Generation A: A Novel

In a near future world, bees are nearly extinct. There is also some drug that gives people happiness. That allows them to live in a world where pollinated food is rare. Five people were stung by bees. They are hauled away by officials and become minor celebrities. After a bunch of craziness that is not clearly "real" or "fake", we learn that the "miracle drug" is the cause of the bee extinction. A drug company got super rich in the process. The studies on the "stung" is part of their work to continue to dominate the world. The world is set in a world that is somewhat plausible, yet totally bizarre.

JPod

I loved the style of Generation X, but never did get around to finishing it. JPod is written in Coupland's bouncing-around, pop-culture obsessed, stream-of-conscious style. However, take away all of this, and there is not a whole lot.

It is set in the suburbs of Vancouver, B.C., with the main character (Ethan) being a relatively sane person in an insane world. He works at a video game company where management always manages to get in the way, and he spends most time socializing with the other coworkers in his "J-Pod" His parents behave like overgrown teenagers. His brother introduces him to a Chinese "businessman" that seems to be able to get just about anything "done".

Coupland also inserts himself in the novel (as sometimes nice jerk.) He demands Ethan's computer as a prerequisite for joining a business venture. (And thus we are given the reason for the 'origination' of this book.)

This book also much better on paper than an audiobook. It gets painful hearing the narrator read out some of the random lists of words and acronyms. It is much better read as a web-surfing brain dump.