What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

here's what i do remember: i read this book probably back in the '90s and the setting was contemporary, the pacific northwest? i vividly remember one chapter that read like a real-life video game: a man (the player) wants to gain illegal entry to a house at night. he has to crawl across the grounds to get to the house, avoiding booby traps on the way. (the one booby trap i remember is the sprinkler system, loaded with acid?) the man does gain entry to the house and goes from room to room avoiding more booby traps on the way. something goes wrong: either he trips off a booby trap or a timer expires and the house catches fire. the man is severely burned but survives in a pool of water under the floorboards. this whole scenario has been captured on videotape and the man (player) becomes a cult hero to whatever group of people arranged the whole setup. that's the one chapter i remember the best; the novel may also have involved remote controlled vehicles. please help me out! i would really like to reread this book!

You are likely thinking of Daemon by Daniel Suarez.

Might have read like a real-life video game because the creator of the AI they are trying to desactive, and the owner of the house you are describing also was a famous video-game creator. The AI activated after his death.

The man is a special forces/police that is trying to desactive the AI, and even if the followers of the AI don't like him, they respect him as a worthy opponent. The whole ordeal of his unit being wiped out (I think there was some kind of killer vehicle in the mansion), he still getting inside the house, catching fire and surviving somehow was filmed by the security cameras and distributed worldwide.

The remote controlled vehicles come later (including killer bikes), and you might remember people like a prisoner being freed in exchange for working for the AI, though he doesn't know until later. Other guy is recruited though a Call of Duty/Wolfenstein-like game, and later is kinda described like a sorcerer.

The time doesn't match up (Daemon is from 2009), but the several parts you describe do appear.

Edit: I just checked because I didn't remember the acid from the sprinklers, and the sprinklers didn't shot out acid, but gasoline used to burn up the house, that is why the man was on fire.

Gene, please note you must add genre (e.g., for adults or teens? thriller, horror?) and plot details to the header/ topic title "cannot remember...". Just copy from what you've already written in the first comment. Requests with vague headers are closed because this group is so large. If you would like help with this, let us know in a new comment.

David wrote: "You are likely thinking of Daemon by Daniel Suarez.

Might have read like a real-life video game because the creator of the AI they are trying to desactive, and the ..."

hey, David, you have hit the nail on the head!!! and i thank you! yeah, i got the time frame wrong, but when you get to be my age 12 years ago and 30 years ago are sometimes hard to separate in the murky fog, not to mention yesterday. thanks again. Gene p.s. i don't get online much; that's why this grateful reply is so long in coming.

It is okay, so long as you find the book what you were looking for.

Enjoy!