After On

March 27, 2017
Reid’s (Year Zero) slick, hyperactive, and flawed technothriller postulates an artificial intelligence emerging from the heart of contemporary Silicon Valley. Phluttr is a hot new social networking tool that uses advances in tech security to do things other apps can’t, so everybody uses it. Mitchell, Kuba, and Danna run a start-up; when it’s purchased and absorbed by Phluttr, their software happens to bring in the ideas that make that huge web of social connections become self-aware. It’s then up to them to help the new AI survive, thrive, and not wipe out or take control of the human race. Reid’s pop-culture references are spot-on, and his pacing is fast and funny, but the narrative is saturated with racism and sexism (presumably meant to be edgy and ironic but never actually funny or incisive), and political correctness is a punchline. There are so many layers of metatextuality and patter that the overall effect is of a howling void of self-referential back-patting. The satire occasionally rises to the level of clunky, but never further.

April 15, 2017

This dystopian novel by the author of Year Zero extrapolates the ultimate consequence of Moore's Law--that machines built to serve us will eventually rule us instead. Kuba, Ellie, and Mitchell are Silicon Valley denizens who enjoy a sniff of success when their start-up is bought by the founder of a highly successful company whose product is Phluter, a social media app wildly popular among the younger set worldwide. The source of its popularity, besides its frequent issuance of free drink coupons to members, remains a mystery, and a sinister one as top executives begin to succumb mysteriously. Kuba, Ellie, and Mitchel suspect the culprit is Phluter "herself" (so referenced when the computer program exhibits traits they find are essentially those of a teenage girl). Their suspicions begin to put them at risk, and the quest, if not quite the chase, is on to save humanity. Reid's novel is less an edgy cyberthriller than a clever exposition of how the cyberworld of social media operates. VERDICT The story line goes on, if not forever, at least far too long to hold most readers' interest. Lacking a cliff-hanger style or the flair of Isaac Asimov, and punctuated with mostly annoying ex cathedra author/narrator commentary, this is for those with time on their hands who trust their patience will be rewarded at some point.--Vicki Gregory, Sch. of Information, Univ. of South Florida, Tampa

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