Daemon

by Daniel Suarez

Overview

Daniel Suarez’s New York Times bestselling 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...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101007518
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/08/2009
Series:	Daemon Series , #1
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	640
Sales rank:	162,924
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Daniel Suarez is the New York Times bestselling author of Daemon, Freedom™, Kill Decision, Influx, and Change Agent. A former systems consultant to Fortune 1000 companies, his high-tech and sci-fi thrillers focus on technology-driven change. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1:// Execution

Reuters.com/business

Matthew A. Sobol, PhD, cofounder and chief technology officer of CyberStorm Entertainment (HSTM—Nasdaq), died today at age 34 after a prolonged battle with brain cancer. A pioneer in the $40 billion computer game industry, Sobol was the architect of CyberStorm’s bestselling online games Over the Rhine and The Gate. CyberStorm CEO Kenneth Kevault described Sobol as "a tireless innovator and a rare intellect."

What the hell just happened? That was all Joseph Pavlos kept thinking as he clenched a gloved hand against his throat. It didn't stop the blood from pulsing between his fingers. Already a shockingly wide pool had formed in the dirt next to his face. He was on the ground somehow. Although he couldn't see the gash, the pain told him the wound was deep. He rolled onto his back and stared up at a stretch of spotless blue sky.

His usually methodical mind sped frantically through the possibilities—like someone groping for an exit in a smoke-filled building. He had to do something. Anything. But what? The phrase What the hell just happened? kept echoing in his head uselessly, while blood kept spurting between his fingers. Adrenaline surged through his system, his heart beat faster. He tried to call out. No good. Blood squirted several inches into the air and sprinkled his face. Carotid artery . . .

He was pressing on his neck so hard he was almost strangling himself. And he’d been feeling so good just moments before this. He remembered that much at least. His last debts repaid. At long last.

He was getting calmer now. Which was strange. He kept trying to remember what he’d been doing. What brought him here to this place. It seemed so unimportant now. His hand began to relax its hold. He could see plainly that there was no emergency. Because there was no logical scenario in which he would emerge from this alive. And after all, it was his unequaled talent for logic that had brought Pavlos so far in life. Had brought him halfway around the world. This was it. He’d already done everything he would ever do. His peripheral vision began to constrict, and he felt like an observer. He was calm now.

And it was in that cold, detached state that he realized: Matthew Sobol had died. That’s what the news said. And then it all made sense to him. Sobol’s game finally made sense. It was beautiful really.

Clever man . . .

Excerpt from DAEMON by Daniel Suarez © 2008.

Published by Dutton, a member of  Penguin Group ( USA ).

All Rights Reserved.

What People are Saying About This

Billy OBrien

"Greatest. Techno-thriller. Period. Suarez presents a fascinating account of autonomous, logic-based terrorism, incorporating current and anticipated technologies to create a credible and quite clever story. Experts have long feared the Internet doomsday scenario; the Daemon is arguably more terrifying."--(Billy O'Brien, Director of Cybersecurity and Communications Policy, The White House)

Editorial Reviews

Originally self-published, Suarez's riveting debut would be a perfect gift for a favorite computer geek or anyone who appreciates thrills, chills and cyber suspense. 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 superintelligent human henchmen willing to carry out his diabolical plan. Complicated jargon abounds, but most complexities are reasonably explained. A final twist that runs counter to expectations will leave readers anxiously awaiting the promised sequel. (Jan.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

This first novel, originally self-published under the pseudonym/anagram Leinad Zeraus, is a roller-coaster ride of a technothriller that will keep listeners tuned in from first disc to last. When the head of a company preeminent in the world of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) dies, a terrible legacy is unleashed: the daemon, a piece of code that attacks computer systems everywhere. Narrator Jeff Gurner's (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) perfect timing accentuates the growing suspense. Other narrators provide male and female computer voices with eerie electronic flatness. An excellent choice for espionage fans and computer geeks. [Audio clip available through us.penguingroup.com; the review of the Dutton hc read, "Suarez's dialog is crisp, and his action exciting, but he needs a more logical plot," LJ1/09.-Ed.]
—Nann Blaine Hilyard

Library Journal

Computer programs left behind by a dying inventor of video games spread dark mischief around the world, pitting gamers and enabled losers against the most powerful government agencies and businesses, with the geeks holding the best hands. How do you really mess things up after you're dead: tricky wills? entailments? trusts? Posthumous legal meddling is so last millennium. The modern way to carry out your wishes is to use a daemon, a computer program that lies dormant until other factors set it in motion. That's precisely what mastermind Matthew Sobol did. Before he died of brain cancer, Sobol perfected a brilliant string of programming instructions that soon begin to claim victims. The first are a couple of high-level employees at CyberStorm, the Southern California corporation that controls and distributes Sobol's hugely popular games. Detective Sergeant Peter Sebeck of the Ventura County sheriff's department quickly learns (without exactly understanding how) that newspaper headlines can activate the Daemon, which throws switches that electrocute and decapitate. Seback and a growing number of state and federal forces follow the forensics to the late inventor's mansion, which is murderously booby-trapped with a robotic Hummer and gasoline-spewing sprinkler heads. It becomes evident that Sobol's Internet games are a herd of Trojan horses. When the Daemon turns on Sebeck and sticks him with the blame for this mess, the officer's only backers are a brilliant NSA scientist and a Russian-born gamer. Originally self-published, Suarez's not-just-for-gamers debut is a stunner, with an ending that promises sequels to come.

Kirkus Reviews

“Daemon does for surfing the web what Jaws did for swimming in the ocean...both entertaining and credible...an impressive debut novel.”—Chicago Sun-Times

“A chilling yet entirely plausible story of technology gone awry.”—St. Petersburg Times

“Fiendishly clever...an almost perfect guilty-pleasure novel.”—The Dallas Morning News

“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

“Greatest. Technothriller. Period. Suarez presents a fascinating account of autonomous logic-based"terrorism" incorporating current and anticipated technologies to create a credible and quite clever story.”—William O’Brien, Former Director of Cybersecurity and Communications Policy, The White House

“Daemon is the real deal—a scary look at what can go wrong as we depend increasingly on computer networks.”—Craig Newmark, Founder Craigslist

From the Publisher

The world we live in is almost entirely controlled by daemons, high-tech computers. Matthew Sobol was the man responsible for a large number of these daemons, a genius who could never enjoy his success and eventually took his own life. But when his obituary appears online, an unknown daemon reactivates—and sets out to destroy everything in its path. A taut techno-thriller, this novel unravels at a frantic pace, but narrator Jeff Gurner never struggles to stay ahead of his listener. Gurner sounds like a young, intelligent entrepreneur, much like the ill-fated Sobol. However, Gurner never gives in to the intensity of the story, instead getting better in his straightforward delivery as it plows forward. The result is a novel filled with twists that seem to shock the narrator as much as they do his listener. L.B. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2009 - AudioFile