SOJALS rating:

Good (3/5)

I first read this in February 2001 and most recently on the 20th June 2006

In the Bin, the orbiting computer complex, six billion people live their immortal, near-perfect lives in a consensual virtual world.

In the real world of the planet Earth, humanity is down to a million or so. Most of these are Soldiers of Christ, science-denying Christian Fundamentalists who have managed to slaughter almost everyone else who hadn't uploaded to the Bin.

The Soldiers of Christ aim to bring on the End Of Days and they are very close indeed. They need only to kill the few remaining humans and some cloned Constructs who live in the slums of New Jerusalem, the last city. Then of course they need to obliterate the billions in the Bin itself.

The Soldiers Of Christ have access to nuclear missiles and now they've also found out where the Bin is located. Destruction looms for all humanity - both incarnate and virtual.

But perhaps a few new-found friends can force a revolution and save the entire world.

This novel takes place seventy years after "Circuit Of Heaven", and I increasingly like this book, especially following a second read. It really does have great characters: the wonderful Walter Tillman and Stephanie Sanders, Neuman Rogers, Freddie and Donovan, and of course the unlikely couple of Samuel and Laura.

It's dramatic and exciting, but written with a great humorous warmth (just look at the flight of Sammy and the pregnant Laura).

I recommend it.