Review by zephyrr -- The Internet President: None of the...

[zephyrr]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Internet President: None of the Above" by P.G. Sundling.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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The Internet President: None of the Above, by P.G. Sundling is a political thriller about good versus evil featuring James Wong and Maria Cortez, business partners, best friends, and victims of a swindling investor who steals their billion dollar tech company and renders them broke. The only solution left for them to reclaim their company in a crooked world requires money and power. In an act of reprisal, James and Maria change their name to None of the above/More jobs and run for President/Vice president against the backdrop of political dissatisfaction, corruption, greed, treason and unhealthy machinations brewing in the political scene.

The idiom "don't judge a book by its cover" exemplified what I did not do when I came in contact with this book. I was mystified by its title and assumed it was going to be an average or mediocre book, but I gave it a try nonetheless. The title really helps define the plot. The novel is staged in the United States and explores the dissatisfaction of its citizens due to ineffective politicians, which culminates into civil unrest. Seeing an opportunity in the situation, James and Maria run for presidency under the unconventional names of None of the above/More jobs, using the internet as their premise to fame. They garner support from people by making large promises and carving themselves as the elixir of America's problems. Despite being fiction, the novel makes reference to real world events and characters. The novel doesn't get overly complicated and difficult to understand despite containing some lenghty policital discourses and complex vocabulary. Readers are also entertained to a healthy dose of humor, romance, mystery, and thriller.

I was highly impressed with the originality and uniqueness of the storyline. I also felt the characters were exceptional, something many novels do not take into account; the essence of a third dimensional character. From James to Maria down to secondary characters like Corella and Renquist, they all had their individual charm, from James's strict oath keeping policy, crazy ideas and his promiscuity to Maria's obsession with martial arts and erotophobia (fear of intimacy) and Renquist's obsession with money and power provides a stage as to how their uniqueness affects each other in the book. The dialogue aside from being humorous are very realistic, i thought it was well-crafted; there was no shortage of witty, funny and thought provoking lines. The character development was realistic, I actually enjoyed tracking James' transformation from a wimpy tech CEO to an assertive strong president.

However, the writing style was inconvenient and might prove distracting to some with its rapid switching between the third and the first person view. However, it doesn't detract from its creative plot. Also, the novel gets complicated to those without a political background.

Despite coming across very few numbers of misspelled words and ending in a cliffhanger, I rate this novel a solid 4 out of 4 stars and recommend it to those with interest in a good political thriller with a healthy dose of social satire, which will leave readers with a great deal to think about.

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The Internet President: None of the Above
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