DEVIL IN THE PALE MOONLIGHT

Anderson’s SF novel follows a Texan construction worker grappling with the effects of an immersive virtual-reality video game.

In the year 2120, Texas, after seceding from the United States, has spent generations at war with everyone from the union itself to Mexico, even unceremoniously dropping a nuclear bomb on the Mojave Desert. As if the rapidly crumbling environment and political insanity weren’t bad enough, most citizens are gripped by an addiction to a virtual-reality game called “the Siv,” in which players are promised a way to escape from their troubles (in reality, becoming half-vegetated slaves to the game’s economy). Enter Tomahawk “Hawk” O’Murtaugh, a construction worker who, at the novel’s outset, quickly loses both his father and his good friend Cezare in rapid succession. The back-to-back deaths send Hawk reeling into the world of the Siv, both as a distraction and as a way to understand the blight to which so many of his fellow countrymen, most notably his grandfather, are addicted. Once inside the game, Hawk discovers that his grandfather left him an inconceivably huge inheritance and was in fact one of the game’s founding designers. Determined to use his grandfather’s complicated legacy for good, Hawk sets out to liberate the masses enslaved by the game—a tall order, especially considering a ruthless serial killer is also making his way through the Siv, with his virtual victims perishing in the real world, too. Anderson’s novel deftly captures the strange anomie of living in a tech-driven world, as described by Hawk shortly after first engaging with the Siv: “I feel like I just jumped off a diving board into a swimming pool and somehow landed in the middle of the ocean.” While the narrative is set 95 years into the future, its problems are recognizable echoes of present-day issues. There is a lot to keep track of here—from the politics, to the future tech, to the characters themselves—but the plot is snappy and likely to keep readers on Hawk’s side as he tries to rescue civilization from itself.

An SF adventure distinguished by a strong premise and crackling plot.