Halting State

Starred review from August 13, 2007
This brilliantly conceived techno-crime thriller spreads a black humor frosting over the grim prospect of the year 2012, when China, India and the European System are struggling for world economic domination in an “infowar,” and the U.S. faces bankruptcy over its failing infrastructure. Sgt. Sue Smith of Edinburgh’s finest, London insurance accountant Elaine Barnaby and hapless secret-ridden programmer Jack Reed peel back layer after layer of a scheme to siphon vast assets from Hayek Associates, a firm whose tentacles spread into international economies. The theft is routed through Avalon Four, a virtual reality world complete with supposedly robbery-proof banks. As an electronic intelligence agency trains innocent gamers to do its dirty work, Elaine sets Jack to catch the poacher. Hugo-winner Stross (Glasshouse
) creates a deeply immersive story, writing all three perspectives in the authoritative second-person style of video game instructions and gleefully spiking the intrigue with virtual Orcs, dragons and swordplay. The effortless transformation of today’s technological frustrations into tomorrow’s nightmare realities is all too real for comfort.

October 15, 2007
The setting is a virtual world called Avalon Four; the year, 2018. Sgt. Sue Smith, an Edinburgh constable, takes on a special case: a bank robbery committed by a team of Orcs with a dragon for backup. As Smith delves further into the case, both in the real and in the virtual worlds, she uncovers evidence that the crime is more than simply a robbery. Hugo Award winner Stross's fast-paced sf techno-thriller shows promise as a series opener and belongs in most libraries.

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2007
With his customary zeal for dissecting technologys potential for good and evil, Stross takes us into the not-so-distant future of online role-playing games. In 2018, Edinburgh police officer Sue Smith is assigned to a bizarre case involving an apparent bank robbery in virtual reality. When the perpetrators turn out to be Tolkien-inspired orcs and fire-breathing dragons bent on destroying a popular online games reputation, Smith figures the investigation is better left to computer-crime experts. Yet with everyone from venture capitalists to insurance investigators leaping suddenly into panic mode, the robberys devastating effects on the gaming world threaten to cross over into the real one. A trio of interweaving narratives respectively follow Smiths struggle to adapt her streetwise detective skills to a bewildering tech-driven environment, the unusual auditing methods of an insurance fraud specialist, and a computer geeks guided tour through an exotic virtual universe known as Avalon Four. Stross again displays his genius for envisioning a complex future society that appears all-too-inevitable.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)