Please Report Your Bug Here
Josh Riedel
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Please Report Your Bug Here
Josh Riedel
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
A glitch in the novel’s tone... never quite resolves itself.
Not the first – and nowhere near the best – sci-fi thriller to contend with Silicon Valley’s immense power. But it’s a smart and brisk novel that, despite some occasionally leaden prose, speaks the language of a distinct cohort.
If another close look at a social media startup were all this novel were about, it might not warrant much attention. Thankfully, that's not all Riedel is up to.
Riedel’s bio states that he was the first employee at Instagram and now holds an MFA, which explains his exquisite technical rendering of startup/app culture as well as his deeply romantic portrayal of contemporary San Francisco. The book is a great addition to the growing canon of literature examining the role and reach of Silicon Valley..
Inventive.
The novel’s intriguing premise... invites urgent questions about how technology operates in our lives. Unfortunately, Riedel glosses over key leaps in story logic and is light on memorable descriptive language. Riedel evokes the bougie Silicon Valley ecosystem by peppering scenes with cultural references, regional markers, and New Age business-speak but leaves his characters frustratingly underdeveloped.
Riedel makes the most of his removed narrator, who has enough distance from the events to offer sharp insights on gentrification, workplace ennui, and the uncanny ways that tech has blurred his sense of reality.