Daemon by Daniel Suarez

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Daniel Suarez' Daemon had me going right up until the very end.  But the last 20 or so pages unraveled the entire novel in a completely unsatisfying way.

Suppose you're a computer genius who starts a computer gaming company that becomes incredibly successful and you become incredibly rich.  Things are pretty good.  Until you die from cancer.  But why should the afterlife stop you from exercising your will here on earth?

You can think of Daemon as the Matrix turned inside out.  Augmented reality is the key here and it makes for an interesting tale as a police detective, a hacker with a mysterious background, and the government's own geek genius chase the daemon that the gamer left behind. I've read enough that something new in terms of plot is refreshing every once in a while.

And it was, up until the end. I don't always need the loose ends tied up. But this ending came out of left field, left behind about as many dangling story lines as there were characters, and practically screamed sequel. It was like having the literary rug pulled out from under me. And it was a stupid ending too.

Daemon was a good read for an airplane ride and I appreciated the fresh story line.  Suarez's writing was enjoyable, too.  There were several instances of unique phrasings and well-written passages.  But the ending was enough to make me reluctant to try his next book, Freedom.