Review by sTalking_Goat (2005-04-20)
Jennifer Government is a good book with some big flaws.
On the good side you have the premise which is great and the execution of that premise which is fun.
On the bad side you have the very loose plot, almost too many characters, and too many co-incidences that try to tie things together. What really annoyed me about the book however was the main character; Hack Nike. Hack spends the first half of the book being a gullible moron and the second half being a stupid jerk. It's hard to enjoy a book when a chracter you're supposed to like constantly pisses you off. I can't figure if Barry was trying to make some kind of point about the extremes of political philosophy or something but if not for the fact that the book jumped around to other characters so much I'd probably have to put it down half-way through.
So. Good book. Hated Hack Nike.

Review by Nscafe (2003-06-21)
If you are at all familiar with William Gibsons genre in which the corporations control everything, then you will enjoy how Jennifer Government fits in to that sort of environment.

Set in the mystical land of next tuesday, we find ourselves in a world where the US has privatized everything.

Everything.

You can hire the Police to murder someone for you.

The Government (which is represents of all levels of government, not just on a federal level) will prosecute you for crime if they can secure funding for the case against you.

In this world, you acquire the surname of the corporation you work for.

Joe McDonalds, Beth Nike, Jesus Catholic and so on and so forth.

The European Union hasn't priviatatized everything yet and is looked upon with scorn.

You get the idea.

Jennifer Government is effectively a story about how a corporation will do anything to make money and how sometimes doing the right thing, isn't always the best way to make money.

John Nike hire's Hack Nike to kill some kids when the latest brand offering from Nike is released. Released at a price of 3,500$ and then killing some kids to increase the demand even further.

Through this scenario we are introduced to the rest of the characters... and everything goes to hell.

A quick paced book that reminds me of Douglas Couplands style and that also suits the story that Max Barry brings to life.

If you like the Cyberpunk/Shadow Run worlds, you can consider this book to show how the corporations took over...

Review by steves4687 (2003-06-01)
I picked up Jennifer Government after a friend refered me to the web-game that was being used to promote it. It's a decent book along the lines of William Gibson or Neil Stephenson. The plot line was fairly interesting, and easy to follow.
Overall it's a great light read for anyone who wants to see what the world of the future would look like if run by the people in marketing.