Reviews & Overviews by Rod Cameron
| New York Nights - Book One in the Virex Trilogy by Eric Brown |
| New York Nights is set in New York in the year 2040. The
city is crowded with refugees from the radioactive eastern seaboard. As a
result, society is collapsing. The latest means of escape from reality is
to spend more dollars that can be afforded, in an hour snatched in a new
Virtual Reality paradise bar. The hero, Hal Halliday runs a Detective
Agency tracing missing persons, with a partner Barney Kluger. Hal has an
unstable relationship with a girlfriend Kim Long; and is estranged from
his sister and his father. In addition to investigating the mystery
surrounding the disappearance of his latest 'client', Hal is attempting to
understand the accident that occurred when he was seven, which killed his
other sister, and which also accounts for the fragmentation of what
remains of his family. Despite the main theme being related to cyberpunk, and matters computer related, the story has more of the feel of a setting 100 years earlier - 1940's film noire, but with touches of Bladerunner. The story seems to stand on its own, and it will be interesting to see how the plot is developed in the next volumes. An enjoyable read which kept my attention throughout. Good characterisation, a convincing plot with a good climax. The second book is entitled New York Blues. |
| Publisher: Gollancz Date: 2000 Pages: 327 pp Price: £6.99 Format: paperback Reviewed by: Rod Cameron Review Date: April 2001 |