ISBN: 0-446-61342-8 Order from: Amazon.com
A gritty, sometimes tense mystery with solid, prickly and appealing characters, excellent pace, and somewhat weak science.
Reviewed by David on December 05, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction (Near Future, Cyberpunk, Japan, Mystery)
Synopsis: A deadly industrial accident brings two people into an unlikely orbit. The robotics researcher Eleanor McGuire and Police Inspector Ishihara find troubling signs of tempering with the welding robot that was the cause of death. The investigation makes them allies in an increasingly dangerous unfolding of a conspiracy—or a revolutionary technical development.
Full Review: The book creates a gritty and wonderfully solid portrayal of Japan in the near future—a future both bleak and hopeful. This Japan can easily be extrapolated from today, and its tensions and fears rign true. Along with technology and the influence of manga, it has all the common tensions of any society—generational conflict, economic pressures and intellectual competition. Ishihara and McGuire, along with their colleagues, friends and adversaries are all three-dimensional and appealingly flawed. Even the villains and casual witnesses come off the page with vivid reality.
The conclusion is suitably tense and unpredictable. The only flaw was the rather loose engineering concepts of artifical intelligence and the computer networks, rather like the early almost mystical cyberpunk novels.
But as the main focus of the book are the people and their interaction, the novel succeeds well in entertaining and satisfying its readers.
Copyright: 2004
Overall: 6; Plot: 6; Characters: 6; Style: 6; World-building: 6.5; Originality: 6;
Warner Books (Aspect), October 2004, Mass market paperback, 387 pages
ISBN: 0-446-61342-8 Order from: Amazon.com