Ampersand Book Club discussion

And here's our discussion for the second choice for September. Of course, feel free to read the other book if you prefer! And both discussion are open indefinitely, so you can catch up later if you want. :)

Actual rating is 2.5 stars.

That author Daniel Suarez is "an independent systems consultant" (according to his jacket bio) means that he's able to play with a lot of fascinating ideas in Daemon, his first book. The book's antagonist is suffocatingly scary—the Daemon derives its power from the reach of the Internet and people's mostly unquestioned absorption of technology into their lives.

The book chronicles the struggle between the old and the new. The financial elite and authority figures are the old guard. Along comes game designer Matthew Sobol and his Daemon to overthrow them. Through the Daemon, Sobol rallies a force of brilliant and supposedly disaffected people. I say supposedly because there's a lot of moral ambiguity in this book. I wanted to root for Sobol and his recruits, (view spoiler)[and a more superficial story would have made them the heroes. But Sobol was also a megalomaniac. His Daemon disrupts gambling and porn sites, but only until the operators of those sites pay up. It kills people as easily as if they were non-player characters in a game. (hide spoiler)]

My biggest problem with this book, and the main reason I rated it so low, is because of the characters. Probably the only character I liked was Jon Ross. I liked Natalie Philips as well, but she seemed to be more of a trope—the brilliant woman of color who's so consumed by work she has no social life. Even Detective Sebeck, (view spoiler)[whom I initially thought would be the hero, is flawed in a way that made me roll my eyes. One thing I didn't understand about his story arc is how the government is able to fast-track his death by lethal injection. It seemed a little far-fetched but maybe our country's legal system is more unreliable than I thought? (hide spoiler)]

The sequence of events is thrilling and the concepts thought-provoking. But the book felt clunky in places, particularly in the beginning when more and more people are introduced. There are passages of technical info that disrupt the flow of the story.

For those who have read Death Note, my attitude towards Suarez's book is similar to what I felt for that manga. Although both authors want his readers to think about the shades between good and evil, their stories boil down to (view spoiler)[how one self-righteous asshole can be stopped (hide spoiler)]. I'm curious to know how that will happen in Daemon but not enough for me to want to read the sequel.

Hahaha. Great comparison to Death Note. That is what it boils down to, isn't it? Though I do think there are some fanatics who think Light is some kind of anti-hero but he's really a villain. Maybe it depends on your definition of anti-hero, though...hm.

Thanks for the candid review!

Liking characters is kind of paramount to me. I suppose if the premise and execution are great, I can tolerate unlikeable characters. But ultimately for me, the reason for me to finish a book is that I have to care about what happens to the characters. If I could care less whether they died or not, I tend to lose interest quickly.