Syrup

by Max Barry
294 pgs

Syrup is the first book written by Max Barry. I've read others of his and really enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to getting my hands on this one. It's a satire focused on the marketing industry and features a young ambitious marketing graduate named Scat.

Scat has an idea for a new soft drink he wants to pitch to Coca-Cola, a drink targeted at the newest generation that Scat believes could bring in millions of dollars in increased sales--and make him rich in the process. He takes his idea for the new drink to 6 (that's her name), an equally young and ambitious marketing manager at Coke, who loves the idea. The two start working together to bring the drink to market, but before they get very far, they learn that Sneaky Pete, Scat's roommate, has stolen the idea and registered for its trademark behind their backs.

Sneaky Pete leverages "his" idea into a senior position at Coke and gets put in charge of one of the largest marketing endeavors ever undertaken, a $140 million movie to advertise Coke. Scat and 6, furious with Sneaky Pete's machinations, set out to do everything they can to undermine and discredit him and take back what they believe is rightfully theirs.

Barry sets a pretty good pace for this story and keeps things moving along nicely. It's a creative plot and this characters, while a little too contrived, are relatable and somewhat appealing. Barry does his best to keep you on your toes wondering what's going to happen next. There were times I found myself rolling my eyes a little at some of the dialogue and characters and had to remind myself that he was writing satirically. Keep that in mind and the book is good for some laughs and provokes some thoughts about how much our choices are influenced by those who market products to us.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Lexicon

by Max Barry
390 pgs

I like books that make me think, and Lexicon not only had me thinking throughout the time I was reading it, but when I wasn't reading it, I couldn't get the story out of my head. It's quick intelligent, and the speculative version of reality it presents is as intriguing as that of movies such as The Matrix and Dark City, and books by such minds as Neal Stephenson and Jasper Fforde's.

Most of the book is told as two alternating storylines. The first involves Emily Ruff, a street-smart runaway living on the streets of San Francisco who makes her living running a Three-card Monte hustle. Emily's ability to read people and know how to set them up for the fall attracts the attention of an organization that seeks out children who demonstrate an aptitude for persuasion and trains them to tap into the relatively unknown power that words can have over the human mind. Once trained, these individuals have the ability to use words to quickly tear down other peoples' mental defenses and control them.

The second storyline involves Wil Parke, who on page one is ambushed in an airport bathroom by two men. These men accuse him of being a key player in a war he knows nothing about. They call him an "outlier" who is immune to the powers of an organization run by Poets, who control people with their knowledge of certain words. Wil has no idea what any of what they're saying means, but in an act of self-preservation, he agrees to accompany them to a town in Australia called Broken Hill. Broken hill has been uninhabitable for over a year now, ever since a rogue Poet unleashed something that has taken over the will of every person who has stepped foot in the town.

As the two storylines ultimately converge, Barry methodically reveals the intricacies of his highly-developed and cerebral plot, all while keeping the action going at a breakneck speed. There are plenty of unexpected reveals and enough surprises to keep you unsure of what is truly happening until the end.

I do have a complaint though, and it's why I'm not giving it all five stars. I never felt like any of the characters warranted my allegiance. Neither of the protagonists in the different storylines endeared themselves to me as I read the book. At various times their fates were uncertain, and while I was enjoying the story, I never really cared what happened to them.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Machine Man

Machine Man by Max Barry

Back in 2009, Max Barry undertook a literary experiment. He attempted to write a book through email. he would write a single page of a story every day and then send that page to his readers. By doing so, the story his readers received was going to be in a pretty raw state. The pace he set for himself didn't allow for much editing or polishing. It wasn't like he had a story already written and was just going to type up one page of it in an email and send it out every day. Instead, every day he had to come up with that day's portion of the story, write it, and then put it out there for as many people as wanted to to read it, praise it, offer up ideas about characters, plot, etc. That story was the genesis of Machine Man.


Charles Neumann is not a people person. He's a scientific engineer at Better Future, a high-tech research and development company that develops and tests cutting-edge technologies and products, and he's more comfortable interacting with things containing a hard drive and power source than he is with things containing a brain and heart.

One day at work, in a moment of inattention, Charlie loses his leg when he gets too close to a hydraulic clamp moments before it shuts. The prosthetics he has to choose from leave a lot to be desired by his standards of efficiency and functionality, so he sets out to design and build a better leg. The leg he develops is far superior to even the best currently available to amputees, but he soon realizes that he will always be limited, not by his artificial leg anymore, but by his biological one. But that's a problem he can fix.

The book is pretty good. It has elements of my favorite genres: science fiction, horror, and thriller in it and Barry uses dark humor to counterbalance the implausibility of Charlie's gradual transformation. Machine Man isn't as good as the other book of his I read Company, but it's still a worthwhile read.

Book Trailer

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆