What an interesting, entertaining and fun book! Especially if you are a regular player of massively multiplayer role-playing games, also called MMORPG (for Massive Multiplayer Online Rol-Playing Game).
I know I have a lot of reviews to write (I haven't had time to do them these past few months), but instead of starting where I left off, today I'll write a review of the last book I've read: Daemon.
The book's plot takes place in the present day, when technology practically controls everything: from the sprinklers in our garden to the most sophisticated security systems, including the airplanes and automobiles in which we travel with complete normality.
Our protagonist is a legendary MMORPG computer game designer who has just died and before this happens he has created a DAEMON, a computer program that acts in the background and performs the tasks for which it has been programmed. Our DAEMON has been created in the image and likeness of the protagonist and threatens to destroy the world as we know it.
The story tells us about the different adventures of the co-protagonists (a pair of hackers who work on different sides, a policeman and an FBI agent) as they interact with DAEMON to help it in the case of some, or to destroy it in the case of others.
The book is really interesting, not so much as to warn the general public about our dependence on technology (those of us who live on the net are already aware of this), but because it is clear that the author of the book is himself addicted to MMORPG video games, which undoubtedly causes you to empathize with him and read the book with redoubled pleasure.
For those of us who are not used to MMORPG games (can anyone who reads a blog never have played WOW???) it is a type of role-playing game that is played online and in which one interacts with both avatars of real players and with NPCs (non-player characters) created by the game itself. The recreated worlds are usually fantastic, but there are also famous games that recreate the Second World War, as well as pure Science Fiction scenarios.
This summer, for example, I am playing with my children at AION a fantastic MMORPG (in both senses), and together we discover the worlds of East Lumiel and go on quests. Well… “together” is a figure of speech, because they dedicate more hours than I do to the game and while I am a level 18 warrior, my 12-year-old daughter is a level 25 paladin, my 20-year-old son is a level 32 scout and my 18-year-old daughter is a level 45 mage… But it is fun, and we have a good time playing together. Plus, it is priceless that your little daughter, who in the virtual world is much stronger than you, helps you kill spiders in an enchanted forest.
MMORPGs are really at the top of the video game scene and their popularity is starting to be significant. Just this year, we have seen World of Warcraft (WOW) commercials on television, something that was unthinkable until very recently. And as a curiosity and a sign of their growing popularity, this year I had a Russian student from the Online Master in Marketing Management and Distribution Channels who, as a final project for her master's degree, carried out research on the business models of MMORPGs and specifically WOW.
The graph that I include next to these lines is precisely from his project and shows us the evolution in number of subscribers of some of these games. (The source is MMOGChart)
But back to the book, some of the video games programmed by the protagonist of DAEMON are «The Door" and "Across the RhineThe first one is fantastic and the second one is dedicated to the Second World War. In fact, one of the first encounters between DAEMON and one of the hackers is in the scene of the battle of Monte Cassino (an abbey taken by the Germans in 1944 and which the Allied troops decided to liberate on several occasions without succeeding until the 4th time and at a cost of more than 70,000 lives on both sides).
Some of the most interesting scenes in the book take place precisely within “Across the Rhine” and it is through this video game that DAEMON has been recruiting acolytes and turning the programmer into a God (I won't go on to explain this because it would spoil the suspense of the book).
About Daniel Suarez, the author, he works as an independent consultant in computer systems and this is his first novel. Apparently, Dreamworks has bought the rights to turn it into a film. I'm happy for him!
In short... a highly recommended book, especially if you move in the technological world. So if you still have some vacation days left, don't miss it, go to your bookstore and buy it!!!
