When the Internet suddenly stops working, society reels from the loss of flowing data, instant messages, and streaming entertainment. Addicts wander the streets, talking to themselves in 140 characters or less and forcing cats to perform tricks for their amusement, while the truly desperate pin their requests for casual encounters on public bulletin boards. The economy tumbles further and the government passes the draconian NET Recovery Act.
For Gladstone, the Net's disappearance comes particularly hard following the loss of his wife, leaving his flask of Jameson and grandfather's fedora as the only comforts in his Brooklyn apartment. But there are rumors that someone in New York is still online. Someone set apart from this new world where Facebook flirters "poke" each other in real life and members of Anonymous trade memes at secret parties, where a former librarian can sell information as a human search engine and the perverted fulfill their secret fetishes at the blossoming Rule 34 club. With the help of his friends, a blogger and a webcam girl both now out of work, Gladstone sets off to find the Internet. But is he the right man to save humanity from this Apocalypse?
For fans of David Wong, Chad Kultgen, and Chuck Palahniuk, Wayne Gladstone's Notes from the Internet Apocalypse examines the question, "What is life without the Web?" 1. DAY 1. THE HAPPENING
2. DAY 21. ACCEPTANCE, ZOMBIES, AND TOBEY
3. DAY 22. RUMORS
4. DAY 23. LOCKDOWN
5. DAY 27. POLITICS IN THE APOCALYPSE
6. DAYS 29-31. DETOX
7. DAY 49. RETURN TO OZ
8. DAY 50. THE INTERNET MESSIAH
9. DAY 55. IDOLATERS AND THE DEVOUT
10. DAY 55. PRIVATE INVESTIGATION
11. DAY 57. HAMILTON BURKE
12. DAY 58. LIBERTY
"An oddly heartfelt journey through the wasteland of a
techno-collapse. Gladstone takes an admittedly far-fetched and off-putting
story idea and breathes startling life into it. He gambles here, but he wins.
Give it a read."
"Anyone who spends time sharing jokes in web communities will find this satire irresistible."
"Cracked.com contributor Gladstone offers up an outlandishly specific takedown of online culture via the popular apocalypse comedy genre…An acid cultural satire that skewers what we would miss most about the online world."
"A high-concept page-turner brimming
with LOL-worthy one-liners and observations about the web-addicted zombies we've
become and the price we've paid for our sins. The best way to sum up the
reading experience would be an emoticon that has yet to be invented."
"This is satire in its purest form: an exaggerated,
filthy, and ridiculous world-which happens to be exactly the world we live in.
Gladstone has conceived and successfully executed a clever thought experiment
that illustrates just how crazy the Internet has made all of us. Witty, profane,
and entertaining."
