A typically self-aware bunch of Coupland characters find themselves stranded in the bar of an airport hotel while in the outside world the price of oil reaches $350 a barrel... and society implodes.
Rick is a reformed alcoholic about to give a large cheque to a self-improvement guru who's promised to change his life.
Karen has flown half way across America to meet her blind date, Warren, after they met in a Peak Oil Apocalypse chatroom.
Luke is a small town pastor who wishes someone would invent an 8th deadly sin to make his confessionals a little less monotonous.
And Rachel breeds white mice for laboratories and has multiple structural anomalies in her limbic system that render her emotionless, humourless and without any understanding of human nature... though she is drop dead gorgeous.
As with the best of Coupland's novels, Player One combines high concept thriller with sharp characterisation and trenchant sociological insight. And as with most Coupland novels, it has absolutely no idea how to end. There are loads of great ideas along the way though and it's frequently thought-provoking and hilarious.
Goddamn Internet ... his computer's spell-check always forces him to capitalize the word "Internet". Come on: World War II earned its capitalization. The internet just sucks human beings away from reality.
