i've seen jpod cited as the point where douglas coupland really just stopped trying and decided to cash in, but it was my entry point to his books... some points to consider
i) i was a high-schooler when i read it
ii) i probably picked it cause my local library had it
iii) i didn't know about microserfs at the time
iv) i remember the atheist character turning christian being a real wall-banger moment for high-school me and it still seems really dumb in hindsight
v) coupland's probably going down in hell as an end-of-history booster (i remember reading something he wrote about how cool it was that east germans had mcdonalds now in the early 90s) and it's definitely pretty dumb to write a book claiming to speak for a whole generation (but gen x wasn't a bad book and basically everything in it is still being said by millennial hipsters today. "brazilification" in particular)
vi) i'm still processing couplandism >10 years after first being exposed so i guess it's quality art if it makes me think this much. or i'm just dumb
viii) jpod has a guy who's addicted to robo in it LOL