Agents of the Internet Apocalypse

August 1, 2015
At the opening of this darker middle act of the Internet Apocalypse trilogy, the consequences of Internet Messiah Gladstone's hallucinatory depression have landed him in a mental institution. Once sprung, he travels west in hopes of rekindling romance with his ex-wife, Romaya. Though conflicted about his original mission's value, he cannot deny his role at the head of the movement to restore the Internet, and he and online friend Tobey attract a host of followers who help manually retweet photocopies of Gladstone's personal diary. The scope and pacing of this installment feel as sprawling as its Los Angeles setting, compared to the density and focus of the New York locale of Notes from the Internet Apocalypse (2014). Then, suddenly, the author pulls hard on all the loose threads, ensnaring Gladstone in a dangerous web of deception and leaving a huge cliff-hanger to make the final book of the series enticing. With fewer jokes but still plenty of snark, this is required reading for fans of its predecessor. And until the final volume, all the disconnected Net junkies out there will be craving a fix.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

February 15, 2015

Cracked.com writer Gladstone's Notes from the Internet Apocalypse offered acidulous social satire about a world shocked stupid by the sudden disappearance of the Internet, with a hero named Gladstone (dubbed the "Internet Messiah") trying to get it back. In this second in a trilogy, his efforts have landed him in a psychiatric ward, as the economy flounders and the government intensifies its interrogation of "persons of interest" allowed by the NET Recovery Act.

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