1990s absurdity action action-packed adventure africa african-safari ai alien-invasion aliens alternate-reality ambition ancient-sumerian artificial-intelligence author autobiography aviation battle-school betrayal boarding-school bravery british british-author british-empire british-literature canadian-literature career child-prodigy childhood coding comedy coming-of-age competition computer computer-hacking computer-industry computer-programming computer-science computer-virus computer-viruses conspiracy contemporary contemporary-fiction corporate-control corporate-culture corporate-life corporate-power corporate-world counterculture coupland courage cult cult-classic cults cyberpunk dark-comedy dark-humor determination digital-age digital-revolution douglas douglas-coupland dreams dysfunctional-families dysfunctional-family dystopia dystopian dystopian-future dystopian-society east-africa empathy england entrepreneurship escapades ethics existentialism exploration family fiction fighter-pilot flying friendship friendships future future-society futuristic gaming geek-culture geeks generation-x genius government-conspiracy government-control hacker hacker-culture hacking heros-journey humor humorous identity identity-crisis independence innovation intelligence internet internet-culture isolation jpod kenya language leadership linguistic-virus linguistics love loyalty manipulation memoir metafiction metaverse microserfs microsoft middle-east military military-strategy mind-altering-drugs mind-control mischief morality mythology nerd-culture nerds neurolinguistics non-fiction norway office-culture office-life office-politics perseverance personal-growth philosophical philosophy pilot pilots pop-culture pop-culture-references post-apocalyptic postmodern postmodernism programming quirky-characters raf relationships religion resilience roald-dahl royal-air-force samurai satire satirical science-fiction self-discovery sibling-rivalry silicon-valley social-commentary social-media software software-development space space-travel start-up start-up-culture start-ups startup-culture startups storytelling strategy subversion surreal surrealism survival sword-fighting swordfighting tanzania tech-industry technology thriller travel true-story vancouver video-games virtual-reality war war-stories wartime work-life-balance workplace workplace-culture workplace-dynamics world-war-ii writer