon these themes through the character of Steve (who refuses to upgrade to the Tether, holding onto his old-fashioned clamshell phone instead) and Bill (the cop who refuses to submit to the background check that would lay his secrets bare).
The rest of the town, however, is soon under the control of something sinister known only as "The Provider." The story is not as much about the choices people make when given God-like abilities as much as it is a modern-day story of demonic possession. Exploring the foibles of human nature becomes a moot point when the characters no longer behave like people.
This book is a horror story wearing the mask of a psychological thriller. And as horror stories go, it's not bad. It's hardly fair to criticize the "The Phone Company" for not being the book I wanted it to be. That said, I couldn't help but finish this book feeling like I had witnessed a competently executed Lovecraftian romp rolled in a missed opportunity.
I went into "The Phone Company" with a lot of reasons to like it. First off, I very much enjoyed David Jacob Knight's first book, "The Pen Name" and was excited to read more from him.
Secondly, "The Phone Company" is a book about smartphone apps that are so advanced as to be indistinguishable from magic, and the havoc that ensues from them. This is a fantastic concept for a book.
Maybe it's my inner paranoid Luddite talking, but it creeps me out that there are real-world apps that track where you are and what you're doing in order to "deliver better results." And I find it even creepier that people not only allow this, but love it. I had high expectations for a book that appeared to be an exploration of what happens when this trust is exploited to the Nth degree.
The book starts strong, setting the scene with a warm, engaging prose that feels like the voice of an old friend. Everything in Cracked Rock, Montana is all hunky dory until the titular Phone Company (or "PCo" as they're known) rolls into town with Apple-Store-style fanfare and starts handing out the most sophisticated smartphones in the world. Then everything starts to turn nightmarish.
These phones have apps that basically erase the concept of privacy. Anyone can know anything about you. Your neighbor can watch you in the shower. Your boss can look up a lie you told in the third grade. The police know what you did last summer. It's a chilling setup. And this, unfortunately, is where the book starts to go off the rails.
The concept of "What happens when there are no secrets?" makes for a fascinating study on human nature. Would you spy on your neighbors? If so, for what reasons? Prurient? Extortionist? Vindictive? Or would you try to take the moral high ground?
And what about your own behavior? Would you act differently if you knew anyone could be watching you at any moment? What would you do if you had a deep dark secret in your past that anyone could easily find out with a swipe of a greasy finger against glass?
I was all-in for that book. This book, however, is something else. It does touch upon these themes through the character of Steve (who refuses to upgrade to the Tether, holding onto his old-fashioned clamshell phone instead) and Bill (the cop who refuses to submit to the background check that would lay his secrets bare).
The rest of the town, however, is soon under the control of something sinister known only as "The Provider." The story is not as much about the choices people make when given God-like abilities as much as it is a modern-day story of demonic possession. Exploring the foibles of human nature becomes a moot point when the characters no longer behave like people.
This book is a horror story wearing the mask of a psychological thriller. And as horror stories go, it's not bad. It's hardly fair to criticize the "The Phone Company" for not being the book I wanted it to be. That said, I couldn't help but finish this book feeling like I had witnessed a competently executed Lovecraftian romp rolled in a missed opportunity.
February 5, 2015
"Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. The Provider Provides." ~The Phone Company by David Jacob Knight
That quote is fittingly what the Provider of the Phone Company does in this book, they provide, almost like a religion. They even take over the church and give sermons discussing what the Provider can do for you. Just like Matthew 7:7 which is where Jesus states "Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." The Provider in this case has become God! Of course the book doesn't start out that way. But everyone in the town of Cracked Rock, Montana seems to be excited that the Phone Company is in town and even more excited to get their new phones "Tethers". Which is also a fitting term, since the phones start controlling their owners and taking over their minds.
Steve, the only one who sees what is truly going on and who never connects his Tether is the only one who is trying to save the town. His children and even his best friend all start to be controlled and he is witness to the towns spiral downward.
I really enjoyed this book, although I did find it a bit hard to get into in the beginning due to their being so many characters. It it took me a bit to get all of them straight and to understand what was going on. But this book is definitely a horror novel. I started it feeling it was going to be a sci-fi thriller, but enjoyed the turn it took toward the end. It was spooky, creepy, and something that is fitting for now, where in today's world we are all so "tethered" to our own phones and to the technology that is "provided" to us. It is scary how much we rely on our cell phones and computers and how we rarely speak to a real person anymore. It is all about texting and email and not about real communication. This book focuses truly on the aspect of how people disconnect from humanity when they get so into the technological aspects of the world, cell phones, apps, games, etc.
There were two parts I didn't care for and the first felt a bit weird and very odd when it started raining fish and sea creatures. That was truly odd, and even though the explanation was it was controlled through a weather app on a tether...I still felt it was a bit out there. The other part was the very end of the book, I felt a bit angry as it left you hanging to know whether Sarah really lived or died. To me I felt she would die seeing how she seemed to be injured so badly, and I really would have loved a little more closure or an epilogue on what the outcome was after they all "escaped."
But overall I really liked this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes thrillers, psychological thrillers, or horror novels.
That quote is fittingly what the Provider of the Phone Company does in this book, they provide, almost like a religion. They even take over the church and give sermons discussing what the Provider can do for you. Just like Matthew 7:7 which is where Jesus states "Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." The Provider in this case has become God! Of course the book doesn't start out that way. But everyone in the town of Cracked Rock, Montana seems to be excited that the Phone Company is in town and even more excited to get their new phones "Tethers". Which is also a fitting term, since the phones start controlling their owners and taking over their minds.
Steve, the only one who sees what is truly going on and who never connects his Tether is the only one who is trying to save the town. His children and even his best friend all start to be controlled and he is witness to the towns spiral downward.
I really enjoyed this book, although I did find it a bit hard to get into in the beginning due to their being so many characters. It it took me a bit to get all of them straight and to understand what was going on. But this book is definitely a horror novel. I started it feeling it was going to be a sci-fi thriller, but enjoyed the turn it took toward the end. It was spooky, creepy, and something that is fitting for now, where in today's world we are all so "tethered" to our own phones and to the technology that is "provided" to us. It is scary how much we rely on our cell phones and computers and how we rarely speak to a real person anymore. It is all about texting and email and not about real communication. This book focuses truly on the aspect of how people disconnect from humanity when they get so into the technological aspects of the world, cell phones, apps, games, etc.
There were two parts I didn't care for and the first felt a bit weird and very odd when it started raining fish and sea creatures. That was truly odd, and even though the explanation was it was controlled through a weather app on a tether...I still felt it was a bit out there. The other part was the very end of the book, I felt a bit angry as it left you hanging to know whether Sarah really lived or died. To me I felt she would die seeing how she seemed to be injured so badly, and I really would have loved a little more closure or an epilogue on what the outcome was after they all "escaped."
But overall I really liked this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes thrillers, psychological thrillers, or horror novels.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 15, 2016
I had such hopes for The Phone Company"The Phone Company" when I started reading it. The writing had a gritty immediacy that was unpleasant but compelling.
The story was centred around things that interest me: the online disinhibition effect and the dark side of social media which enables and even encourages us to be our worst selves.The mass voluntary sacrifice of privacy in order to be always on and always connected or just to get a better deal or a better ap.
With me, David Knight should have been preaching to the choir. I use a Samsung Smart Phone because I can easily take the battery out and kill the thing. I use duckduckgo as my default search engine and I have ghostery on both my browsers. Instead, he almost made me a fan of The Phone Company.
In the beginning I was pulled in by David Knight's world building. I liked that the Smart Phone was called a Tether (that's pretty much how I experience mine). I liked the evocation of life in a small town in Montana. I enjoyed the hinted at conspiracies and the smooth movement of the narrative backwards and forwards along the time line.
Sadly, after a while, it seemed that the book just lost its way.
The big bad Phone Company was TOO bad. It became pointlessly evil and ridiculously powerful, able to ignore the laws of physics. This changed it from a scary adversary into a force of nature with no personality and no agenda, just a huge potential for destruction.
The good guy, a local school teacher, widower, single parent and ludite was so boring and so weak, and so self-pitying that I wanted to help the Phone Company cut out his ineffectual but self-congratulatory liberal bleeding heart.
The good guy's best friend, a local Sheriff, started off interesting and then just faded to a plot device.
When we went on a pointless trip to Mount Rushmore just so I could be lectured on how terrible it was that this sacred place had been vandalised, I nearly added "The Phone Company" to my DNF pile.
I stuck with it because the writing was good and I foolishly believed that the story had to go somewhere eventually.
By the end of the book, the gritty edge had given way to nasty, but surprisingly coy, voyeurism mixed with a maudlin sentimental view of how much our hero loves his family.
I don't think I'll be reaching for any other David Jacob Knight books in the near future.
The story was centred around things that interest me: the online disinhibition effect and the dark side of social media which enables and even encourages us to be our worst selves.The mass voluntary sacrifice of privacy in order to be always on and always connected or just to get a better deal or a better ap.
With me, David Knight should have been preaching to the choir. I use a Samsung Smart Phone because I can easily take the battery out and kill the thing. I use duckduckgo as my default search engine and I have ghostery on both my browsers. Instead, he almost made me a fan of The Phone Company.
In the beginning I was pulled in by David Knight's world building. I liked that the Smart Phone was called a Tether (that's pretty much how I experience mine). I liked the evocation of life in a small town in Montana. I enjoyed the hinted at conspiracies and the smooth movement of the narrative backwards and forwards along the time line.
Sadly, after a while, it seemed that the book just lost its way.
The big bad Phone Company was TOO bad. It became pointlessly evil and ridiculously powerful, able to ignore the laws of physics. This changed it from a scary adversary into a force of nature with no personality and no agenda, just a huge potential for destruction.
The good guy, a local school teacher, widower, single parent and ludite was so boring and so weak, and so self-pitying that I wanted to help the Phone Company cut out his ineffectual but self-congratulatory liberal bleeding heart.
The good guy's best friend, a local Sheriff, started off interesting and then just faded to a plot device.
When we went on a pointless trip to Mount Rushmore just so I could be lectured on how terrible it was that this sacred place had been vandalised, I nearly added "The Phone Company" to my DNF pile.
I stuck with it because the writing was good and I foolishly believed that the story had to go somewhere eventually.
By the end of the book, the gritty edge had given way to nasty, but surprisingly coy, voyeurism mixed with a maudlin sentimental view of how much our hero loves his family.
I don't think I'll be reaching for any other David Jacob Knight books in the near future.
January 14, 2015
Review based on free copy received in exchange for an honest review.
The plot was a big hook for me. Smart phones have advanced so much that they can now do things that seem like magic. Their new apps can diagnose car troubles, detect real-time popularity in a high school, and give an accurate lie detector test for cops, to name just a few. Oh, and yeah, maybe a couple people have reconnected with their dead loved ones as well.
But when the company in charge of the newest, smartest phone out there, the Tether, sets to open a new base in a small town in Montana, one father (Steve) thinks the phones and the Phone Company (PCo) have taken it all a step too far.
Not only do the apps seem to have abilities that defy logic and scientific understanding, but there almost seems to be some sinister plot lurking under the shiny new surface.
First, PCo offers free phones to all faculty and students at the school -- some sort of grant project that allows them to do research, perhaps. Steve declines the use of the fancy new phone---mostly because he is just stuck on his old phone - the phones he and his wife used before she died of cancer five years ago. But because of this decision, he's sort of "sober" while the rest of the town gets sucked under by the amazing new phone and its apps that seem designed JUST FOR YOU.
So yeah, it's a little sci-fi, a little horror, a little lovecraftian paranormal thriller. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I loved the creativity with regard to the apps and how they ended up playing out IRL (in real life ;)). It did drag a little in the 3rd quarter and there seemed to be a little repetition with Steve's a-little-too-slow realization that PCo may be quite a bit more than it appears, but overall, a great read. And just creepy enough to keep me awake late into the night...
FOUR of five stars.
January 7, 2015
I don't really know where to start with this book.
I had a difficult time getting into it, and there were quite a few slow parts in the book, but the characters were likeable, and the majority of the plot was good.
It was somewhat creepy, and I can't help but wonder if this is what we might end up as someday, with the constant desire for new technological advances and cell phones and whatnot.
But seriously. The novel is about a phone company who moves into a small town, and makes sure everyone in town has a phone (or a tether, as they refer to it in the book). The kids and adults in town begin getting strange apps on their tethers, which allow them to do strange things that phones shouldn't really be letting kids run around doing. Interesting story line, freaky as hell in some parts, sure.
Then they decided to introduce "The Provider" into the book, in a weird, religious sense that had absolutely no point to is, as others have pointed out. I found myself scratching my head and wondering "What the hell?" at more than one point in this book. I also found a few things that I just couldn't figure out why they had any point in the story, but at this point I think I was just tired of reading the book and skimmed ahead, so that might be my own fault there.
Bottom line? It wasn't a bad book. It just wasn't that great of a book, either. I doubt I'll be rereading it anytime soon.
I had a difficult time getting into it, and there were quite a few slow parts in the book, but the characters were likeable, and the majority of the plot was good.
It was somewhat creepy, and I can't help but wonder if this is what we might end up as someday, with the constant desire for new technological advances and cell phones and whatnot.
But seriously. The novel is about a phone company who moves into a small town, and makes sure everyone in town has a phone (or a tether, as they refer to it in the book). The kids and adults in town begin getting strange apps on their tethers, which allow them to do strange things that phones shouldn't really be letting kids run around doing. Interesting story line, freaky as hell in some parts, sure.
Then they decided to introduce "The Provider" into the book, in a weird, religious sense that had absolutely no point to is, as others have pointed out. I found myself scratching my head and wondering "What the hell?" at more than one point in this book. I also found a few things that I just couldn't figure out why they had any point in the story, but at this point I think I was just tired of reading the book and skimmed ahead, so that might be my own fault there.
Bottom line? It wasn't a bad book. It just wasn't that great of a book, either. I doubt I'll be rereading it anytime soon.
July 16, 2016
The Phone Company by David Jacob Knight is a book that's unlike any other. This book for me is a wake up call on how much we rely on technology.
It's scary when you start to think how technology is taking over the world especially with mobile phones everyone has one and probably looks at it every few minutes to check out the latest game, social media or listen to music etc. There's an app for absolutely everything.
This is the story of one man who refuses to move with the times in regards with the latest mobile phone and refuses to change to the new phone provider. Those who do change over find themselves being taken over by the phone company.
It took me a while to get into this book but once I did I enjoyed it until about 3/4 of the way in. I felt that it took a very strange turn one that questioned should I keep reading, which I did to find out what happens in the end. The only thing that kept my interest when I found it hard was the narrator Roberto Scarlato. He kept my interest with distinctive character voices and he brought the book to life with his unique voice.
The Phone Company is one of those books that makes you realize you need to start taking notice of the people around you and to communicate personally rather then using technology or eventually we will all lose social skills and become zombies, which unfortunately is the way the next generation of smart phone users are heading.
So put down your phone and read a book.
It's scary when you start to think how technology is taking over the world especially with mobile phones everyone has one and probably looks at it every few minutes to check out the latest game, social media or listen to music etc. There's an app for absolutely everything.
This is the story of one man who refuses to move with the times in regards with the latest mobile phone and refuses to change to the new phone provider. Those who do change over find themselves being taken over by the phone company.
It took me a while to get into this book but once I did I enjoyed it until about 3/4 of the way in. I felt that it took a very strange turn one that questioned should I keep reading, which I did to find out what happens in the end. The only thing that kept my interest when I found it hard was the narrator Roberto Scarlato. He kept my interest with distinctive character voices and he brought the book to life with his unique voice.
The Phone Company is one of those books that makes you realize you need to start taking notice of the people around you and to communicate personally rather then using technology or eventually we will all lose social skills and become zombies, which unfortunately is the way the next generation of smart phone users are heading.
So put down your phone and read a book.
February 26, 2016
I loved this book. I have the audio version, and narrative is very smooth, great voice and infections. I thought that the book had a great premise but the description does not do it justice. I found the book is more about the apps we download, and how they take over our lives! the movie needful things is referenced 2 times about apps that show up only in certain people's phones to download, and the ramifications of using those apps in some cases are in detail, and one app, the TV app, warns of not being responsible for out of body experiences that may occur but that aspect does not seem to ever happen, or I did not catch it if it did. really scary when you realize a kid kills her family car as the app she is playing with goes off the road while she is playing the app while her mom is driving and other apps in our daily life that DO control things such as turning lights on in our home, opening garage doors, and even turning on or off our alarms, electricy, etc and this book made me realize the ramifications these apps gave on society in general. a real thought provoking book, great work and will read more from this author ASAP!!!
January 20, 2015
This was a great read. The plot was definitely different and a little creepy. Not sure I will ever look at my smart phone the same way. It's a good horror story relating to today's technology, taking the use of smart phones to a whole new place. I liked the plot and the characters but gave it 4 stars because I thought the ending was a little too easy. Still, the book was really good.
David Jacob Knight's writing reminds me of a cross between Stephen King and Bentley Little. I love both of them so it is easy to see why I am drawn into The Phone Company and why I enjoyed DJK's first book, The Pen Name. I look forward to other books from him.
David Jacob Knight's writing reminds me of a cross between Stephen King and Bentley Little. I love both of them so it is easy to see why I am drawn into The Phone Company and why I enjoyed DJK's first book, The Pen Name. I look forward to other books from him.
December 11, 2014
This is a real page turner. The mystery and suspense are perfect in this book. It's responsible for why I don't have any fingernails left. The plot is most disconcerting because it's a real threat in our society. We're being taken over by our technology (I'm guilty). Knight hits on something that threatens the social consciousness, which made this novel even more frightening. We think we own technology, but in the end it could own us. The character development is fantastic and I found myself really attached to a few of them early on. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who's looking for a smart and thrilling read.
February 6, 2015
Stephen King can retire now. The horror genre is in good hands with David Jacob Knight.
It's been a while since I've read something like this. After the first third, I was asking myself when the dam would finally break. Then again at the halfway mark. Then again at the two-thirds point. It just kept getting better and weirder and... fuller. It was immersive, I would say. Added to that was the fact that I was reading it on my phone, and during the reading found a suspect piece of software on it... yeah. I may or may not have had a moment of complete suspension of disbelief. The writing is that strong.
BUY IT!
It's been a while since I've read something like this. After the first third, I was asking myself when the dam would finally break. Then again at the halfway mark. Then again at the two-thirds point. It just kept getting better and weirder and... fuller. It was immersive, I would say. Added to that was the fact that I was reading it on my phone, and during the reading found a suspect piece of software on it... yeah. I may or may not have had a moment of complete suspension of disbelief. The writing is that strong.
BUY IT!
March 5, 2017
A very interesting read about a Phone Company that suddenly comes into a small town and gives everyone new cell phones that begin to control everyone's lives. These phones have apps that seem to be designed specifically for that one person, no one else can get the same apps. These people also have the ability to control and do certain things anonymously through their phone that they otherwise would not do.
There is only one person in town that refuses to use his new phone which means he is the only person that notices the changes in everyone around him. Can he save the small town and everyone in it before it's too late?
There is only one person in town that refuses to use his new phone which means he is the only person that notices the changes in everyone around him. Can he save the small town and everyone in it before it's too late?
May 4, 2015
100% enjoyed this book. If you've ever watched people walking down the street completely engrossed in their phones, paying zero attention to what is happening right in front of them, and wondered if we were all just becoming mindless automatons... this book grabs you by that fear and chokes the life out of you. It's a page-turner that kept me up way too late on many occasions. As I finally made myself put the book down and turn out the light - I thought - insidious mind control by a force so powerful that world domination is inevitable?? Thank goodness it's only fiction! Then I curled up and noticed my Droid "sleeping" quietly beside me on my pillow.....
December 19, 2014
This was a free kindle book from author for an honest review.
Most of us use smartphones to keep TETHERED with family,friends. Me I run most of our business from my smartphone. The book THE PHONE COMPANY took our dependence on smartphone and took it to a way other level. The book starts off innocent enough, with the new local phone company providing smartphones to local schools you'd think great,right? WRONG! From then on the book slips from real life to well, crazy! The style and strangeness of this book so reminds me of Bentley Little odd bazaar and extreme. I loved it!
Most of us use smartphones to keep TETHERED with family,friends. Me I run most of our business from my smartphone. The book THE PHONE COMPANY took our dependence on smartphone and took it to a way other level. The book starts off innocent enough, with the new local phone company providing smartphones to local schools you'd think great,right? WRONG! From then on the book slips from real life to well, crazy! The style and strangeness of this book so reminds me of Bentley Little odd bazaar and extreme. I loved it!
January 9, 2015
I loved this book we all use cell phones today. And the Phone Company has been around it seems forever. But this is a new type of Phone Company and a new type of smart phone the Tether all you need to do is get connected. But the true horror is once your connected Tether knows everything about you. You can even talk to the dead. It is up to one man to take a stand against the Phone Company and Tether to save what is left of his Family, his town and Humanity. If you love horror stories than i highly recommend you read the Phone Company.
September 27, 2017
I listened to the audio book version and its as twisty a tale as I've encountered in a long time. Rarely has an author sent my imagination on so many wild goose chases. Some of the other reviewers might have called it "weird".
I think a more fit description is probably uncomfortably familiar. As a technology professional of some years, I have on occasion entertained some doubts about whether we are using it or, at time, whether it is using us. This pushes lots of my paranoia buttons.
I like a story that takes me somewhere unique and this one does- even at the cost of a little uneasiness.
I think a more fit description is probably uncomfortably familiar. As a technology professional of some years, I have on occasion entertained some doubts about whether we are using it or, at time, whether it is using us. This pushes lots of my paranoia buttons.
I like a story that takes me somewhere unique and this one does- even at the cost of a little uneasiness.
May 20, 2015
What if your phone could let you talk to the dead, fly a plane or drive car, what if it could help you do whatever mean or nasty thing you ever wanted to do. What if there was no privacy anymore, no secrets, no boundaries of right and wrong, what would you do to stop it to try to save the one you love. This is the gift of the phone company a horrible gift that will bring about the summoning of an ancient Lovecraft like horror called the provider.
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