SOJALS rating:

Awful (1/5)

I first read this in August 1996 and most recently in May 2001

Danny Cooper is a contract programmer. He's just taken on a new job at an exciting software company called Artelligence. Artelligence are scheduled to release a revolutionary voice recognition program in just a few more weeks. If they don't meet the release data, they'll be out of business. However, they are having a problem with their star programmer and the deadline is getting all too close.

Danny is a pretty hot programmer himself but he finds himself pushed to the limit as the problems with the software become apparent.

Meanwhile a new, mysterious and very malignant "time-bomb" virus is propagating wildly on the Internet.

OK, I apologise - this is a techno-thriller, not SF. It's about a computer virus infection that gets really out of control. The book was published in 1993 and it now feels at little dated. Remember this was just before the World-wide Web took off - in this book the internet is the bulletin boards, Compuserve and USA Today. Furthermore, the virus spreads on Apple Mac computers, and a personal computer is considered powerful if it has 8MB of memory. Even the techie stuff isn't always correct.

But having said all that, this is, if you have some interest in computers, a great read and good fun, and the ideas still have some relevance to today's world. I enjoyed it the first time I read it, and I enjoyed again this time. It'll keep you busy for a couple of hours while you're running a backup on your PC.

What's it got? computer voice synthesis, computer virii and cruise missiles (well, peripherally).