Freedom is a neat book. Its the sequel to Daemon by Daniel Suarez. Its enjoyable. Reviewing this without spoilers for Daemon is hard, and I've noticed the pros didn't even try. So, you've been warned.

It opens with Pete Sebeck, the police officer framed by Daemon in the first book being set on a quest to determine if Daemon is worth being continued. From there we jump to a funeral - Roy Merritt's - who has become an icon to the Daemon community due to his commitment and excellence. And Merritt's killer is the wanted man by them. So much so, that even one of the premiere agents of Daemon's infrastructure protection factions, Loki is there as well. The Major is back, and he is vile. So is John/Ivan, but what is he doing? And who is he working for really? The setting undergoes changes as well - a global financial crisis on the scale of the Great Depression, corporate military on the loose in the US (which makes me wonder if the UN black helicopter crowd just isn't looking at the right target) and the emergence of Daemon as an open secret and a power.

Freedom is a fast moving, enjoyable novel. There are gadgets a-plenty, as well as tons of interesting concepts. I was particularly taken with the holon communities - self sustaining high-tech communities that interact with each other but are not dependent on each other. They ranged from a unique energy producing community to a small farm town. And Suarez takes some things to their logical conclusion from the reading lists in the back of the books.

Finally, the oddest thing about Freedom and Daemon is that some reviewers see them both as a loss of freedom to machines. For Daemon I could see that. For Freedom I have to wonder if we read the same book.

Likes: Gadgets, tighter focus on characters, neat concepts, the holons
Dislikes: Not enough character development (Loki, Price and Sebeck in particular), could have used more gadgets (gotta be more RPVs than Autom8s, Razorbacks and the Angelteeth), all but mustache twirling villains

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First, to be able to enjoy this book you must first read "Daemon". It is really one book in two volumes. Neither is a stand-alone novel.
I loved Daemon. Freedom was as good or better. I won't give any spoilers but to say this he is one great story teller. I was never bored. I am always reading a book and these two are some of the best that I have read in a long time.

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Picking up where Daemon left off, this continues the story of a daemon gone wild, this time trying to transform the world into something that many might say is a far sight more rational than the one we're currently living in.

So we have the adventure and suspense carried over from the prior novel, which is top-notch. The "tech" level implied here, though, is a lot more wishful thinking than plausible, so it no longer feels near-future, and more like 100 years out.

The world is next week, though. Which makes for a strange feeling.

Suarez clearly has done his future-world reading, though. (So have I, as it turns out.) He's got a bibliography at the end with a number of excellent future-thinking non-fiction books listed; all of the ones I had already read there are well-worth the read.

The reason that's important, though, is that Suarez has placed many of those concepts into the novel, portraying them as the intelligent response to the corporate overreach that we seem to be currently living through. I can't say I disagree, and it was nice to seem them there. It's also true that I imagine the only way to get there is by magical computer programs.

So the plausibility went down, but the thinkability went up. So: we're still at 5 of 5 stars. Recommended.

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very good book... keeps you thinking about how real this could be. Freedom is aptly named. This is a fast read and a great conclusion to the series.
It's definitely adult reading, with considerable descriptions of violence. Some sex also.
Highly recommend this book if you like high tech thrillers.

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