The story centers around protagonist Ethan Block, who is a 24 year old millennial working in San Francisco in a tech start-up company called "DateDate". The start-up is headed by a character called the Founder and has only two employees, Ethan and a computer engineer. Ethan himself has a liberal arts background, but relishes working in the cutting edge world of tech.
Ethan decides to use the app himself, for both professional and personal reasons, to find his own perfect match (the company touts its ability to link people up romantically). In doing this, something weird happens. Ethan finds himself transported to another world where he lands on a beach with tall grass. He's not sure, but a young child might be playing nearby. He soon wakes up to find himself back in his shabby office. Ethan reports this to the Founder, who calls it a computer bug or glitch. The novel continues on from here.
I have mixed reactions as a reader. I enjoyed the descriptions of San Francisco and the tech world. As part of the story, Ethan goes to work for the Corporation - a huge social media corporation which sounded like Facebook. The social satire was fun reading. I also liked the author's portrayal of Ethan, himself.
The science fiction elements of the book were less compelling for me (but keep in mind that I don't gravitate towards this genre.)
Additional Note: According to the author's bio, he was Instagram's first employee.
Ethan decides to use the app himself, for both professional and personal reasons, to find his own perfect match (the company touts its ability to link people up romantically). In doing this, something weird happens. Ethan finds himself transported to another world where he lands on a beach with tall grass. He's not sure, but a young child might be playing nearby. He soon wakes up to find himself back in his shabby office. Ethan reports this to the Founder, who calls it a computer bug or glitch. The novel continues on from here.
I have mixed reactions as a reader. I enjoyed the descriptions of San Francisco and the tech world. As part of the story, Ethan goes to work for the Corporation - a huge social media corporation which sounded like Facebook. The social satire was fun reading. I also liked the author's portrayal of Ethan, himself.
The science fiction elements of the book were less compelling for me (but keep in mind that I don't gravitate towards this genre.)
Additional Note: According to the author's bio, he was Instagram's first employee.