After On
A Novel of Silicon Valley
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After On
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By:
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Rob Reid
About this listen
The definitive novel of today's Silicon Valley, After On flash-captures our cultural and technological moment with up-to-the-instant savvy. Matters of privacy and government intrusion, post-Tinder romance, nihilistic terrorism, artificial consciousness, synthetic biology, and much more are tackled with authority and brash playfulness by New York Times best-selling author Rob Reid.
Meet Phluttr - a diabolically addictive new social network and a villainess, heroine, enemy, and/or bestie to millions. Phluttr has ingested every fact and message ever sent to, from, and about her innumerable users. Her capabilities astound her makers - and they don't even know the tenth of it.
But what's the purpose of this stunning creation? Is it a front for something even darker and more powerful than the NSA? A bid to create a trillion-dollar market by becoming "The UberX of Sex"? Or a reckless experiment that could spawn the digital equivalent of a middle-school mean girl with enough charisma, dirt, and cunning to bend the entire planet to her will?
Phluttr has it in her to become the greatest gossip, flirt, or matchmaker in history. Or she could cure cancer, bring back Seinfeld, then start a nuclear war. Whatever she does, it's not up to us. But a motley band of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and engineers might be able to influence her.
After On achieves the literary singularity - fusing speculative satire and astonishing reality into a sharp-witted, ferociously believable, IMAX-wide view of our digital age.
Narrated by Sean Kenin and January LaVoy, with:
Felicia Day: NETGRRRL.COM
Patrick Rothfuss: Special Field Operative Brock Hogan
John Hodgman: Charles Henry Higgensworth III
Tom Merritt: voice of The New York Times
Jesse Cox: Whistle Blowings Blog
Leo Laporte: voice of The San Francisco Chronicle
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Critic reviews
"Rob Reid doesn't write science fiction; he writes future history. After On is the best account I've read of how superintelligence will arrive and what it will mean for all of us. Hilarious, frightening, believable, and marvelously constructed - After On has it all." (Hugh Howey, New York Times best-selling author of Wool)
"Enter a near-future Silicon Valley that is hilariously, creepily, mind-bogglingly fantastic, yet at the same time all too believable. It might turn out this way. No, really, it might! Along with After On's diabolically ingenious plot, there are crazy-plausible web startups, delicious parodies of social media, and a surprisingly convincing theory of human consciousness." (Chris Anderson, head of TED)
"Reading After On is like attending a master class in nearly every major issue haunting not only the tech industry but society itself. Only the professor is also a stand-up comic with a perfect ear for the foibles of Silicon Valley's most sacred cows. Part AI thriller, part arch social commentary, and part rollicking farce, After On will leave you smarter about just about everything the human species needs to work on if we're going to outlive our own creations - and our obsessions with them." (John Battelle, co-founder, NewCo, Federated Media, and Wired)
What listeners say about After On
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- FunkyNerd
- 02-11-17
Interesting view of the near future
Lots and lots of themes drawn together in a view of the near future. You'll need some patience to get a sense of where it is going but, whatever you feel about the outcome, it does provide some food for thought. At times it does feel like the author is trying to put all their cleverness, knowledge and potential foresight into the story with the subtlety of a virtual sledgehammer. Would recommend a read / listen if you are in anyway interested in "futureology".
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Mr. D Field
- 20-11-17
A set of thoughts about AI wrapped in a yarn
The author obviously has somewhat of a grasp of not just the underlying concepts of AI, Silicon Valley startups and the impact Freemium has had on our lives and in the most part the story wrapped around his thoughts is well told and keeps you gripped, it's the actual after on stage I personally started to wane, it's not that the material or story didn't flow, it did. It just felt sped up and rushing to an end that didn't deliver. The author took the "I hope this gets a movie deal" way out..
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- M. Bedford
- 25-05-23
superb
Loved this book, a gripping story line, truly fascinating ideas and my first book I suggest when asked for recommendations. It's one of a few I've gone back and listened to again.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Andrew B.
- 06-06-18
Stick around for the second half.
This isn't Interstellar or The Martian, but it's still grand speculative fiction. The author demonstrates moments of incredibly clever writing, and uses an irregular, entertaining style. However, the whole execution of this story is thrown into wildly oscillating strength and weakness by the execution of its voice actors, who seem bound by Cthulhu to hunt for the most energetic, noisy and strange ways to act out even the calmest sections of this book.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Leigh
- 06-01-18
Great story, well read, but just too long
It really is a smart and witty story. The observations about tech and Silicon Valley are sharp and enjoyable. The science and elaboration of its implications is lucid and first rate.
The performances on the reading are superb. I’ve not heard an elaborate reading of an ebook to anything like this standard before. Really high quality production value!
The only issue I had was that with it weighing in at about 24 hours long, I did find my focus waning at times. It probably didn’t need to be quite as long as it was, but I made it through and I have to say that I’m glad I did.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tonybls12
- 15-10-17
true story ( probably) 😎
great read , great imagination , great story and almost probably true . five star's
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Michael L.
- 16-04-18
Informative, thought provoking and entertaining
Where does After On rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Loved this book. It's a nice side step from pure Science Fiction, more of a light hearted near future semi-dystopia.
What did you like best about this story?
It's tackles some great issues like AI, online privacy and governmental intrusion. It introduces lots of really amazing tech that could be just around the corner.
Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favourite?
Charles Henry Higgensworth III, great reviews. They all actually exist on Amazon
Any additional comments?
Make sure to check out the "after on" podcast, also a great listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Raj Chakraborty
- 27-12-22
One of the cleverest book I have read!
This is a very intelligent and well researched, very well woven fiction. Love it. A true must read!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jane Wallman-Girdlestone
- 04-08-18
Amazing!
Wonderful book! Loved it! It is challenging, engrossing and powerful. I was fully emerged in a world utterly recognisable and yet provocative and complex. A book I will read again.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Reg
- 27-08-17
very entertaining!
seems like a lot of work went into making this into a good audiobook! even if the things are a little confusing at the start, it all starts to make sense later. a very good book!!
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