Digging Up New Business: The SwiftPad Takeover
S. Lee Barckmann
Barckwords Publishing (2020)
ISBN: 9781735251424
Reviewed by Amy Lignor for Reader Views (04/2021)
“Digging Up New Business: The SwiftPad Takeover” is the first book in The SwiftPad Trilogy by S. Lee Barckmann. If you’re looking for a book that offers a slew of fads that were very real in recent generations, this is it! And even though you may feel like you’re going through news headlines from the 1980’s and 90’s at times—the actual concept this author came up with that envelops all these things is truly a “unique” one.
Ah…social media. In Rose City we met up with a new girl who has just arrived in town and has both the imagination and the smarts to become a ‘player’ in the social media world. Fate leads her to meet up with a marijuana-loving Don Juan-type who works with her to create SwiftPad. Yes, this is a new app (something that seems to be in the headlines each and every day of our present lives). Yet, this app actually feeds off society, itself, and has the power to make the world say ‘so long’ to the highly profitable and popular Facebook.
It’s a fact that narcissism is something that this world would not be able to live without. After all, we are constantly craving information, from celebrity break-ups to hideous crimes, and SwiftPad provides that and a whole lot more. What it also dredges up is brand new data that could help solve a crime that happened in Portland long ago.
Enter…a serial killer. Think of Bundy and add an even more sadistic layer to the package. Not only is this new SwiftPad going to disturb the killer’s daily life, but it will also have the hideous mind focusing on the people behind the app. From learning about the innerworkings of a conglomerate that attempts to monopolize all other businesses within the electronics industry in order to increase its already overflowing coffers (Microsoft, anyone?); to finding out the cool backstories of the entire SwiftPad team, every page offers something new to keep the reader riveted.
The satire that is offered in this tale is brutally honest, hysterical, and unforgettable. But, remember, this is not a dystopian world; this is a very real, bare bones, trash-talking world that all of us have lived through – and are still living through to this day. As a reader who loves reality as much as the gritty suspense that a book like this provides, there is also that underlying current that shows how much we’ve seen and survived over the past decades, and how much we’re most likely going to see before we say adieu to this life.
This is an exceptional ‘show’ that, thankfully, had to have three books to expand the story and continue to enthrall readers.
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