AMP Magazine
Aug/Sept 2008
“In Sicily women are more dangerous then shotguns,” just as they are in Rick Dakan’s Geek Mafia series. A dangerous woman myself, it is always nice to find my peers in fiction. I admit, of course, that Chloe has pinker hair, and a few more skills then I do when it comes to conning people out of their money. I also freely admit that I have yet to pull together a complex and potentially traitorous crew of people to make a living using only our wits, or survive almost completely off the grid. She’s definitely a woman to be reckoned with, and even learn a thing or two from.
In Geek Mafia, the man achieving something of a reckoning is Paul; at first glance no more than a mild mannered comic book artist working to turn his vision into a kick-ass computer game that will make him millions. It is only when forced out of his own company that he starts to show what he is really made of, and the havoc his brains can wreck on an unsuspecting public that has too much money and too many conservative values for its own good. He falls in with Chole and her Crew; like any good thrill ride, the twists, turns and upside-down blood rush to the head quickly commence from there. There are no lawyers, but guns and money aplenty, mixed up with hot technology and hotter romance, and it’s amazing how quickly you will reach the end and ask, is there more?
The answer is yes of course, as the crew moves from the hills of Silicon Valley to the flats of Key West in Geek Mafia: Mile Zero. At least, those of the crew left standing after the mayhem of the first book. There’s a dead body, a party that moves around but never ever ends, and four modern-day pirate crews circling each other in a very small space. You’d think that would be enough, but what I like most about this series is that it has even more. It has depth. It makes you think about how the media works, how the system works, what it would take to be a modern pirate, and what you might achieve. I like to have my summer reading stimulate all of my intellectual and emotional needs, and this one certainly did!
