SOJALS rating:

Mediocre (2/5)

I first read this on the 15th December 2003.

In a future world where the Internet is even more pervasive than today, Jasmine Reese has an unusual and highly developed talent at recognizing patterns that others cannot see. This has made her one of the world's top "data-miner"'s. Using her VR specs she can navigate the virtual reality world and spot important patterns world better than almost anyone.

One day, however, her specs fail and she is left totally netless, unable to perform even the simplest task because public services is net-based. Even the buying of a bus ticket requires a brief transaction across the internet [one assumes a level of networking convenience somewhat greater than today's, or very slow buses].

It is as she attempts to gain some substitute specs that she discovers a disturbing pattern in the world around her, the way people seem to act in concert, to be organized at some level above individual consciousness. Furthermore, while she is disconnected from the net, she finds a greater clarity in her own thinking. So what is going on in the network, and who or what is stealing a share of peoples' brains.

Syne has taken a thrilling concept and developed it well in this tense thriller.

I didn't much enjoy Syne's previous novel "Murphy's Gambit". I didn't expect much of this book. I delayed reading it for several months. However, it turned out to be rather good.

If Syne Mitchell has improved this much since her previous novel, I will expect great things from her third novel, "The Changeling Plague".