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After On

By: Rob Reid
Narrated by: Sean Kenin, January LaVoy, Felicia Day, Patrick Rothfuss, John Hodgman, Tom Merritt, Jesse Cox, Leo Laporte
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Publisher's Summary

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

©2017 Rob Reid (P)2017 Random House Audio

Critic Reviews

" After On is smart, hilarious, and properly cynical about our connected world. The story unfolds in surprising and fiendish ways, and while you're laughing you'll learn enough to confound a wily MBA, manipulate a board of directors, and maybe even outfox a superintelligence." (Ken Fisher, founder and editor in chief, Ars Technica)

"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

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Absolutely intolerably overdone

It's like having an annoying self-important pretentious friend tell a story that you can barely see through their own self indulgence. It meanders and is mostly spent distracted by overblown long winded descriptions of aspects which are uninteresting and utterly unimportant to the plot or theme. Worse, a spade is never a spade. It's an elegantly carved wooden pole wrenched from the deepest forest and carefully inserted into forged steel, beaten and bladed to aid me in my quest for dirt.

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yawn

good voice acting.
story had some interesting points but was painful to listen too.
wayyyyy to long.

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Fabulous read by Rob Reid

This is a thoroughly well written and thought provoking book. I recommend it for anyone with even a vague interest in AI, technology, humanity or life. Can’t wait for the TV show!

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wonderfully performed

Beautiful mish mash of contemporary ideas, skillfully and entertaining woven together in a unique way.

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absolutely brilliant

loved it it was funny a little bit scary and very thought provoking. amazing narrators. probably one of the top 5 books I've had the pleasure to listen to. phuking well worth it.

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fantastically narrated

fantastic narrators, just struggled with some of the leaps of faith in technology.
Wonderful book otherwise

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A+ AI

This book has such an interesting and refreshing angle on AI development that I really loved. It also touched on a nuch of philosophical and societal notes that were incredibly clever and well-placed. Well worth the time to get through it all. Makes me want to buy the hard-copy even! Probably my new favourite AI themed book, and performed amazingly too!

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  • Rod
  • 26-06-2018

Engaging

There have been many tales told about Artificial Intelligence (AI) gone wild, the most infamous probably being the Hal-9000 from Arthur C Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the Skynet rebellion of the Terminator film franchise. It was with some hesitation therefore that I entered the world of modern day Silicon Valley for another foray into AI development.

Rob Reid has, thankfully, taken the idea of self-learning machines in a refreshingly new direction in the guise of Phluttr, a social network AI that has taken the world by storm. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and, as Phluttr’s self-awareness and power increases, she surpasses even her creators’ best hopes and begins to interfere in people’s lives with devastating consequences. Unable to predict the long-term effects of an event, nor understand the complexities of group dynamics, Phluttr’s child-like innocence begins to create havoc and threaten civilisation itself.

The stellar cast of actors comprise Sean Kenin, January LaVoy, Felicia Day, Patrick Rothfuss, John Hodgman, Tom Merritt, Jesse Cox and Leo Laporte. This is not a dramatization but a story told from a range of viewpoints, including that of the AI itself, her developers, and others in the industry.

Reid adds a lot of comedic touches to his storytelling, although I wouldn’t list it as a comedy per se. He also avoids the histrionics of action scenes so often found in these kinds of tales. He effectively builds tension when it’s needed but primarily provides a dramatic inside scoop into the machinations of Silicon Valley while almost telling a family drama. It’s an odd combination that works beautifully. After On is engaging, funny, exciting and interesting.

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holy crap

amazing. I don't read too many novels, but this felt real to me, like it actually was happening

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Brilliant, Funny & Somewhat Disturbing!

First off, if I could give this book 6 stars or more I would. I kid you not. Rob Reid has done a fantastic job and each and every actor/narrator was worth his or her weight in gold!

As our future is becoming more AI capable, this extremely witty and comically dark novel is dead on topic. I use dead on in a metaphorical and very literal sense. Before we had the arms race now we have the AI race, which of course is sadly part & parcel if you consider drones, robotics, deep leaning and machine learning.

Each character is brought to life by the actors and unwittingly entangled. If I say too much I will spoil it for you so I won't. Absolutely my most favourite Audible book by far within this genre.

Highly recommend it big time! Big thanks to Rob Reid, the narrators and everyone who helped make it possible. Very disturbed but thoroughly entertained! :D

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