Daemon by Daniel Suarez (first self-published under the name Leinad Zeraus which is Daniel Suarez backwards) is mentioned as a techno-thriller in the vein of a young Tom Clancy. But, it’s really a bad mashup of the movies Eagle Eye and Stay Alive, about a game designer who decided to move his game into the real world.

Daemon starts off with the death of Matthew Sobol, a millionaire video game developer whose MMOs are reputed to have the best computer AI ever. Sobol’s death wasn’t unexpected, since he had been fighting cancer for quite a while. Soon after Sobol’s death, two people who worked for Sobol die in strange accidents. It’s soon discovered that there is a daemon (a computer background process) out on the internet that is monitoring the news and treating the world like one of Sobol’s games. The daemon grabs people who are available and drags them into it’s game of death and deceit.

The whole book is posited under the theory that a genius software developer can develop an AI that can outsmart the whole world in reality, not just in the controlled conditions of a game. That is unbelievable enough, but then he brings in uses of technology that just really aren’t possible. While suspending our disbelief might make parts of the plot not seem as silly as they are, the writing is bad. The characters all talk in the same voice and speak only to further the plot. And the ending of the book seems designed only to require a sequel (Freedom, which was released last week). While the book isn’t bad enough to advise people to run away, it’s not that good. If you enjoyed the movie Eagle Eye, then this book might be worth looking at.