Freedom TM

Freedom is a pretty good sequel to Daemon, the first book by Suarez. However, it is not the best book I have ever read hence the 3 stars. The ending is predictable and the author just pulls out technology to fix whatever problem the people run into. The book makes some philosophical points but doesn't fully explore them. Not bad for a 2nd book.

An avid reader of anything from novels to ketchup bottles, I can think of fewer than 10 non-classics I have bothered to reread. Daemon and Freedom both made that list. Suarez has a refreshing ability to weave fresh plot ideas with awesome technical authenticity, much like Robin Cook's earlier (pre-Stapleton) medical thrillers. I burned through both because I was dying to know what came next; The rereads were just as fun, as slowing down gave me the chance to enjoy Suarez's writing. Both novels make a fantastic plot seem utterly plausible. I believe Suarez joins Gibson as one of the few true masters of this genre.

With Daemon, Daniel Suarez had written a book what most of us tech nerds have wanted to see, a techno thriller using the technologies that are in prototype stage right now. With Freedom (TM), he continues the story of Daemon, and brings the Sobol legacy to a satisfying end.

It's not the greatest literary work out there, but for a day or two of thrilling reading, this book is a great pick up. The technologies and ideas he brings forth may sound too extreme in some cases, but he makes you stop and think... what if?

We will see more authors writing about this stuff. The possibilities for cyber warfare are limitless,incomprehensible, and downright scary. Suarez does a great job bringing some of the possible consequences into the light of day. Solid characters, Colorful, character building dialog, This reminds me of when " The hunt for red October", was published. It commanded a slew of copycats. Mr Suarezs' novels will do the same. Keep them coming Daniel.... PLEASE>

(copied to/from "Daemon"s review as they feel like a single unit to me)

Where could we go if a mad genius designed our society to force people to do the right thing? And punish you if didn't.

Yes, yes...what is the right thing is debatable often. Still a gamer can dream :-)

Many books serve the purpose of criticizing social and political systems, their inner workings, and the motives behind them. Daemon and Freedom are vastly complex novels that not only accomplish this goal, but also the impressive feat of proposing a new system in its place that could actually work in the real world (I'm speaking broadly of the new social order here and the existence holons, not necessarily the fantastical takeover of gaming communities.) It is definitely a good read for those who enjoy action and suspense, enjoy gaming, and/or are fed up with the corporate-run world that we live in.

The Daemon series, Daemon, book 1 and Freedom (TM), book 2, is written as two books, but in actuality is one story told in two books. This is a high-tech thriller for the wireless age that explores the unthinkable consequences of a computer program running without human control--a daemon--designed to dismantle society and bring about a new world order. This is an amazing, enlightening must read!

unless you are very computer and internet literate, you still won't get it all. As a ex 20 year computer store owner, large BBS sysop and quite knowlegeable in all computer areas, I still was behind in some of the technical details.

Great story-well developed plot. Very technical data concerning computers, programming, and artificial intelligence. Saving these two books by Suarez for out Son-in-law who is a corporate-level computer whiz with the Disney Corporation.

maybe not quite as great as the first book, daemon, but still a fascinating read. (maybe I partly wished there wasn't all of the recap/review at the beginning, since I read them back-to-back). essentially daemon just continues right into freedom. still highly recommended!

Absolutely astounding. Breathtaking and brilliant from begging to end. Seems written to be a favorite of anyone in IT, especially network admins. If you're like me and working in a public place while listening to the audiobook version, try not to freak people out with your random grins, cheers, and jaw-drops because it WILL happen. Enjoy the ride, but do come with a technical mind.

After reading part 1, it was inevitable top read this second book on the Daemon. I read it in several attempts because of a personal busy schedule, but nevertheless the story stuck to me. The first book nade a better, more impressive imprint, but this one certainly is a good second one.

This is a well written thriller. After reading both books, think about what is going on in todays world. Consider how Google, Facebook, Apple, and Mircosoft are in bed with the Government and you will see a version of this story playing out in our lifetime.

Absolutely astounding. Breathtaking and brilliant from begging to end. Seems written to be a favorite of anyone in IT, especially network admins. If you're like me and working in a public place while listening to the audiobook version, try not to freak people out with your random grins, cheers, and jaw-drops because it WILL happen. Enjoy the ride, but do come with a technical mind.

After reading part 1, it was inevitable top read this second book on the Daemon. I read it in several attempts because of a personal busy schedule, but nevertheless the story stuck to me. The first book nade a better, more impressive imprint, but this one certainly is a good second one.

This is a well written thriller. After reading both books, think about what is going on in todays world. Consider how Google, Facebook, Apple, and Mircosoft are in bed with the Government and you will see a version of this story playing out in our lifetime.

Daniel Suarez follows up to his first novel in the series, Daemon, with this fantastic read. It was a super quick read, but very detailed. For any self-proclaimed nerds, I highly recommend this novel. You will not regret it.

A good finish to the series, although the ending is a bit off in my opinion. Still, the writer has put together an entertaining two book series and it makes for good reading of something other than the same old same old. Give it a try.

We all know that drones have changed the rules of modern warfare. But the author takes this technology a step further: what if the enemy has this technology, or worse, what if this technology can be used by private rogue entities to terrorize people at will? Fortunately there is an elite team of special operatives to counter this threat, including an entomologist whose research on warrior ants proves to have surprising applications to military technology. This book gets an A+ for imagination and a B+ for execution. The story is riveting and easily digestible, and additional kudos to the author are in order for taking on such a socially relevant topic. Confession: a friend passed on a digital copy of this book to me, so I guess I am guilty of piracy, but I liked the book so much that I purchased two other books by the same author, which I never would have done if I hadn't been exposed to this book. No sweat, Suarez deserves his royalties.

The author hits the jackpot again with a rapidly moving hard to put down novel. Futurists will feel chills. One warning though: if the reader isn't familiar with computer and game jargon, it could be hard to decipher.

Freedom is an absolutely outstanding book. Having read Daemon I was concerned that perhaps Freedom might be a let down. No way. Freedom maintains the fast, expanding pace and alerts the reader to potential ramifications of very real current trends. The themes of Freedom encompass not only cutting edge technology and its ramifications but society's relationship with the leverage large business entities enjoy over elected governments, the resultant dependencies and the all too real ramifications of such dependencies.

It is interesting to research some of the specific technologies mentioned in Freedom, wondering if each is simply based on the author's imagination, or in fact existing currently. Guess which. Eye-opening indeed.

One helluva lot of research went into this book. I personally did not find anything beyond the realm of reasonable possibility, either technologically or socially. One could consider this work of Suarez, encompassing both Daemon and Freedom, as a wake up call.

For those interested in further understand Suarez's perspective, it is educational to watch a couple of videos of Suarez, one speaking to a set of google teams [...].

and the other to a futuristic vision organization, The Long Now Foundation [...].

Hope the above might assist those considering this book in making their decision.

Great vision of a possible future. A continuation of the book "Daemon", a great story with character development, and kept my attention all the way through. One of the best works of fiction, but paralleling real life events.

An absolutely brilliant sequel! While I was expecting the story to follow the tech theme, it also parallels today's economic woes. At times I almost wished we had a Daemon in charge in the real world. It's well worth reading!

Not as well constructed as its predecessor, "Daemon," but matches its absorbing detail in its inventions. I can't imagine it being completely satisfying if read without having first read "Daemon," but reading it as volume 2 of the same story was addictive.

I had high expectations after having finished Daemon. I enjoyed further development of the characters and the overall concept, but the novel suffered from too many characters vying for that development, and a stronger sense of purpose for the concept. I fished with a sense of wanting more, and yet wanting less. I would still recommend the novel if you enjoyed Daemon and wanted more.

Daemon, along from Freedom (TM) encompass a fascinating and gripping near future world not far removed from our own. Part high technology thriller, part social commentary, Daniel Suarez does a great job of weaving both themes into a story you can't put down. Hey HBO or AMC, what are you waiting for? Snap up the rights to these books and unleash the next Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones level story on the small screen!

Decent, liked the first book better. Very entertaining and well written. Recommend this book. Some of the renewable tech in this book is not accurate, but still interesting. A 50 megawatt plant is not going to provide very much electricity.

Great ending for the Daemon story. I loved the first (Daemon) but thought this was an even better book. Especially those that are somewhat familiar with the tech parts will appreciate it even more, but even if not you will find it to be a good read. However I would certainly recommend you read Daemon first if you haven't yet - characters and story may be too confusing / undeveloped otherwise.

Can't help but wish Suarez would continue the story and make it a trilogy - or more!

This was a worthy conclusion to the story started in "Daemon." As we watch the rise of the Daemon economy, Suarez reveals more than a few surprises he left in reserve for this sequel. You won't be disappointed by the ending, and it will be worth your while.

Like most reviewers here I read the original, Daemon, which I initially laughed off, put down, then picked back up multiple times because I kept hearing good things about it. While I still feel I was tricked into it by cheap hooks in the beginning, I wound up reading the whole thing. I enjoyed it, mostly because I liked the subject matter's uniqueness (though familiar to any Sci-Fi reader) and it teetered on the plausible, which is what kept me at it. It was enjoyable, and the techno thriller piece worked even though it began to unravel towards the end. The characters were paper-thin, all over the place, and some just disappeared altogether. Yet I can't say I disliked it. It was better than I thought and at times couldn't put it down. Which to me, is what makes a good book. I suggest giving it a try if you're looking for an entertaining read.

I like Science Fiction, and I'll give a story the benefit of the doubt as long as it doesn't cross the line too many times. For me, it either has to stay in the realm of science fiction, or play out like a reality in a modern world. Either way, that world is established from the beginning, and remains believable.

So after I finished the last book, I decided to read the sequel. This time I almost gave up after the first chapter. I just found it so absurd and over the top with assassin robot motorcycles attacking a Wall Street titan I almost couldn't do it. I think the author needs to learn to use a little subtlety. We get it, and hammering it over our heads from here on out doesn't help the story, or the theme, we get it. He continues to do it throughout the book, even with subject matters he doesn't quite get right and seems to not quite know what he's talking about, which isn't the case at all when he's writing about technology. This was confirmed at the end of the book with his bibliography.

Now I'm all for a hero going after a totalitarian government a la V for Vendetta, 1984, etc...but if that's the theme stick to it. From the beginning of this book, all the characters shift roles right off the bat. The author not only introduces characters you never see again, but old characters completely switch archetypes, which winds up being somewhat confusing. It takes away from the characters, which was a weak point in the previous book as well. The strong point in these books is the action.

So I decided to throw out all forms of plausibility and just sit back and enjoy the action, which I did, as pure entertainment. I really enjoyed the MMORPG aspects, the economics of swarm behavior, and the technologies that were introduced (outside of the ninja bikes, come on). Overall the story is highly entertaining, only to be interrupted multiple times by long-winded speeches about evil corporations and eco-pods. Really? Still banging away at that theme? I don't need to know how the author feels about subjects he doesn't seem to get quite right, or at least isn't that convincing of. If he wants to tell us something, a more effective way would have been to show it to us. Just describe the world to me, I get it. These interruptions seemed completely out of place at times coming from characters who would just spout the stuff off. It was an incredibly plastic way to bang away at a theme that actually interrupted the novel's own well-developed theme. Now I'm all for a Utopian society in Sci-Fi, hell that's the fun of reading Sci-Fi: the economics and the engineering...what threw me about this book in particular, was that I don't think it knew what to be. It was completely out of focus. Was it strictly Sci-Fi? Was it supposed to be a techno thriller a la Crichton? You can't play both sides unless you're really good at it. The comparisons to Crichton here are completely unwarranted.

Now for what it is, the novel is pretty good. The action is great, and it ends with a bang. Yet, the author tends to hit the reader over the head with obvious themes, and then literally point them out in case we missed it. We get it, there's no need to underestimate us. For instance, Detective Sebeck (now literally the Unnamed One) is sent on a quest. Okay, sounds great, protagonists usually are. The author then stops to tell us, that yes, he is being sent on a typical archetypal quest, literally the Hero's Journey. WE GET IT! Just tell us the story, show us the theme, and let us enjoy the book. This time the author seems to have undermined his own success and tried to teach us something, poorly.

This is one kick-ass story. The tale that started in Daemon just gets wilder, faster and deeper in Freedom(tm). Just be prepared going in, you may find yourself asking some uncomfortable questions about how much of this is fiction.

I'm not usually into fiction, but this series was thought provoking and very entertaining. Both 'Daemon' and 'Freedom' by Daniel Suarez were so deviously clever that I couldn't put either of them down until I was done.

The plot is original; a breath of fresh air! It's written in a style such that I could play the action in my head like a movie. The content is angled toward computer nerds, but explains the technology enough for even the most computer illiterate reader.

I strongly recommend this book!

These two books by Suarez were to me radically thrilling as a cyber based duo of thrillers. They were in fact scary. Iliked the characters but was not so sure that the Daemon cyber plan would be one that would give the USA any more freedoms that Suarez assured us there would be. Utopian views have never been very successful but at least freedom and liberty were values that even the nut that began the new world had his questions. The reader has to read both books to get a whole view of this new world. Get to it.

After reading Daemon and Freedom I decided to buy them as a gift for my father. My non-techie mother, intrigued by the Daemon name, ended up reading both in less than two weeks. She enjoyed them so much she was bummed to have to go to work. They weren't too technical for her yet they were technical enough for me. I hope they get turned into movies.

As an information security professional, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The author describes networks, data security and several jaw-dropping technological innovations both accurately and in ways that are approachable. This is a must-read but be prepared to be angered by the truths Mr. Suarez cites in his book. The further reading section should be on everyone's bookshelves.

The reader has to keep many characters in mind while reading the book but the complicated and interesting plot demands attention.
There are no "heroes" in the plot line but this makes the plot more interesting.