Genre:
Satire/Science Fiction
Description:
“In
2003, Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs was diagnosed with a rare
form of pancreatic cancer.
By
2009, the cancer had spread to his liver. Near death, Jobs flew to
Tennessee, where he underwent an organ transplant. The fate of the
discarded liver remains a mystery, one that is revealed in Selling
Steve Jobs’ Liver: A Story of Startups, Innovation, and
Connectivity in the Clouds.
Selling
Steve Jobs’ Liver ...
begins when two serial-failure entrepreneurs, Nate Pennington and
Ignacio Loehman, are contacted by a mysterious man who sells them the
technology titan’s lost liver. The opportunity inspires them to
ideate, innovate, and finally create a new company, Reliqueree, whose
mission is to reposition death and dying in the market's mind by
replacing 20th century mortuary processes and concepts with fresh
thinking and new technology to enable the living to enjoy the
benefits of enhanced remembrance and connectivity with those in the
post-life.
Determined
to change the world, Nate and Ignacio create the uLivv, the first
device designed to leverage the IoDT (Internet of Departed Things).
As part of their launch strategy, Nate and Ignacio repurpose Steve
Jobs’ genome and liver to create a compelling value and promotional
proposition for their new family of products and services.”
Author:
Merrill
R. (Rick) Chapman is the author of a few non-fiction books including
In Search of Stupidity:
Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters.
He has also written another novel, Rule-Set:
A Novel of a Quantum Future
and is the managing editor and publisher of managing editor for
Softletter,
a software industry newsletter.
For
more, visit Chapman's website.
Appraisal:
Selling
Steve Jobs' Liver could
be described multiple ways, some of them contradictory, yet all
reasonable interpretations for some readers.
It's
satire, poking fun at entrepreneurs and consumers alike. It explores
the relationships between those who are living and our dearly
departed whether that is driven by religion, superstition, or
science. Maybe that should be superstitious religion or superstitious
science. But as with all good satire, nothing is so far out there as
to be impossible. (How many of us have been taken in by phony satire
news sites or Andy Borowitz writing for The
New Yorker?)
Many
of the experiences Nate and Ignacio have are similar to that of other
high-tech entrepreneurs and with the exception of their product being
a bit “out there” (at least by today's standards), their actions
and reactions are reasonable. There are some lessons to be learned
about how drive and focus can eventually lead to success.
Last,
while not needed to enjoy the story, fans of high tech will pick up
on things that will sneak past others. One example that anyone who
knows anything about Apple will get is when one character described
himself as being “wound tighter than Tim Cook using a Samsung phone
at gunpoint.” But old-timers like myself who have been paying
attention to the computer industry since before anyone had heard of
Jobs, Wozniak, or Gates, will see a lot of names dropped and other
references that will bring back memories. (The author includes a list
of names and who they are at the back of the book for those who are
curious or having a hard time dredging the details from the archives
of their brain.)
Anyone
who likes near-future science fiction or stories that revolve around
the struggles for success in business should find something to like
in Selling Steve Jobs'
Liver.
FYI:
One
F-bomb is the only adult language I spotted for those concerned with
such things.
Format/Typo
Issues:
A
small number of typos and other copyediting and proofing issues.
Rating:
**** Four Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate
word count: 80-85,000 words
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