After On cover art

After On

A Novel of Silicon Valley

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After On

By: Rob Reid
Narrated by: Sean Kenin, January LaVoy, Felicia Day, Patrick Rothfuss, John Hodgman, Tom Merritt, Jesse Cox, Leo Laporte
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About this listen

 The definitive novel of today’s Silicon Valley, After On flash-captures our cultural and technological moment with up-to-the-instant savvy. Matters of privacy and government intrusion, post-Tinder romance, nihilistic terrorism, artificial consciousness, synthetic biology, and much more are tackled with authority and brash playfulness by New York Times bestselling author Rob Reid.

Meet Phluttr—a diabolically addictive new social network and a villainess, heroine, enemy, and/or bestie to millions. Phluttr has ingested every fact and message ever sent to, from, and about her innumerable users. Her capabilities astound her makers—and they don’t even know the tenth of it.

But what’s the purpose of this stunning creation? Is it a front for something even darker and more powerful than the NSA? A bid to create a trillion-dollar market by becoming “The UberX of Sex”? Or a reckless experiment that could spawn the digital equivalent of a middle-school mean girl with enough charisma, dirt, and cunning to bend the entire planet to her will?

Phluttr has it in her to become the greatest gossip, flirt, or matchmaker in history. Or she could cure cancer, bring back Seinfeld, then start a nuclear war. Whatever she does, it’s not up to us. But a motley band of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and engineers might be able to influence her.

After On achieves the literary singularity—fusing speculative satire and astonishing reality into a sharp-witted, ferociously believable, IMAX-wide view of our digital age.

Narrated by Sean Kenin and January LaVoy, with:
Felicia Day: NETGRRRL.COM
Patrick Rothfuss: Special Field Operative Brock Hogan
John Hodgman: Charles Henry Higgensworth III
Tom Merritt: voice of The New York Times
Jesse Cox: Whistle Blowings Blog
Leo Laporte: voice of the San Francisco Chronicle

Advance praise for After On

“Enter a near-future Silicon Valley that is hilariously, creepily, mind-bogglingly fantastic, yet at the same time all too believable. It might turn out this way. No, really, it might! Along with After On’s diabolically ingenious plot, there are crazy-plausible web startups, delicious parodies of social media, and a surprisingly convincing theory of human consciousness.”—Chris Anderson, head of TED

“Reading After On is like attending a master class in nearly every major issue haunting not only the tech industry but society itself. Only the professor is also a stand-up comic with a perfect ear for the foibles of Silicon Valley’s most sacred cows. Part AI thriller, part arch social commentary, and part rollicking farce, After On will leave you smarter about just about everything the human species needs to work on if we’re going to outlive our own creations—and our obsessions with them.”—John Battelle, co-founder, NewCo, Federated Media, and Wired

“The future is already here—it’s just for those who read Reid!”—Steve Jurvetson, venture capitalist, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

“Rob Reid doesn’t write science fiction; he writes future history. After On is the best account I’ve read of how superintelligence will arrive and what it will mean for all of us. Hilarious, frightening, believable, and marvelously constructed—After On has it all.”—Hugh Howey, New York Times bestselling author of Wool Humorous Literature & Fiction Satire Science Fiction Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense Fiction Comedy Technology Thriller Witty Silicon Valley Computer Science
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First off, if I could give this book 6 stars or more I would. I kid you not. Rob Reid has done a fantastic job and each and every actor/narrator was worth his or her weight in gold!

As our future is becoming more AI capable, this extremely witty and comically dark novel is dead on topic. I use dead on in a metaphorical and very literal sense. Before we had the arms race now we have the AI race, which of course is sadly part & parcel if you consider drones, robotics, deep leaning and machine learning.

Each character is brought to life by the actors and unwittingly entangled. If I say too much I will spoil it for you so I won't. Absolutely my most favourite Audible book by far within this genre.

Highly recommend it big time! Big thanks to Rob Reid, the narrators and everyone who helped make it possible. Very disturbed but thoroughly entertained! :D

Brilliant, Funny & Somewhat Disturbing!

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This is a thoroughly well written and thought provoking book. I recommend it for anyone with even a vague interest in AI, technology, humanity or life. Can’t wait for the TV show!

Fabulous read by Rob Reid

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Beautiful mish mash of contemporary ideas, skillfully and entertaining woven together in a unique way.

wonderfully performed

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Most entertaining story, really enjoyed insights into the digital age it provides and the most entertaining story lines.

Future truth?

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Very interesting story and well worth the listen, only let down by its's tendancy to repeat sections or be slightly wordy but otherwise an fun dive into some sections of tech that I would never have thought about reading up on.

Very interesting concepts

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Really loved this book, great story and thought provoking as it's based on many possible real world scenarios. Performances were spot on, the different voices made it awesome. Make sure you also listen to the companion podcast!

Great story, but even better performance

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amazing. I don't read too many novels, but this felt real to me, like it actually was happening

holy crap

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Thai book has a great story to it, a nice work of fiction that could actually be happening as you read this. the performance is very well read with some awesome voice talent.

Great book, well preformed

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loved it it was funny a little bit scary and very thought provoking. amazing narrators. probably one of the top 5 books I've had the pleasure to listen to. phuking well worth it.

absolutely brilliant

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A little too loud at times, but still satisfying and thought provoking. Enjoy the journey and find real information about this area that we will all confront in time.

A journey inward.

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