WIJFR: Daemon

closeHey, just so you know ... this post is now about 13 years and 7 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

Gaming genius Matthew Sobol, the 34-year-old head of CyberStorm Entertainment, has just died of brain cancer, but death doesn’t stop him from initiating an all-out Internet war against humanity. When the authorities investigate Sobol’s mansion in Thousand Oaks, Calif., they find themselves under attack from his empty house, aided by an unmanned Hummer that tears into the cops with staggering ferocity. Sobol’s weapon is a daemon, a kind of computer process that not only has taken over many of the world’s computer systems but also enlists the help of super-intelligent human henchmen willing to carry out his diabolical plan.

The hosts on just about every tech podcast I listen to (Leo Laporte, Tom Merrit, Paul Thurrott, and others) have mentioned “Daemon” by Daniel Suarez at one time or another, so it’s been on my to-read list for a while. I just finished reading this techno-thriller after starting it last month (as I headed to New York on business).

The premise is relatively simple: triggered by the death of its creator, software genius Matthew Sobol, a widely distributed, autonomous daemon starts wreaking havoc on the global economy as it carries out Sobol’s final diabolical plan for humankind.

The main cast of characters consists of people on both sides of the daemon’s war: local police detectives, government agencies, and white hat hackers trying to stop the daemon (if it can be stopped) vs. recruited daemon operatives, hackers, and computer-controlled machines likes killer Hummers, cars, and motorcycles who carry out the daemon’s tasks. The plot is fast-paced and contains a healthy dose of gaming, MMORPGs, GPS tracking, darknets, the global internet and, of course, explosions and mayhem (in other words, it will probably be made into a movie at some point) but unfortunately just as things are really moving the book ends. I guess this was intentional, paving the way for the sequel “FreedomTM” (also on my to-read list).

If you want to learn more about “Daemon” there’s the (rather sparse) Daemon Wiki and of course Daniel Suarez’s own thedaemon.com, which made me think twice before enabling scripts (via NoScript) on that site. You never know where pieces of the daemon may be lurking. 🙂 Also check out the author’s About page to see if you notice anything interesting about his photograph.

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