I just received an unexpected but very welcome announcement via email:

As we reach the January 8th hard cover release date for the Dutton edition of Daemon, I wanted to pass along a quick note expressing my thanks. It was grassroots support from early adopters like you that proved to New York publishing houses that there was an audience for Daemon. Without that critical support, my little self-published book might have quietly disappeared.

Instead, it will be front-of-store in every Barnes & Nobel and Borders in the U.S. and is being translated into ten languages. I’ve also signed a deal with DreamWorks for the film rights.

Daniel Suarez   (aka Leinad Zeraus)daemon

If you don’t understand why I think this is such great news, you must be one of the thousands who haven’t yet had a chance to crack the cover of Daemon.

I was first made aware of this book on Friendfeed. Someone mentioned having read it, in fact they were raving about how good it was. Since this was someone who’s opinion (at least when it comes to tech) I respect, I figured I’d better look into this novel.

I managed to track down the author and found out it was a self-published story with a high-tech computer doomsday scenario. I love techno-thrillers. Having spent a few years knocking around the electronic intelligence field, these stories interest me. Unfortunately, too many are literally incredible.

Daemon is very credible. The plot is completely feasable and the characters are realistic.

Daniel is an independent systems consultant to Fortune 1000 companies. He has designed and developed enterprise software for the defense, finance, and entertainment industries, and that experience and expertise comes through on every page of the book. I have to agree with Stewart Brand (founder of the Whole Earth Catalog) when, in his review of Daemon, he says that Daemon is better than a Tom Clancy novel. I think this is because Clancy can only write about what he’s learned. Suarez writes from what he knows, the world he inhabits on a daily basis.

I was further excited to discover that Daniel has a very well-put-together website for Daemon. There you can learn more about the technology behind Daemon, gaming and other fields that interest Daniel. He even links to one of the best papers I’ve yet read about information security, “Security Absurdity: The Complete, Unquestionable, And Total Failure of Information Security.”

If you’re a techno-geek like I am and enjoy reading cyber-thrillers well rooted in possibility, get to your local bookstore or log onto Amazon on the 8th of this month and grab yourself a copy. This is a book that will have you staying up late to finish each chapter.

A little teaser:

A timely and relevant story…

Daemon brings readers on a harrowing journey through the dark crawl spaces of the modern world. It’s a cutting-edge high-tech thriller that explores the convergence of MMOG’s, BotNets, viral ecosystems, and corporate dominance—forces which are quietly reshaping society with very real consequences for us all.

It all begins when one man’s obituary appears online. . .

Matthew Sobol was a legendary computer game designer—the architect behind half a dozen popular online games. His premature death from brain cancer depressed both gamers and his company’s stock price. But Sobol’s fans weren’t the only ones to note his passing. He left behind something that was scanning Internet obituaries, too—something that put in motion a whole series of programs upon his death. Programs that moved money. Programs that recruited people. Programs that killed.

Confronted with a killer from beyond the grave, Detective Peter Sebeck comes face-to-face with the full implications of our increasingly complex and interconnected world—one where the dead can read headlines, steal identities, and carry out far-reaching plans without fear of retribution. Sebeck must find a way to stop Sobol’s web of programs—his Daemon—before it achieves its ultimate purpose. And to do so, he must uncover what that purpose is . . .

The modern world is about to get ‘pwned’

Drawing on over a decade of experience as a corporate IT consultant, Daniel Suarez has written a potentially controversial book – one that targets the public’s uneasiness over a world they no longer fully understand. It will (and should) unsettle those who read it.

More than just a techno-thriller, Daemon is a timely and relevant book that’s receiving high praise from technology experts and everyday readers alike (see more reviews here). Quickly expanding beyond its high-concept premise, Daemon is fast-paced, technologically accurate, and terrifying in its scope. It demonstrates what a house of cards the modern world has become, and what may soon rise in its place.