Users: A Novel

ISBN: 1593767692

Author: Winnette, Colin

Condition: New

A New York Times Book Review Editors' ChoiceMarrying the philosophical absurdities of life, technology, start-up culture, and family, Users is for readers of Ling Ma, Dave Eggerss The Circle, and viewers of the hit Apple TV+ original series SeveranceMiles, a lead creative at a midsize virtual reality company known for its original experiences, has engineered a new product called The Ghost Lover. Wildly popular from the outset, the game is simple: a users simulated life is almost identical to their reality, except theyre haunted by the ghost of an ex-lover.However, when a shift in the company's strategic vision puts The Ghost Lover at the center of a platform-wide controversy, Miles becomes the target of user outrage, and starts receiving a series of anonymous death threats. Typed notes sealed in envelopes with no postage or return address, these persistent threats push Miles into a paranoid panic, blurring his own sense of reality, catalyzing the collapse of his career, his marriage, and his relationship with his children.The once-promising road to success becomes a narrow set of choices for Miles, who, in a last ditch effort to save his job, pitches his masterpiece, a revolutionary device code-named the Egg, which will transform the company. The consequences for Miles seal him inside the walls of his life as what was once anxiety explodes into devastating absoluteness.In a world rife with the unchecked power and ambition of tech, Users investigates-with both humor and creeping dread-how interpersonal experiences and private decisions influence the hasty developments that have the power to permanently alter the landscape of human experience.