Jennifer Government

This story takes place in an alternate universe where corporations are way stronger than the government, which is essentially its own company. The characters lack a family name, using their employer instead. How various individuals named John Nike or Mike McDonalds aren't often confused is not explained.

Max Barry has created an interesting world, as least in the places he explored. The rest feels like a thin facade with no internal logic. The nonexistent character growth is barely overshadowed by the arbitrary changes to character motivations. And yet...

The book has been quite successful, and reads fairly quickly. The author has created a web game loosely based on the book (at Nationstates.net). I also felt drawn to read to the conclusion - though I am now happy to put this book in my past. Perhaps Lexicon will be a better example of his writing.