Friday, April 29, 2005

Jennifer Government by Max Barry

Read this yesterday in about an hour or so. Very frothy. Characters names depend on who they work for (hence "Jennifer Government" and two "John Nikes"). Quite astute about commercial allegiances. Sharp. Recommended, but please note I was feeling a bit poorly yesterday afternoon so my judgement may have been clouded (no pun intended but the book had been picked up by Cloud from that wonderful institution, a public library).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've read this too; and then ended up getting sucked into his website, which is a whole institution in itself.

It's become a very popular online political simulation game, based on the book. It has hundreds of thousands of users, and it's really rather good fun. You create your own country and then determine its laws, social structures etc. You can join the United Nations and form alliances with other countries. I got bored after a few months but was a bit addicted for a while. It's here: www.nationstates.net.

I thought the book was good, and fwiw the author was very friendly when I emailed him in typical impulsive fashion.

The book doesn't delve into the issues in any great depth, and the characterisation etc is a little light, but still it's an entertaining read and has some good points to make.

A nice light read, I'd say.

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

I have a hard enough time concentrating on things.... too tempting. I'll stick with having enjoyed the novel, but it was worth a look!