Reviews

Geek Mafia by Rick Dakan

rosseroo's review

3.0

Inspired by his own firing from a Silicon Valley gaming company, Dakan has written a fun, breezy tale of revenge and con-artistry in the '00s. Paul is an indie comic-book creator who heafs out West to try and turn his Eisner-winning world into a computer game. However, in the opening pages, we meet him as he is kicked to the curb by his friends/partners. Conveniently, he soon meets an alluring young woman who offers the prospect of financial and karmic revenge against his backstabbing, intellectual property thieving ex-friends. Wacky hijinks ensue as Paul gets drawn deeper and deeper into the world of a mysterious loose group of thieves who operate as a kind of hard-partying hacker collective. Of course, all is not quite as it seems, and anyone who's seen even a few con-artist movies will be able to spot some of the twists and turns Paul's headed for. My only two complaints is that as with many books, the feats of hacking seem somehow too easy (which may well just be my own naivete), and the gang of hackers isn't developed well enough. There are only really three of them who are fleshed out, which makes it kind of simple to spot the villain of the bunch. Similarly, Paul's a little too much of a shlub everyman to really connect with as a protagonist. On the whole, it's a fairly fun, well-paced variation on some classic themes designed to appeal to the titular geeks (one elaborate scam involves forging valuable comics that have been graded and sealed), but not so compelling that I'm likely to seek out the two sequels (Geek Mafia: Mile Zero and Geek Mafia: Black Hat Blues).

amooti's review

3.0

Nice idea and interesting characters but the book lacks the level of detail that would make it really interesting. I think the author is not a geek himself.