The LAST BEST THING: A Classic Tale of Greed, Deception, and Mayhem in Silicon Valley - Hardcover

Silicon Valley is another country, the land of millionaire post-adolescents and billionaire geeks and the race for the newest next best thing. The race has changed since it started back in that garage. Now nerds aren't enough. You need venture capitalists and marketing consultants, packaging designers and shipping clerks and, above all, a concept.

J. P. McCorwin always had a concept whether he had a company or not. When he was head of product development for Infinity Computer, the Valley's tabernacle of technological theology and digitized human potential, McCorwin was always hanging out past the leading edge. He designed machines "to change the world," or at least that's what the ads said. What was always clear was that every one of his machines was intended to be the very latest next best thing.

Now J. P. is on his own and determined to change the world one last time. He plans to start a company, create the last best thing, collect his millions, pass GO and be gone for good.

But first, he and his team have to figure out how to make Infinity's latest laptop computer stop blowing up and decide whether they're really going to create the last best thing and get their well-deserved riches or just fake it so well that the money comes anyway. And that's not all that needs figuring out. Brad, the marketing maven, and Maria, J.P.'s executive assistant, who can still remember when the Valley was all farmland, want to know just who RoseD, the online sex goddess, is, and where Robert the geek got his supercooled superchip and why he's walking around with it in his glasses. And everyone wants to know whether or not it matters if your computer knows when you're lying to it.

The Player told us more than Hollywood wanted us to know about that business and Primary Colors painted a truer picture of Washington than any newspaper can afford to reveal. Now The Last Best Thing offers readers a glimpse of the secret history of the people, the places, the schemes, dreams and delusions, the power and the incredible wealth that have made Silicon Valley the place where all the best things flow from.

The San Jose Mercury News launched this outrageously original and funny novel on its front page. Penned by premier journalist Pat Dillon, The Last Best Thing is the ultimate insider's story of how the players rise, fall and get reborn to play mind games in Silicon Valley. It's a story that proves that sometimes the truth can only be told in fiction.