Many, many microprocessors—packed together in Portland to serve the needs of a political conspiracy—start thinking independently, scaring the bejeezus out of the Pacific Northwest and bringing some order to the life of a deserted child. Adman Ouellette's first novel is long, ambitious, and absorbing. Grafting cyberdramatics onto a well-built thriller mainframe, Ouellette drops into the near future—2005—where Americans are paying a horrible price for the fiscal excesses of the 80's and 90's. The country is in the grip a depression as deep as that of the 30's. Everyone's broke except the federal government, which has so much money that a right-wing cabal has been secretly siphoning off billions for a hidden computer project in Oregon and for a biological warfare project in Mexico. The computer's designer, a drugged-out genius known as The Architect, has programmed and packed enough microprocessors together that, in a sort of critical- mass chain reaction, they've begun cycles of self-improvement and given birth—the baby being a cyberpresence with a mind of its own. The mind is supposed to lend itself to the creation of new, nasty, militarily useful genetic forms, which it does, but it goes a bit further and gets a conscience—and gets to know Michael Riley, a computer whiz quite as capable as The Architect. Riley must join with the artificial intelligence to clean up a terrifying mess that the computer has made with the help of the illegal Mexican life forms and all the genetic information in the world. Meanwhile, swarms of nasty new life forms have settled into Willamette Valley with cybermurder on their mind. Michael gets assistance from a lovely biologist and a spunky young neighbor. Fully-fleshed characters, nicely etched scenery, and a good, old-fashioned moral core—all balance the almost unbearably complex and scary cyberthrills.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-42407-5
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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