(1998) Kathleen Ann Goonan, Voyager, £5.99, pbk, 465pp, ISBN 0-00-648317-8
Post-nanotech-apocalypse, Verity's friend Blaze is shot in the chest. She therefore undertakes a journey to the 'enlivened' city of Cinncinnati in order to restore him. There she finds the city reliving stories over and again, while the hive-like mind is unable (or unwilling) to escape the loop it's in. But Verity, it seems, is herself a child of the city.... Overall the writing is good, but the story takes a while to get going, and is peppered with self-indulgences that makes the pace drag somewhat. Also, none of the characters are particularly sympathetic. Though this book is capable of sustaining your interest to the end, when you get there you're just glad that it's all over.
Tony Chester
[Up: Fiction Reviews Index | SF Author: Website Links | Home Page: Concatenation]
[One Page Futures Short Stories | Recent Site Additions | Most Recent Seasonal Science Fiction News]