While ruminating on this at a local restaurant, he meets Chloe, who offers to help him get back at his soon-to-be-former coworkers. He takes her up on the offer and finds himself falling in with a "crew" of misfits and geeks, techie con artists. Naturally, this mostly happens because he falls in love with Chloe.
After the initial con, Paul comes up with an idea for a new one, runs it, and then gets pulled into yet another con. Soon, feeling like he's really part of the crew and wanting to impress Chlore, he comes up with yet another idea, seeing it through until almost the end when everything starts to go wrong. I won't spoil it, but what happens from Chapter 26 on is exactly what you'd expect with this kind of lead-in, right through the climax and into the ending. I still kind of enjoyed it.
I think what drew me in the most was the geek culture. It reminded me, in a lot of ways, of my time with a group I used to belong to we weren't con-artists. It kind of brought me back to my old punk kid times. Geek Mafia won't win any awards and frankly I'm baffled by the praise it did get, but if you put aside seriousness and just want a fun, quick read, there are worse books out there. Just keep the expectations low. Mar 31, Ryan rated it liked it Shelves: sci-fi. I'm not going to lie; one of my main motivations for reading this book was knowing that I could get a free copy of it as an ebook from the author's website.
I mean, it also seemed to have some interesting subject matter, but that ease of accessibility pushed me over the edge, and gave me a chance to read it over the Christmas holiday.
And I'm really glad I did. If you're someone like Rick Dakan, however, they make perfect sense together, and form the basis of a fast-paced, exciting caper novel. He happens to meet up with Chloe, a self-described modern-day pirate who offers to help him "get even" with those that wronged him. If you're the sort of person who likes both of those things, you'll probably really enjoy this book. The characters are believable, sympathetic, and enjoyable; the plot moves along at a fast pace, with just enough twists and turns to keep you guessing about where it's going next.
Inspired by his own firing from a Silicon Valley gaming company, Dakan has written a fun, breezy tale of revenge and con-artistry in the '00s. Paul is an indie comic-book creator who heafs out West to try and turn his Eisner-winning world into a computer game. Conveniently, he soon meets an alluring young woman who offers the prospect of financial and karmic revenge against his backstabbing, intellect Inspired by his own firing from a Silicon Valley gaming company, Dakan has written a fun, breezy tale of revenge and con-artistry in the '00s.
Conveniently, he soon meets an alluring young woman who offers the prospect of financial and karmic revenge against his backstabbing, intellectual property thieving ex-friends. Wacky hijinks ensue as Paul gets drawn deeper and deeper into the world of a mysterious loose group of thieves who operate as a kind of hard-partying hacker collective. Of course, all is not quite as it seems, and anyone who's seen even a few con-artist movies will be able to spot some of the twists and turns Paul's headed for.
My only two complaints is that as with many books, the feats of hacking seem somehow too easy which may well just be my own naivete , and the gang of hackers isn't developed well enough. There are only really three of them who are fleshed out, which makes it kind of simple to spot the villain of the bunch.
Similarly, Paul's a little too much of a shlub everyman to really connect with as a protagonist. On the whole, it's a fairly fun, well-paced variation on some classic themes designed to appeal to the titular geeks one elaborate scam involves forging valuable comics that have been graded and sealed , but not so compelling that I'm likely to seek out the two sequels Geek Mafia: Mile Zero and Geek Mafia: Black Hat Blues. It's a relatively, well, OK, somewhat plausible crime thriller set nowish early s in Silicon Valley.
Technology plays a major role in the assorted escapades but the details of the hacking, both physical and logical, are mostly glossed over.
This means that there aren't any technical hurdles to trip on and it didn't head down the crazy leet-speak path like Zero Day. For some values of "rescued".
This wasn't "best book ever" territory, but I did enjoy reading it and I'll likely check out the subsequent stories. A wee warning: I read the PM Press pmpress. For the most part it's not too bad but it threw me a couple of times. May 23, Trevor Mcpherson rated it liked it. For subject matter, character, and pacing, thumbs up I enjoyed the brisk, Elmore Leonard-esque prose. The dialogue was genuine to the demographic presented, and moved the action along well.
The pacing kept me flipping ok, swiping - Ebook, doncha know pages well after bedtime. This is a quick, light read, and after coming on the heels of Rucker's Tetralogy and Stross' Accelreando, was a much appreciated break from idea and concept heavy reads Proofing and editing, thumbs down.
I can forgive the o For subject matter, character, and pacing, thumbs up I enjoyed the brisk, Elmore Leonard-esque prose. Speaking of batty, let's discuss pronouns.
Now, I'm not one to get worked up about transgender characters, or unisex, or asexual or waddevah. But please be consistent with pronouns. If he's sitting on the bed watching her dry her hair, then she sits on the bed beside her Did the pages stick together?
No, because this is an eBook. Did I have a petite mal seizure and miss the introduction of a character? Just sloppy edits. Please put at least as much effort, if not more, into proofing, editing, and preparing your work. I had heard such a glowing review of this book that I even carried it in my distro without having read it.
I finally got around to reading it, and I'm kind of surprised how mediocre it is. To be fair, I just read a Neal Stephenson novel, and those are big shoes to fill. Neal Stephenson also writes suspenseful stories with technological bases, but the difference is that he's actually a good writer. This is a con story though, and those are often pretty exciting. It's also based on SF Bay Area counterculture, which made me homesick, especially when he described places that I knew. It's a reasonably fast-paced suspense novel featuring a crew of hackers trying to make lucrative and elegant con jobs.
The characters are pretty shallow for the most part, and the writing isn't particularly interesting. Also, this book has one of my least favorite cliches: average-looking but intelligent male protagonist meets up with a wild yet brilliant hot young woman who for some reason can't keep her hands off him. I'll file this under "vacation reading. Sep 14, Stonemagpie rated it it was ok. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The good part: It was free.
I enjoyed the fact that the story didn't get bogged down with the technical aspects too much. The bad part: I couldn't relate to the characters at all. There was no justification for their actions, they were breaking the law and conning people out of their money just because they could. The main protagonist, Paul, complains that he got fired unfairly from a company he partially owns because he couldn't work a nine to five job. Sounds fair enough to me. As someone who slo The good part: It was free.
As someone who slogs through a nine to six every day I have zero sympathy with him. He gets offered redundancy pay and shares in the company. Hooking up with Chloe and her crew he manages to blackmail his old partners into buying his shares from him for a lot of money, and then all the adventures start. By the end of the book, he's got no shares and lost almost all the money, managed to accidentally destroy Chloe's crew, gotten someone shot and is a wanted felon.
Its a much worse situation than he started in, but he doesn't seem to realise. That makes him an idiot. I wouldn't bother with this one, it left a bad taste in my mouth. It's a story of a comic artist Paul, who is fired from a company where he is a partner along with his friend.
They dont tell him the proper reason though. Depressed, he goes a bar where he meets a girl. The actual story starts here. How he comes over evrything does he really do?? He breaks up with his frineds.. Ultimately they both fall in love with each other. Does chloe's friends accept them?? Does he get back to his friends?? Its really an interesting adventure packed with cool techie stuff!! Enjoyed it a lot.! Worth a read would say Oct 22, Lauralee rated it did not like it. This was terrible.
Every trope imaginable. The main character tries to portray himself as a Nice Guy. But, he's really a jackass who believes he's entitled to anything he wants.
He spent half the book whining about how he isn't having sex with the romantic interest, but when it gets to the sex scene, the author fades to black. That's just poor writing. You can write in great detail about all the teasing touches and how she rebuffs his advances, but you refuse to write the smut? Back to the entitl This was terrible. Back to the entitled bit, the main character seems to believe whole heartedly that he is entitled to this woman, body and soul. This type of behaviour should not be encouraged by making it the defining characteristic of the protagonist.
In short, don't read this book. Jul 17, Robo Pete rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Geeks, nerds, pop-culture afficionados. Shelves: suffix-punk , indie. So it's a sort of Ocean's 11 but with l33t haxorz and technie nerds? Hustle with comics? Loaded with great characters, tonnes of pop-culture references and a plot full of crosses and double crosses and crosses of the double crosses and romance! What more could you want.
Written in a relaxed, easygoing flowing style I raced through the pages and couldn't wait to find out who would come out on top as twists and turns played out and the ideas kept coming. There are some great set pieces, so Geekpunk?
There are some great set pieces, some genuinely funny moments and a likeable protagonist for whom you can't help rooting. Really makes me with I was in the Geek Mafia Jan 27, Russ rated it really liked it Shelves: Not my usual genre but I was intrigued by Cory Doctorow's recommendation and took a chance.
As it turns out, I really enjoyed the book. If you enjoy detective novels you might want to branch out and give this a try.
While I haven't read many caper-type books think Oceans 11 , this book seems to be a good example. The characters were interesting and while some of the twists were well signed, others were surprising. The writing style is reasonable and the pacing is good. There are a few times wher Not my usual genre but I was intrigued by Cory Doctorow's recommendation and took a chance. There are a few times where the author repeats himself and there were one or two noticeable errors but nothing that detracted too much from the book.
Definitely recommend. Jun 07, Aimee rated it liked it. Geek Mafia is a quick read about a video game designer turned outlaw. When Paul is basically forced out of a company he helped start, he "happens upon" a con woman who leads him quickly from getting revenge against his own nemesis to going after big dollar game.
Paul's new adventure turns from fun and exciting to incredibly dangerous, with plenty of plot twists to keep it exciting. In the end, this is clearly a geek fantasy written by a geek. Nerdy gamer type encounters gorgeous babe who is also Geek Mafia is a quick read about a video game designer turned outlaw. Nerdy gamer type encounters gorgeous babe who is also geeky, love, sex, adventure, and he gets to be the hero. It truly was a fun read, though completely unbelievable as a "this could really happen" story.
Oct 05, Michael McGreevy rated it liked it. An engaging read with an interesting back story. The writer was one of the developers for City of Heroes, and the main character for the story seems to have an eerily similar history. Dakan insists that he parted with Cryptic on good terms and that his story is all fiction, but I have to wonder if there isn't some lingering bitterness there.
While needing a bit of editorial oversight the story was engaging and I am interested enough to perhaps pick up the s An engaging read with an interesting back story. While needing a bit of editorial oversight the story was engaging and I am interested enough to perhaps pick up the sequels at some point in the future. Oct 28, Carlos Abrille rated it it was amazing. This book caught me by surprise, it's a story you might associate to Robin Hood.
The story is a page turner indeed. It's starts at neutral if you want to picture a manual transmission and shifts to 1st gear and just when you think the story will slow down soon, it shifts to 2nd gear and throughout the entire story just keeps on going faster and faster all the way to the end.
It's the first book I've ever come across that had me glued. Prepare to have plenty of tea or coffee and some healthy snac This book caught me by surprise, it's a story you might associate to Robin Hood.
Prepare to have plenty of tea or coffee and some healthy snacks because you'll need it. A great read! It's got twists and turns, smart funny characters, intelligent cons and brilliant outrages committed against America's rich right wing, a mix of cool technology, suspicion, courage, politics and love You don't even have to be a geek to love it, the fast-paced well-plotted story carries the technology along for a ride rather than the other way round.
Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Geek Mafia: Mile Zero. Nov 24, Smelly McGrouchpants rated it it was amazing. This book marks not just a worthy-sequeldom to the original Geek Mafia, but, an improvement in Dakan's skills as a novelist: the sly, subtle things one'd be pained to point to or ask for before you see them, but, once accomplished, become an apparent "breadth of scope" that comes with being truly vocated in the field.
As in: 1. Highly recommended! An exemplary work. And fun , too! Feb 21, Candis rated it liked it. Wow, Dakan's follow-up took me eons to get through! At this point, I can't really decipher whether my satisfaction hails from the story's arc or simply my completion of it. Don't get me wrong: the writing is strong and the characters are interesting enough to plod the plot along.
The constant remi Wow, Dakan's follow-up took me eons to get through! The constant reminders of the gender or race difference of some of the supporting characters didn't help I mean, really -- how many times do we need to be reminded that the crew's security whiz is "short, stout, Asian"? All that said, I'll probably read the last in the trilogy.
I'm invested enough to want to know what happens to Paul and Chloe and Bee and Sandee too and even Winston and do like to see things through View 2 comments. Dec 30, Morgan rated it it was ok. Another book I read on tour. Moxie introduced me to this series. View 1 comment. Oct 16, Alissa Gabriel rated it it was amazing.
Loved it! Makes me wish I had persued a life of crime! Jun 25, Andrea rated it it was amazing. Great and exciting book. I decided to read the first one year or two ago, not expecting much but I was blown away.
Finally got to read the second one, and I really like it. Jul 21, Thomas rated it liked it Shelves: thriller , mystery , What I remember most about Geek Mafia, the first book in this series, was how much fun it was. I went into without many expectations, and found it to be entertaining, exciting, and giddy with its own purpose.
I remember it being tight and compelling, and even at the time, I hoped that there would be future books in the series, or at least more by Dakan. Mile Zero is one of those future books, and I'm surprised with how different it feels.
The crew from Geek Mafia is now living on Key West, runnin What I remember most about Geek Mafia, the first book in this series, was how much fun it was. The crew from Geek Mafia is now living on Key West, running smaller scams to keep up their lifestyle, and basically living the Key West lifestyle. It's still entertaining, but it lacks that fun factor that the first book had. It has a good chunk of the same characters in it, but somehow they lack depth.
The conversations they have seem trite and forced no joke: a good portion of the dialogue at the beginning of the book is a lot of "Hey, looking good! In fact, they feel like they're just caricatures of their previous selves. There was an attempt to bring out Paul and Chloe's relationship with a subplot where they argue over the business and their future, but it, too, felt forced.
The story took a little while to get going, as Dakan seemed to have a hard time deciding whether he wanted to give attention to the story or the Key West lifestyle. At the start of the book, the narrative flipped between the two, and I had a hard time getting a handle on where the story was headed. Luckily, the story gained ground, and by the time I was about a third of the way through the book, I knew I was in it for the long haul, despite some of my reservations. It just wasn't what I was expecting, based on how high my expectations were after having read the first book.
I also got distracted from the story by a few copy-editing issues. I'm accustomed to quotations using double-quotes for the main dialogue, and then single-quotes for dialogue within the dialogue, but this publisher kept using double-quotes. Plus, I'm also accustomed to paragraphs of dialogue not having an end-quote at the end of a paragraph, but then picking up with another start-quote at the next one.
It's a good indication of when someone is still speaking, or when one character is speaking a monologue. The publisher didn't use this convention, closing off all paragraphs with double-quotes, and several times in the story, I lost track of who was speaking because I kept thinking someone else was part of the dialogue. Given that the book is basically a heist story, with a lot of people talking at length about how things would go down, it was more than just one occasion where this took me out of the story.
Overall, though, I thought it was entertaining enough to have been worth the read. The idea of following a bunch of techie anti-heroes as they try to make their way through the world is strangely compelling, and I'm looking forward to reading the last book in this series. Based on what I know of it, Mile Zero will segue directly into Black Hat Blues, so for a change, reading the books back-to-back will be more in my favor.
Oct 02, Artnoose McMoose rated it liked it. This is the second of the Geek Mafia trilogy, and I found it a little more compelling than the first one, although I still think this one could have used stricter editing some scenes went on for too long and there were typos.
Our tech heroes from the first novel have fled to Key West, Florida and spent a year transforming it into their small scam oasis. But when some heavier-hitting crime crews come to town and someone is murdered, they have more than they bargained for. One thing that bugged m This is the second of the Geek Mafia trilogy, and I found it a little more compelling than the first one, although I still think this one could have used stricter editing some scenes went on for too long and there were typos.
One thing that bugged me throughout the book was the pronouns used for the character Sandee. The author uses female pronouns for Sandee up until the point that it is revealed that Sandee "is really a man. Instead it seems like the author uses male pronouns for Sandee after the reveal, even when Sandee is "in girl form. This is where I think a more critical editor would have stepped in and asked for some clarity. Dec 31, Steven rated it really liked it. I loved Geek Mafia when it came out, and Mile Zero is, if anything, better than the original.
This is a sequel, and while it's not strictly necessary to have read the first book, it will definitely help fill in the characters. You see, I don't like "surprise reveal" stories. Most mystery and suspense novels squeak by simply by not giving you all the information and making you confused. That is not this novel. Don't get me wrong - Mr. Dakan has written a rip-roaring adventure tale with more twist I loved Geek Mafia when it came out, and Mile Zero is, if anything, better than the original.
Dakan has written a rip-roaring adventure tale with more twists in it than a Celtic knot. Hairpin turns, double-, triple-, and quadruple crosses abound. Plots within plots. But it's all through the eyes and minds of Paul and Chloe, the genuinely likeable main characters from the first novel. And that's what makes this novel so good. Because these characters are so fun and likeable, you want them to succeed, and want to figure out what the heck's really going on.
And by the time you're done, they'll have completely seduced you, and have you - like me - waiting for the next book from Rick Dakan. Geek Mafia was, in some ways, a revelation. A heist novel for nerds, a genre I have little overall interest in? It was something I got cheap for my Kindle and thoroughly enjoyed enough to recommend to many people, even with its flaws. Mile Zero is the sequel, and is unfortunately quite lacking. The story takes place over a year after the first book with our protagonists in Key West.
Still scamming, still getting by, and a lot of other crews are coming around to plan something big. Of course, thin Geek Mafia was, in some ways, a revelation. Of course, things can never quite go as planned, and quickly the situation devolves into a dangerous game. The fun of the first book is mostly missing from this one.
That's the biggest flaw. While the fun propelled the first book along, this just feels like more of a semi-aimless slog, which doesn't seem fair. It more or less left a lot to be desired, which is unfortunate given the end result of the first book. Jun 08, Joel rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Fans of crime fiction. One of the best things about Rick Dakan's Geek Mafia series is the feeling of being in the club that the reader gets. Dakan's protagonists are clever, but not perfect, and not above the reader.
They create imaginative plans, true, but their skills are more put to the test by adapting to situations after the plan has fallen apart. The book itself is a quick read; the plot is fast and tight, letting readers into the setting easily and giving just enough clues that the ending is a natural conclusion, One of the best things about Rick Dakan's Geek Mafia series is the feeling of being in the club that the reader gets. The book itself is a quick read; the plot is fast and tight, letting readers into the setting easily and giving just enough clues that the ending is a natural conclusion, rather than a foregone one.
The novel is from a small press, and is also available for free as a promotional tool while Dakan builds his fan base. Oct 20, Dana rated it it was amazing Shelves: free-on-goodreads. Just awesome. The characters are great, and the author made them work.
I hate how authors tell the reader that their characters are smart, for example, instead of showing it and letting the reader see it for himself. This book and the first one as well doesn't have this flaw. As I read it, I got to know the characters with their ups and downs, and saw for myself how witty and manipulative they can be, instead of just being told that they are.
One of the characters is known for working his wa Just awesome. One of the characters is known for working his way with words, and instead of showing how that works by how others react to that, I was surprised to see that even I, knowing he is lying, eat his words with a spoon. That's art. Dec 23, Yev rated it it was ok Shelves: genre-thriller-mystery-suspense , type-novel , status-reviewed. This sequel is entirely different and not for the better. In this book the fun, idealism, cons, relative light-heartedness, sense of adventure, and everything else that made it enjoyable are replaced with seriousness, edginess, cynicism, a sense of claustrophobia, and a murder mystery in places of elaborate cons.
Yes, the entire book is a murder mystery and thriller, which is not what I expected it to be or wanted from this, at all. All that which seemed fantastical has become entirely mundane, as This sequel is entirely different and not for the better.
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