Customer Reviews

The LAST BEST THING: A Classic Tale of Greed, Deception, and Mayhem in Silicon Valley

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

 

 

It's rare that I don't finish a book, but after two-thirds of this disaster, after it became clear that it was getting worse, not better, I finally gave up. I even considered sending it back to Mr Dillon. Ghastly. Awful characters, silly plot, contrived scenarios and -- oh, what's the on floor? -- ANOTHER NAME. RUN, DON'T HIDE FROM THIS!

Dillon peppers this high camp tale with a combination of both real and loosely veiled references to industry luminaries and key events. The quasi-serious tone gets a bit tiresome at times, but for anyone familiar with the vendor end of information technology, this book accomplishes an hilarious send-up of every cliche and vice that plagues modern Silicon Valley.

This book was originally a weekly humor column crossed with a low-grade soap opera, and as light farce and satire of Silicon Valley characters, companies, and customs, it succeeds cleverly. Of course, the author knows virtually nothing about technology (or at least ignored it in the book), the characters are tissue-thin, and the plot is ridiculous. In a farce, these are not bad things. This book makes even lightweight stuff like Po Bronson's "The First $20 Million is Always the Hardest" look like a scholarly disseration, which is not, again a bad thing (considering Bronson's questionable grasp of tech--though his book is good, too). At very least, it's a fast read and you'll get a better feel for the absurdities of Silicon Valley.

Does Pat Dillon know anything at all about the technology industry? Judging from _The Last Best Thing_, apparently not. I was hoping for a vivid description of life in a Silicon Valley startup, but unfortunately this book is more about about dropping names of high-tech CEOs than anything else. Nowhere is there even a hint of realism with regard to either the startup business environment or technology. Dillon obviously knows nothing about technology, and definitely does not know how to write an interesting book without resorting to juvenile plot devices. The ending is a real groaner -- too insipid to believe.

His profile company was working on some of the most out-of-touch, fanciful products -- it would have been more believable if he had them working on a Trekian transporter. As an engineer, it was painful for me to see him try to fake his way through buzzwords that he obviously doesn't understand. Dillon is no Tom Clancy, or even Michael Crighton, that's for sure.

A vast disappointment. The only redeeming qualities are that it is a quick read, and that Dillon obviously knows Silicon Valley geography very well.