An averageish cyberpunk book with some interesting concepts regarding future crime. ( )

A few odds and ends beyond what other reviewers wrote:

* annoyance at rushed ending was compounded by the realization that some of the interesting stuff that had been dangled before the reader in this book was just sequel set-up, like Stross did to The Family Trade
* but at least the romance was more believable in this book
* corporate and tech aspects were convincingly portrayed
* contrary to one reviewer’s confused account, the zombie flash mob was NOT the same as the zombie horde. They were on/used by different sides, in different places, in different ways. That was part of the *fun* of this book.

Full review at http://configures.sarahelkins.org/200... ( )

From the back cover: In the year 2018, a daring bank robbery has taken place at Hayek Associates. The suspects are a band of marauding orcs, with a dragon in tow for fire support, and the bank is located within the virtual reality land of Avalon Four. But Sergeant Sue Smith discovers that this virtual world robbery may be linked to some real world devastation.The story is told from the perspective of three characters (and in the second-person style of video game instructions). There's Sargeant Sue Smith of Edinburgh's finest; Elaine Barnaby, a forensic accountant; game-developer Jack Reed (who has a few well-hidden secrets). This techno-crime thriller has a number interesting ideas (some of which are waaaay esoteric). Along the way, there are various terms like LARP, griefing, and nerfing that it helps to be aware of. It's pretty cool and of course, as the characters start digging into the mystery, it gets bigger and more dangerous. Although I'm not a gamer, I enjoyed the story, but I imagine gamers would get even more out of it. Much of the author's ideas seem all too plausible. ( )

Great book that is done a disservice by its geeky plot blurb of "virtual robbery with orcs". I put a lot of faith in his Hugo nominations and am glad now that I did. Stross has an almost fanatical attention to detail when using technology in his stories that you can see just as easily being replaced by "tech" filler as with Star Trek (something Ron Moore talked about in a speech, and that Stross wrote a lengthy blog post about). This aids credibility and readability to his story, and makes his work feel a lot like a higher-tech William Gibson, a writer I really enjoy. I specifically liked the idea of LARP spy networks in the story. I don't know if he invented the idea, or just made it his own, but it worked great as a plot device.

I thought the author's use of multiple viewpoints made the story jumpy, but generally worked well with the exception of the policewoman, who I felt was too far away from his other characters. ( )

While I love the near-future setting and the overly monitored world, I'm a little put off by the second-person narrative. While it ties in neatly with the MMOPRG suject matter, it is kind of jarring and gimmicky to read. ( )