Social networking at war
Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 01:48AM 
Having spent the best part of two days in airplanes or airports traveling to Mumbai, I've finished Daniel Suarez's Freedom, his sequel to Daemon (my review). Despite some rather stomach turning violence, it's probably the best science fiction book I've read for quite a while.
I'll not summarize the plot here, but I really loved the vision of what a genuinely developed social network might mean in terms of economics, politics, and warfare. Lots of near-future shots at agribusiness, cable news, military privitization, intellectual property, Internet privacy, and the debtor economy. Great plot, superb villains, and visionary social commentary. Computer gamers will eat this up with much or the action right out of WOW.
One concept that I loved in Freedom was that everyone in the "darknet" had a sort of personality score. Each interaction with another member is evaluated on a 1-5 scale on integrity. Your reputation ranking is visible to all other members of the net so you pretty much know who to trust and who not to trust. Wouldn't life be easier if we all had a little halo over our heads that grew or shrunk commensurate to our basic goodness?
Read it. Oh, and this seems to complete the saga. No waiting for a third installment.
Reader Comments (3)
I loved Daemon and Freedom is sitting on my bedside table waiting to be read. Not sure when I'll begin yet.
Epic and Saga by Connor Kostick sound like they might be similar to these. I'll have to check out Daemon and Freedom!
Thanks Doug!
Hi Kenley,
It's a tough one to put down, so give yourself some time when you don't have other obligations!
Doug
Hi Len,
I'll need to look for Kostick's books. Thanks for info.
Doug