Microserfs: A Novel

This is a good book. Perhaps it is not as strong as Gen X or Shampoo Planet--or those Harolding moments in Portraits--but still a quite decent read. Although at times, the plot is a bit slow. Coupland accurately portrays characters whose cyber-world consists of computer games, coding, and geeky emails.This is a must for those of us who deeply empathize with thematic elements in films such as Office Space or Trees Lounge. I actually was acquainted with a real housemates couple in Berkeley who could be characters in this novel, who in their "free time" romantically played computer games with each other and otherwise spent vast amounts of time behind a computer screen.I remember the world before Atari and the internet. I recall anxious nuclear holocaust days prior to when "cyberspace" was a regular constituent in our mental vocabulary. Perhaps technology does in fact ennoble our human values and aspirations, or perhaps it is a means of convenient evasion from self-knowledge.Coupland explores some of these concerns in this novel with real-life characters who could mirror those folks in tech cultures (Irvine, Silicon Valley, Seattle, and/or Portland)--a culture that is both oddly familiar yet cubicled in silence--nameless shadows who input code and ship products for our servile consumption.

Two years ago I read JPod, the sequel to this, and I liked it better. Despite that, this is a great piece of fiction about a place and time that is both unique and the starting point to the world we live in now.At first it seems like Microserfs was written in 2011 with the hindsight of knowing where the events and technologies from 1993 to 1995 would lead in the future. But it was written in the time it describes. It's all the more impressive how prescient the absurd characters sometimes are.The Kindle version was produced by OCR, feeding a physical copy of the book into a computer, leading to typos. This both distracts the reader and enhances the story, since the book is about just that kind of nonsense.

I first read Coupland's Generation X in the late 90's. After moving to the PAcific Northwest and working for a handful of dot.coms before and after the bust, I picked up this book in hopes of finding other stories of tech geeks with no life so I didn't feel so abnormal.Whity, funny, yet emotionally honest and soul piercing at times, this book reveals the true nature of IT workers during the climb of the IT field. Written in 94 (i think), many of the lifestyles that Coupland wrote about then still hold true today. It showed me just how much of an IT slave I really am, but that freedom must first come from within, and that I am still a human being even though I work 60-70 hour work weeks. Is there a life outside of IT?I think so! This book shows me the way and allows me to laugh at myself and the stupididty of my way of life. Thanks Doug...thanks for showing me there is more to life than computers.kevin

An good read if you're interested in the culture of Silicon Valley in the 90s but prefer reading a narrative rather than non-fiction. Coupland manages to create believable characters and place them in a real setting so flawlessly that I often found myself forgetting that the book was fiction at all. Nevertheless, he also manages to create intriguing and occasionally dramatic plot points that drive character development while simultaneously demonstrating the positive and negative aspects of being a programmer. The book has its flaws; paragraphs can start to become very wordy and it uses its share of literary cliches, but if you can look past these sort of things it's definitely worth a read if you want a short but in-depth look at a group of coders who live together, spend hours on end coding, interact in very surreal and yet believable ways, and are fascinated (or terrified) by the future of technology.

This book's major strength, in my opinion, is its prophetic view of what "The Net" will become, from the predecessor to Twitter (at Apple) to word clouds. It is told from the viewpoint of a programmer (it's basically his diary) so that gave the author a little leeway in terms of style and vocabulary, which I sort of viewed as a cop out at first. The character is very likeable though, so the problems I had with the style actually became endearing as I flipped the pages. The ending is sort of anti-climactic, but I do respect the lack of blatant drama which is prevalent in generic fiction.Also I really love the references to "Bill." All in all, a fun read with some incredibly interesting insights into what the internet has become.

Great book. Querky characters

This would easily be a 4 star book for me and in paperback I'd give it that in a heartbeat but the Kindle edition is horrible. It seems like someone ran a hardcopy through a scanner and then OCR'ed it without proofreading it at all. There are letters missing, a few entire words missing and many, many instances of the wrong letter over and over (like a U instead of a V - there's an entire section where it says Silicon Ualley over and over) and places where the wrong word was picked up (ie - Interiority becomes Inferiority, somewhat appropriate in describing this edition).I've read the book before and enjoyed it but the Kindle edition was a bit of a chore. It looks like the publisher didn't even proofread this book once before uploading it. A shame, really.

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.

The book itself is great - a real classic. But the way that it has been converted to Kindle format is very poor. Coupland used a lot of typographical effects that were probably unusual at the time, and they really add colour to the narration. Whoever put the kindle version together seems to have made a cursory attempt to reproduce some of this using bold and italics, before giving up and inserting small, poorly cropped screenshots of the original text. Its just not good enough and ruins Coupland's work. Avoid until this is fixed.

Love Coupland's work generally and this book showcases what he does best: exploring how we humans fit into this weird business/digital-driven world we've created.One thing I particularly liked about the book was his take on family... Usually I don't think he paints a very sensitive picture of family relationships, instead this time he does and it gives a gentler, deeper novel because of it. Really enjoyable book and highly recommended.

My kindle download of this book was my third purchase! I lent my original copy to a friend (yes, JerryD) and a second copy to my son (yes, Ben). It's not a clever or smart story but one about how a different kind of expertise and intelligence takes shape: Where nerdiness, body modification; or gender politics make peace with smart (what goes on between your ears). This is a gentle, uplifting amusing tale. Worth reading whenever you're down - Yes, you CAN reinvent yourself while remaining yourself!

In my opinion, this is Coupland's best, probably because I personally related to the main character most.But a great story, well written and genuinely funny. Really funny. Not those kind of small wry smile kind of laughs, but the ones out loud where you get embarrassed on the train kind of laughs.You'll not regret reading this book.

Hilarious and moving look at the life of techies in my native Palo Alto. I identified so much with the characters I could almost see myself in the story. Nice edition, too.