SOJALS rating:

Unrated (0/5)

I first read this in June 1998 and most recently on the 3rd April 2002

Dr Hal Michaelson is a project manager at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He's clever, charismatic, aggressive and immensely ambitious. With his latest project - totally convincing virtual reality - he's got the fervent support of the military and the ear of the President. If he can pull off this latest project, he'll finally be a mover and shaker wielding real power.

Gary Lesserec is the genius behind this new VR. Top-notch programmer and instantly-repulsive computer nerd. He's determined that this technology is going to make him a lot of money and if the US military won't pay the money he'll get it from whoever's interested.

Still a dead body in the VR chamber is enough to disrupt anyone's plans.

Craig Kreident, FBI high-tech specialist. is called in to find the killer

This hardly counts as SF - it's a high-tech murder mystery set in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The only SF in the novel is a (admittedly pretty impressive) VR rig, however although it's the primary setting, it doesn't play any critical element in the plot. I've no objection to high-tech mysteries, but I resent that it's published under an SF imprint, and has blurbs lauding this pair of writers and/or their combination of mystery and assumed SF by Jerry Pournelle, Jack McDevitt and Allen Steele.

Having said that, it's a tolerable thriller, if you like that sort of thing. It does have an unforgettable VR episode to which Jack McDevitt alluded in his blurb for this book.