Customer Reviews

Eyeball Wars : a novel of dot-com intrigue

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

What a sassy little book this is! David Scott, in his first book, takes us into a world of Internet start-ups, media giants, and high finance. The characters are likeable, and the villians are of the kind that you love to hate. He has an excellent sense of place and time, with situations that ring true. As a library worker, I would definately recommend this for the cold, stay by the fire, weekends that are ahead.

Yes! Yes ! Yes! "Eyeball Wars" is refreshing fun and insightful. If you ever wondered what lies beneath the buzz of the internet economy, read this book.

The world seems like a small neighborhood as the charachters find themselves in Japan, the US, Europe and Australia. I don't know what I liked best, the lives of the well developed characters, the accuracy with which work was portrayed in different countries or the way companies are trying to make sense of the new economy. There are many hilarious moments as people, family members, companies and countries fight their own wars.

It is all there in a delightful novel with the human drama, intrigue and a great pace.

David M. Scott was able to capture the fast-paced giddiness of the New Media/Internet boom. This book is one that I couldn't put down. I have worked with new media and internet related companies for about five years, and I haven't read any literature that so completely captured the mindset and atmosphere of that now historic era as was sucessfully done in this book. I highly recommend this as a great read.

Humor, excitement, great writing. Every decade or so, there comes a book that does more than entertain: it captures the essence of a generation's hopes, dreams and ambitions. Moving at the blink speed of the Internet, David Meerman Scott's Eyeball Wars does just that, delighting savvy readers with a gripping and often hilarious tale of a dot-com start-up on a global scale.

Click on Richard Williams, who has it all: youth, wealth, A-list party action and a gorgeous TV-star girlfriend. He's the third generation of worldwide newspaper dynasty, Williams Media Group, publisher of big city tabloids including The New York Globe, The Sydney Star and The London Post. But Richard's got a big problem to go with his big assets: his jet-set lifestyle doesn't fly with his media-baron father. Pierce Williams kicks Richard out of the family business-with nothing but the shell of an Internet company to his name.

Richard links up with Zeke, salesman extraordinaire, and Darcy, self-proclaimed mistress of spin. The IT-age Three Musketeers burst onto the Silicon Valley scene with a wacky new brainchild: freshspot.com, a tabloid website that features scandals, scams, and stripper twins. But as Richard tries to jump-start his start-up, he has to navigate crumbling old-media empires, funding deals gone wrong, and the mutiny of his creative team-all in the looming shadow of his father. Can Richard and his ragtag team make freshspot.com succeed as the hottest, newest, most outrageous site of the year?

Meanwhile, across the globe, Mariko Suzuki faces her own problems: a salary slave at The Kuriyama Corporation, she must find an Internet company to invest in-fast. Mariko battles the seamy side of the Japanese entertainment industry, the pervasive sexism of her bosses and her own company's TV production division, in her quest for corporate cash-and the fulfillment of her own dreams.

Little does Richard know that the key to a freshspot.com IPO might be in the suit pocket of a bright, sexy young woman struggling in obscurity in corporate Japan...

It's all here: hysterical dot-com nerds, wacky tabloid journalists, evil venture capitalists, money-grubbing media barons and assorted hangers on including TV-starlets, PR spinmasters and even Bill Gates. Moving effortlessly through international settings such as London, Tokyo and Sydney as well as the center of the world's Internet economy Silicon Valley, Scott's Eyeball Wars is not only a great book on the Internet business, its also a fast-moving thriller-comedy. Richard Williams is an Internet business youngster who's trying to find a business model that works (I've been there! It's fun to root for Richard!). He fights for venture funding, media attention and of course for love. Through Richard's eyes and also through the eyes of the unforgettable Japanese heroine Mariko Suzuki, we encounter plot twists and humor in every chapter. The book works on every level, as great page-turning fiction, as a window into the world of Internet entrepreneurs and as commentary on life in the fast lane. Cool cover too.

The world seems like a small neighborhood as the charachters find themselves in Japan, the US, Europe and Australia. I don't know what I liked best, the lives of the well developed characters, the accuracy with which work was portrayed in different countries or the way companies are trying to make sense of the new economy. There are many hilarious moments as people, family members, companies and countries fight their own wars.

This one pulls you in! The text flows smoothly and develops naturally, so that you are not aware of the author, but only the story--as it should be. For a first novel, David Scott has done exceptionally well. I'd like to see more from him.

The story is about the internet, behind the scenes, and the constant struggle for more 'hits' ('eyeballs'). As a webmaster of an entertainment website, I can appreciate that, although my site gets hits in the hundreds a day, while this story is talking millions. The details ring true. Japanese lifestyles today, as depicted in the story, are outside of my experience, but then, I was there fifty years ago when the exchange rate was 360-1. The Japanese characters are believable, and I think they are authentically drawn.

Scott is obviously knowledgeable about e-business, as his truncated bio indicates, and it shows in his dialogue and storyline. He depicts the internet as a fast-paced, youthful scene, with big gambles, huge losses and potentially great gains. For a reader in his seventies, it is a humbling look at the future. The sex is uninhibited, as might be expected, the characters seem real, with real flaws and valid motivations, and the backgrounds described are convincing--as if the author were describing scenes with which he was familiar, which he no doubt was.

Richard Williams is the offspring of a powerful media mogul, and has a hard time asserting his independence and individuality. In fact, he is a seriously spoiled, thoroughly unlikable, weak, dissolute, self-indulgent, dissipated young man without much to recommend him except his father's fortune. That begins to change when he is virtually disinherited. You'll have to read the story to see how it all turns out. It is a page-turner. I think you'll like it.

Joseph H Pierre

Having played in the dot-com game for 18 months only to go bust, this book read like my life! Loved the style. Reads like a campy detective novel. Not just a peek at the inside of the dot-com world, an examination under the microscope and the organism looks pretty silly. Japanese life so real you can feel the pushers at the train station and taste the noodles for lunch. A good fun read. Recommend it to anyone inside and outside the dot-com madness.

Unlike so many internet-related books, this one has a readable, commercial, accessible pace. While some authors seem to say "the inner workings of the Web is only for techno-insiders," Scott welcomes readers of all kinds to a fast-paced read. It is very much a picture of a time... and worth a read.

Like most people, I watched the dot-com boom and bust as an intrigued outsider without any real understanding of what was going on from the inside. Similarly, I'm vaguely aware of Japanese corporate culture -- I've been exposed to the same cliches as everyone else -- but had no real insight into what it is and how it works.

Eyeball Wars gave me the inside perspective on both. As a novel, it's a mad rush that's part romance, part adventure, part cloak and dagger intrigue. Sure, that's all fun. But what I really love about this book is its insider's point of view, the mountains of convincing detail about two important, yet obscure, cultural phenomenon. By the time I finished, I gained a whole new (and deeper) understanding of the Internet "Tulip Mania" and of the Tokyo corporate mindset.

Good book, kept me chuckling.

Might have the most appeal for internet junkies or those otherwise involved in the internet industry. Full of industry lingo and in jokes.

Enjoyable!

Eyeball Wars is a real page-turner. Author David M. Scott captures the fast-paced, break-neck speed of the internet through fresh prose, intriguing dialogue and a cast of characters with whom I formed an incredible alliance over the course of the book. Filled with high tech, high-flyers, and high excitement, Eyeball Wars moves at an almost frenetic pace -- wholly fitting for an industry resplendent with gone-at-the-blink-of-an-eye start-ups and a constant quest for the "new new thing." In addition to being completely captivating and thoroughly enjoyable, Eyeball Wars is clearly written from someone who knows his stuff. Scott's incisive commentary on the dot-com world, coupled with his fine attention to detail, adds an incredible air of authenticity to the novel. In fact, Eyeball Wars is so engaging that I found myself on several occasions, genuinely concerned about the outcome and the characters. Eyeball Wars, in the end, is as the subtitle implies, intriguing.