Hello Folks, We had another good meeting, with most of us enjoying our book, Daemon by Daniel Suarez. We decided that enough of us wanted to find out how the story ended to read the second half together, Freedom (TM). Our next meeting will be on Thursday, November 8, 2012. Place, Book Nook at: http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rs7867a2369e0e Time, 9 PM Eastern, 8 PM Central, 7 PM Mountain, 6 PM Pacific, and 01:00 UTC. Our book for this month is Freedom (TM), the sequel to Daemon, by Daniel Suarez, available from both Bookshare and BARD. The Bookshare version is at: https://www.bookshare.org/browse/book/151022 and the BARD version is at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.nls/db.71118 Here's the long synopsis from Bookshare: 2009 saw one of the most inventive techno-thriller debuts in decades as Daniel Suarez introduced his terrifying and tantalizing vision of a new world order. Daemon captured the attention of the tech community, became a national bestseller, garnered attention from futurists, literary critics, and the halls of government-leaving readers clamoring for the conclusion to Suarez's epic story. In the opening chapters of Freedom(tm), the Daemon is well on its way toward firm control of the modern world, using an expanded network of real-world, dispossessed darknet operatives to tear apart civilization and rebuild it anew. Civil war breaks out in the American Midwest, with the mainstream media stoking public fear in the face of this 'Corn Rebellion'. Former detective Pete Sebeck, now the Daemon's most famous and most reluctant operative, must lead a small band of enlightened humans in a populist movement designed to protect the new world order. But the private armies of global business are preparing to crush the Daemon once and for all. In a world of conflicted loyalties, rapidly diminishing government control, and a new choice between free will and the continuing comforts of ignorance, the stakes could not be higher: hanging in the balance is nothing less than democracy's last hope to survive the technology revolution. and the NLS annotation from BARD: Daemon--the computer virus created by now-deceased mad genius Matthew Sobol--continues to assassinate people, control the Internet, and amass millions of followers. Meanwhile, civil war breaks out and a movement against corporations emerges in the Midwest. Finally, here's a bit more about the book from Publishers Weekly taken from Amazon's page for this book. Starred Review. Bestseller Suarez's sequel to Daemon (2009), in which the late, mad-genius game designer Matthew Sobol launched a cyber war on humanity, surpasses its smart, exciting predecessor. This concluding volume crackles with electrifying action scenes and bristles with intriguing ideas about a frightening, near-future world. Sobol's bots continue to roam the Internet, inciting mayhem and siphoning money from worldwide, interconnected megacorporations out to seize control of national governments and enslave the populace. FBI special agent Roy Merritt is dead, but still manages to make a dramatic comeback, while detective Pete Sebeck, thought to be executed in Daemon, rises from the supposed grave to lead the fight against the corporations. What the trademark letters affixed to the title signify is anyone's guess. Those who haven't read Daemon should read it first. The two books combined form the cyberthriller against which all others will be measured. Hoping for another good crowd next month to discuss this exciting and thought provoking duology. Evan