I bought this several years ago and just now got around to it, but I think I could have skipped it completely. I gave up after 50 pages. The plot isn't very compelling, same goes for the characters and Shafer's writing style is borderline pretentious and annoying. Made up words that are supposed to capture the zeitgeist, but instead come off as just silly are a major disappointment. I would have stuck with it if the whole thing had been about Leo, who gets fired from a daycare center and throws a stuffed frog at his former boss, but unfortunately, the revolving door of other characters just didn't do it for me.

I had great fun with this one. I wish I had known that it appears to be the first in a series...that would have helped me adjust my expectations. The theme of Data Domination reminds me of Eggers' The Circle but this is a bit more mystical or fantastical than that, with plot elements that either stretch your willingness to suspend belief or simply make you realize that you are perhaps not in the genre you thought you were. I learned about the Amazon Echo was announced, and so I was primed to like this book.

So take this as genre-fiction, the genre being something like sci-fi/fantasy/thriller/caper/spy and sit back and enjoy.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. I'm left wondering WTF happened to the ending of this book.

There's a lot to like here, but the story goes a little wonky at times, and the characters suddenly do things that are unexpected and out of character. The three protagonists finally get together, and then... it just ends. None of the many story lines are wrapped up, and while some people like open ended books, this one barely started wrapping things up. After 400+ pages, I'd like some semblance of an actual ending please.

I was headed towards a four-star rating, but then, like the book, I suddenly ended at three.

Good, but I would have liked a better ending.

Outstanding. So smart, imaginative and original. The possibility of a scenario like this happening freaks me out, but I sure love reading about it. Fantastic.

A very sharp and fun read-- it's smart and has sort of created this fictitious parody of the world we live in. I really really enjoyed it but as I neared the end and the book was building up to a major action-packed sequence (or what I thought would be!), he started running out of paper. It comes to a mediocre and barely satisfying close, though it left me wanting a sequel (if only for the promise of that climax WTF is missing). 3 stars. Fun to read, not a game changer by any means. Reminiscent of Alif the Unseen by G Willow Wilson- recommend that if you liked this!

A pretty good thriller about the perils of social media. It's making me reconsider my Facebook membership ... and this post ... and on-line shopping ...

I'm fully prepared to have someone tell me why I should reconsider this book. I don't know if I just read it at the wrong point or if I missed something, but I had to slog just to get through this. It was in no way gripping or fun, and I felt like there were a ton of missed opportunities and connections and satire in the conspiracy/systems plot that took forever to start moving. I hope you like it more than I did. I'm willing to admit that this is reader error, but I don't really have anything good to say right now...

Focusing on three 30-somethings, this book examines what might happen if a giant corporation wanted to privatize everyone's everyone's information.
Layla is working for a nonprofit in Myanmar (Burma?) when she accidentally stumbles on a road that isn't supposed to exist and overhears a conversation that probably shouldn't have happened.
Leo is working for a daycare with children he loves, but gets fired in the opening chapters of the books. His blog seems to indicate a personality disorder or even a mental illness that is slowly deteriorating. But then why is he being shunted to ever increasing levels of psychiatric facilities if he's playing the game correctly?
Mark was marketed as the hot new things in gurus. But his star is fading and his pot habit isn't working the magic it once did. His main source of income is now the head of the Corporation that seems hell-bent on taking over the world.
The narrator of the book was great. I liked his voice a lot.