Microserfs

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Summary: A unique, crazy, touching, and beautiful book
Review: Microserfs is one of those books that you can read once, and then refer back to again and again. It's filled with so many strange and peculiar facts, such singular and well-developed characters, and even manages to break into the little written about subculture of Microsoft and the computer geeks that inhabit its ranks.

The story is about a rag tag band of Microsoft ex-employees who move to the Silicon Valley to start up a new computer software company. This move isn't necessarily about fiscal autonomy, but is more about leaving the often totalitarian ranks of the Microsoft Company and the Microsoft campus. Through this process these characters (with names like Bug Barbecue and Randy) learn that there is more to life than coding and sitting in front of the computer.

Anyhow, there are some very touching moments in the book like when the very tightly wound and brilliant Karla falls in love with the perceptive and underconfident narrator. Or when, well, i don't want to give anything else away. But I will say that the writing is probably among the most spirited and intelligent I've ever read. What the characters in the book know, feel, and think is astonishing, wonderful, and very humbling. Microserfs is a great book with a lot of deep insights, beautiful passages, and wonderful, three dimensional characters.

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Summary: By God! There are more of us!
Review: "...my brain will smell of tangerines and new running shoes." It is in such seemingly arbitrary passages that the strength and relevancy of Coupland's work is revealed. I have heard (and may be grossly mis-quoting someone) that God is in the details; Microserfs is no exception. It is in the details of this book, the raw and superficial, irrelevent and unnessecary, excessive and o'propriate, that the reader finds reflected, pieces of his or her own life. Those pieces which stand awkward and empty alone, together form a spectacular mosaic of time, individual philosophy, and the grayer areas of emotion. Contained within this book, amidst abundant references to breakfast cereal and esoteric abbreviations (UNIX anyone?), a beautiful story is to be found. In less words: I loved it! Consider yourself recomended to read it.

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Summary: Almost a biography...
Review: (To say the least, if you find a "my father was killed and I must avenge his death" plot summary to be the most entertaining, don't read this book.)

Microserfs lacks the story line of a drama, or violence of an action or horror. Microserfs has a complex plot that is a wraith to people who judge books on whether they provide suspense and thrills. Coupland does write a plot, but with out the enormous risks of other books.

Microserfs characters relate to the reader on a human (all though it is based on geek culture) level with realistic thoughts and emotions. Most importantly, his main characters are not perfect, similar to a Dirty Harry character able to impress anyone with his remarks, yet not on a level reminiscent of the Three Stooges. He relays you the inner clockwork of his characters through strange, but witty techniques, for example his page of subconscious ramblings.

Yet, if you still are not able to enjoy this book on it's realistic human thought and you know your American pop-culture, you'll love the humor in this book. Laced with easy to read dialogue and thoughts, I'd be laughing clearly aloud about every other page while reading it everywhere I went.

Overall, the book is realistic in a sense you are one with the characters and in touch with their world - the best I can describe without giving away parts of the story. I recommend it to any one on a "down to earth" basis, but especially to any geek or techie. B-B-B-B-Bill. Words to live by, literally.

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Summary: Built to Spec
Review: This book is definitely for anyone who works in the tech sector. It is an hysterical and sometimes insightful look at programmers ISO lives. Definitely worth your time if you want a good chuckle.

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Summary: A MUST for IT dreamers(!)...
Review: I'm one of the very first readers of Coupland since his debut. This book is undoubtedly the second breakthrough of Coupland after Gen. X (other volumes are not as sharp and quirky as the present one, I think)...

Coupland's ironic view molds into sarcasm and he trashes out a whole "Silicon wa(lle)y of life" with innumerable well worked out details about everyday lives of well-paid fresh-out-of-school software "slaves" whose task is set to accomplish anothers' dreams at all costs.

The ultimate closed-cycle mid-class boredom and high levels of nerdiness combined with ultimate dreams of never-to-be-reached dream cars, villas and most importantly with corrupted and dryed-out future plans are very well described. Even though this is meant to be a fiction, ressemblances are very close(maybe even identical) to real lives...

I recommend this volume to everyone who's curious about software developers' real living cycles, deprived of all good rumors radiated by software monopoly.

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Summary: Perspective
Review: I'm going to keep this short because there seem to be at least a few great reviews here. All I want to add, is to disregard comments about this book having anything to do with Microsoft or computers. If you read it and you think that's what it is about then read it again and again because you are missing a lot! Like all of Coupland's books, if you take the time to read them, and actually think, you'll probably find yourself crying, smiling, changing your life, ...I could go on and on. If you aren't the kind of person that goes through life sleepwalking then you'll love this book, if you are that type of person, read Coupland and you might just wake up.

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Summary: Much better than I expected
Review: I must have picked up this book a dozen times at the bookstore before ultimately deciding not to buy it. It appeared there were too many computer geek inside jokes. Too many pages full of random words and phrases in 24-point type. Too many references to coding. So, I took the safe route and rented it from the library. Now I'm going to buy several copies for X-mas gifts for friends. Instead of being too computer insider, Coupland tells the story through the unique and intriguing characters, who personalize the whole Microsoft/Silicon Valley scene with their conversations much better than an outside observer could. As for the tech lingo, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to follow, especially since I'm technologically unaware. The only complaint I have, as with Coupland's other books, are the occasional over-the-top musings of the characters. I guess I'm still looking forward to reading more of them in his next book.

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Summary: Couplands best
Review: I'm currently reading this book for the second time. I just love it. Coupland describes the life of Dan and his fellow nerdy friends, in a way that like being there with them. And the idea with writing the whole book like Dan's dairy makes this book a masterpiece and one of my all time favvourits.

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Summary: An epic tale of Nerf guns and Price-Costco aisles.
Review: "Microserfs", besides being one the the easiest reads I've ever had, is also one of the most accurate portrayals of geek twentysomething (circa the mid 90's) confusion, compasion and comradery I've ever read.

It also effortlessly skewers the high-tech community with laser-like accuracy, both in the oppresive, monoculture environment of Microsoft coders as well as the hyperpaced whirlwind of Silicon Valley. The book is presented in the form of a journal by Daniel Underwood, who initally identifies himself only through his Microsoft email address [e-mail]. Surrounding him is a cadre of fellow coders all willing to submit their lives wholesale to their fearless corporate diety (B..B..B..Bill!), until a chance for equity and "one-point-oh" status lures them into Silicon Valley Start-up Hell. The story arc provides an exhilarating study of geeks in search of a life, with no pop-culture reference left unturned. Incredibly for a book mired so much in a technological world advancing at a logarithmic pace, it is as relevant in its characterizations and themes as the day it was published.

It's these characterizations that really make this book sing. The ensemble players seem as if they were carefully removed from a petre dish at the Atlanta Center for Dweeb Control...the bemused narrator obsessed with the randomness of popular culture, the riot grrl, the ultra-sensitive high-strung coding genius, to mention just a few...and the story arc provides them with ample room for change as they embark on their quests to find lives and loves. And again for a novel that deals with the software industry, it has an amazing feel for the female perspective. Not only are three strong women characters provided, their each distinct personalities provide the spectrum of geek-girl sensibilities. Along with a show-stopping female tirade about...well, you'll know what I'm talking about when you read it.

It is probably enough to say that Microserfs out- Generation-Xes "Generation-X", author Douglas Coupland's other study of slacker culture. Within the mechanical confines of the software industry, Coupland conjures an incredibly enjoyable and touching tale of young people finding their way out of digital serfdom.

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable read
Review: One of those books that even when I didnt want be reading, I had to keep reading. Not that it was suspenseful, but I just didnt want to be away from these people for too long.