Daemon

By: Daniel Suarez

Narrated by: Jeff Gurner

Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Daniel Suarez's New York Times best-selling debut high-tech thriller is “so frightening even the government has taken note” (Entertainment Weekly).

Daemons: computer programs that silently run in the background, waiting for a specific event or time to execute. They power almost every service. They make our networked world possible. But they also make it vulnerable....

When the obituary of legendary computer game architect Matthew Sobol appears online, a previously dormant daemon activates, initiating a chain of events that begins to unravel our interconnected world. This daemon reads news headlines, recruits human followers, and orders assassinations. With Sobol’s secrets buried with him, and as new layers of his daemon are unleashed, it’s up to Detective Peter Sebeck to stop a self-replicating virtual killer before it achieves its ultimate purpose - one that goes far beyond anything Sebeck could have imagined....

©2009 Daniel Suarez (P)2009 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A riveting debut.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

“This thrill-a-nanosecond novel is certainly faithful to the techno-traditions of Michael Crichton and should delight not only readers of the 'science gone awry' genre, but general adventure readers as well.” (Booklist)

“Suarez's not-just-for-gamers debut is a stunner.” (Kirkus Reviews)

Great geeky fun!

This book will never win any literary awards, and it will seem quite dated in a few years, but it was extremely fun for a computer geek like me! Very cutting-edge stuff. Non-high-tech lovers would probably find the excessive technical descriptions tiresome. The character development is lousy, but then again if you're looking for good literature this isn't the place.

A Little Violent but Excellent

What a unique story!!! If you like suspense, a new twist on the power of technology, good characters and an evil, dead bad guy who is computer generated, try this one. I highly recommend it. This audio will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat. The narration is excellent and what is most unsettling is that the story is plausible. I'm giving this five stars because it is one of the best suspense thrillers I've listened to in a long time.

Inspired Story Fades by the End

The writing is so well crafted that it is easy to forget that Suarez is an IT professional and not a novelist. His story is brilliant. It almost seems, however, that while the first half of the book was compellingly driven by the story, the second half was driven by the need to get it done. In this second half, while the writing remains competent, the story loses its edge. Nevertheless, it is a good listen and I would recommend it to friends except those who are completely non-geekly. As usual with products from audible.com, the production values of the recording are quite good.

fasinating! had to keep listening

Kept my attention and would like to hear the rest
of the story!

Amazing Book

Really enjoying the concept, the characters, the plot, and the thriller aspect of this, not to mention the underlying humor in the deamon itself.

a very, very good first-time entry. I look forward to the author's next book.

Pay attention

Make sure you can pay full attention to the last third, otherwise, at least make sure to hear the end. TOTALLY set up for a sequel, which I would/will buy. Could also imagine a movie, to some degree just like the book.
Technical, yes, but the gyst of it is explained, and one might even learn a few things....
I'm not quite a "nube", (new computer person with basic knowledge only)....but I think I know just enough to get myself into trouble. ha
VERY imaginative plot, quite thought provoking.
Which reminds me, I think I need to check the security level on my laptop....

The last part is all over the place

I loved the idea of the book and the atmosphere but the plot is just so complicated without any good reason. You follow a main character and then all of a sudden it disappears. I was left with the feeling of a plot that the author did not know how to finish, so the end is just a jumble of action movie with a lot of shooting and self driving cars and I simply lost interest in the last 1.5 hour or so of the book.

Loved this book!

It might be because I grew up on a computer and spent many years both as a gamer and professional hacker, but I really enjoyed this book. I was so excited to see how it ended that I bought Freedom TM before I finished so I could just keep going.

Unreal amazing

This Book is by far the greatest book I have ever read. It is amazing. By red I mean listened. Please understand this is the greatest technological book about the world ever written this is all you need to know if you don't listen to this book Soble will get you

Exciting and technical look at a possible future

Would you consider the audio edition of Daemon to be better than the print version?

I do not know. I don't care much for reading books, but I am a good listener.

What other book might you compare Daemon to and why?

I cannot think of any. This book is very unique in presenting a story I did not hear before. The technical background was presented very well and kept me excited to hear what was coming up next.

What about Jeff Gurner’s performance did you like?

Good voice clarity and easy to listen to.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Freedom is an allusion.

Any additional comments?

The story is very unique. The narrator describes scenes in vivid detail and explains the technology behind many scenes without being boring and sounding very accurate.