The Great Geek Manual

Book: Daemon
ISBN-13: 978-0441016747

Author: Daniel Suarez
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Genre: Cyber Punk/Techno Thriller
Release: January 8, 2009
Length: 448 (Hardcover)

Rating: A+ (110 / 100)

Verdict

I was completely blown away by what I’m assuming is destined to be the next cyberpunk classic. Anyone who fashions themselves a computer geek or hardcore gamer will love this book.

This fast-paced techno-thriller features the car chases and gadgets of a Bond novel, the suspense-building puzzles of a Dan Brown novel, the science of a Michael Crichton novel, the plot-centric pacing and broad cast of characters of a Tom Clancy novel, and the foresight of a Neal Stephenson novel. It’s that good.

Synopsis

When legendary computer game designer Matthew Sobol dies after a prolonged struggle with cancer, his death triggers a wide-reaching and swift-moving chain of events that spans the globe, all coordinated by a massively distributed software network. The incidents begin with the apparently accidental death of a game programmer and escalate into a mass of terrorist cells that hold the world’s leading businesses hostage. Now, a former mafia hacker turned IT freelancer, a SWAT team leader, and an NSA agent may be the only people capable of preventing Sobol’s daemon from ushering in a new world order.
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More than five years ago, I took part in a group chat with producer Ronald D. Moore over at the Sci Fi channel’s website just after the BattleStar Galactica remake had been announce, and there was nearly a unanimous outcry against the project. All fans were concerned about was the hundred myriad ways that the show might tarnish their memories of their beloved childhood fandom. Yet here we are, four seasons later, wishing it didn’t all have to end.

But for some, this may all be for the best, because the series is starting to have an adverse effect on some fans. If you’re wondering if you’re one of those who need to be weened away quickly onto something safer, such as, say a bit of Dollhouse, these are the leading warning signs:

10. You have vivid waking dreams of Tricia Helfer… No wait, that’s perfectly normal.

9. Having so many Starbucks around town finally begins to make sense.

8. You’ve started taunting all the pussies who still carry phasers at conventions.

7. You’ve taken the time to tear the corners off all the sheets of paper in your printer.

6. On the way home from work, you pull over to scout for the proper star configurations.
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Finally, a magazine that address the issues important to me as a dedicated gaming blogger, and it’s a JOKE! Come on, a magazine like this could turn around the decline in print readership. I’d subscribe.

Source: MagToss.com

New Releases

The following books will be released this week:

The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Definitive Retrospective of His Finest Short Fiction by Gene Wolfe
Tor Books. (ISBN: 978-0765321350) Hardcover. Length: 480pp
In these 31 self-selected stories, Wolfe mixes pulp adventure, ghost stories and noir with self-reference, meta-fiction, unreliable narrators and puns. His protagonists faces threats both modern (political correctness in “Petting Zoo,” corporate capitalism in “Hour of Trust”) and eternal (sexual temptation in “Bed and Breakfast”) and learn to trust fantasy over fact (“The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories,” “And When They Appear”). The result is a highly flattering career retrospective of a postmodern fabulist disguised as a mild-mannered SF writer. March 17

Imager: The First Book of the Imager Portfolio by L. E. Modesitt Jr.
Tor Books. (ISBN: 978-0765320346) Hardcover. Length: 432pp
Apprentice portraitist Rhennthyl finds out the hard way that he has the magical ability called Imaging: an explosion kills his master right after Rhenn wishes for just such an event. Rhenn’s ability, which allows him to form objects from thin air and slay with a glance, appears to be quite strong, and he begins training as a covert operative. Just when he starts to relax into his new career, an unknown assassin tries to kill him. March 17

The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint
Tor Books. (ISBN: 978-0765317568) Hardcover. Length: 272pp
Altagracia – her friends call her Grace – works at Sanchez Motorworks, customizing hot rods. Finding the line in a classic car is her calling. Now Grace has to find the line in her own life. A few blocks around the Alverson Arms is all her world — from the little grocery store where she buys beans, tamales, and cigarettes (“cigarettes can kill you,” they tell her, but she smokes them anyway) to the record shop, to the library where Henry, a black man confined to a wheelchair, researches the mystery of life in death – but she’s got unfinished business keeping her close to home. March 17

One Second After by William R. Forstchen
Forge Books. (ISBN: 978-0765317582) Hardcover. Length: 352pp
one man struggles to save his family and his small North Carolina town after America loses a war, in one second, a war that will send America back to the Dark Ages…A war based upon a weapon, an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A weapon that may already be in the hands of our enemies. March 17

Player’s Handbook 2: A 4th Edition D&D Core Rulebook
Wizards of the Coast. (ISBN: 978-0786950164) Hardcover. Length: 224pp
New classes, races, and other options for your D&D game. This book builds on the array of classes and races presented in the first Player’s Handbook, adding both old favorites and new, never-before-seen options to the game. March 17

Film

• In light of the falling Watchmen attendance numbers, IGN asks Is Director Zach Snyder overrated?
• A new poster for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are was released by Nickelodeon’s Nick Magazine and immediately posted by a Jonze fansite.
• Why people aren’t watching the Watchmen. Despite the pleading from Watchmen co-writer David Hayter for fans to rush back to the cinema, the inevitable happened. Watchmen was pushed out of the top spot by Race to Witch Mountain and crashed in flames with an unceremonious 67 per cent drop in box office takings in the USA.

Literature

• Interview: In an interview with the BBC, author Bruce Sterling says that “People don’t pay attention to novels.”
• The Geekend blog ponders the question of What sci-fi character would make best use of government bailout funds?

Television

• io9 lists off five Battlestar Galactica spin-offs they’d love to see.
• io9 makes an attempt at picking the 10 Greatest Science Fiction TV Show Endings Ever, but goes woefully wrong at the point where they begin counting past Babylon 5. io9, I’ve seen the finales of Blake’s 7 and Life on Mars. They weren’t that great.
• Ron Moore discusses the Battlestar Galactica series finale.

Writing

• 8 Basics of Creative Writing by Kurt Vonnegut.

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