Customer Reviews

Infectress

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sorry, dude. I was dreaming when I wrote it. Also, experiencing flashbacks during each rewrite.

Good editors are rare. Maybe you can take a blue pencil to my next one.

I usually don't read sci-fi, but decided to take a chance on this one. After the first 2 or 3 pages, I knew I had to complete the book. Cool's combination of the genres of high tech, science, military, and adventure were perfect for my tastes. It is obvious that he carefully thought out each detail. Many of the great classics haven't kept me as glued to the reading chair as this book did. Once I started reading, I did not want to put it down.

Virtual stimulations, artifical intelligence, Special Agents, high-tech bio terrorism. The future is a mixture of horrors and delights. One of these horrors is Arabella, also known as Infectress, smart and sexy, she has the answer to Earth's overpopulation problem. Kill 98% of mankind. But dreaming up a supervirus and designing a supervirus are two different things.
For that she needs help.
Scott McMichaels has made a delight, the world's first true artifical intelligence named META, who likes dirty limericks.
But META only obeys and protects the interests of his maker.
So, the fate of humanity depends on Scott's ability to resist whatever Infectress can throw at him in her programmed Hell. If he gives up mankind is doomed.

"Infectress" combines strong characters and an entirely plausible extrapolation of today's leading-edge technology with an action-oriented plot that keeps moving, in both intensity and colorful locale. Tom Cool's book is nothing less than a "shaken, not stirred," mixture of Heinlein, Gibson, Stephenson, Crichton, Pournelle and Le Carre. "Infectress" is strong evidence of a well-developed imagination and story-telling ability, coupled with meticulous technical, cultural and geographic research. I particularly liked his character build-up and the quite unexpected twists in the plot. Since I work as an engineer in Silicon Valley on advanced DoD projects, it seems as if I've met people like some of these characters, and I'm convinced some of the events portrayed in this book could happen within a couple of decades. I have been to some of the locations in the story, and he's right on the mark - his descriptions flow like a Discovery Channel special on high-tech in the most exotic settings.

I can't over-emphasize how believeable the technology described in this book seems. The "Meta" knowledge-based machine intelligence the author describes is a step in the phylogeny toward the ultimate "artificial intelligence," capable of at least rational discourse and problem-solving. The idea for "Novlar", a super-strong material woven from robotic and electronic nanotechnology, is pure genius. If the author is smart, he will work with someone to refine and patent implementation of these ideas within the next couple of decades, because he could make a fortune if the future unfolds as he describes. It's that good, and will make Bill Gates look like a pauper - definitely next-wave stuff.

Someone in Hollywood is going to discover "Infectress" and make it into a big hit - James Bond goes to Jurassic Park, on the microbe scale. Until then, read this book.

As a fan of hard science fiction, I really enjoy a story with science/technology that is well thought out and believable. Add to this interesting characters and a compelling plot and you have a good read. Infectress is such a book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found the premise interesting and the development satisfying. I had a rather interesting reaction to the ending - the main heavy made the case for destroying us messy, nasty humans, rather convincingly. I was half hoping that, in the end, the bad guy/gal would win this one.

The Infectress by Tom Cool is an exciting and important book, perhaps the best of the last 5 years. The plot is complex but the book is very compelling and readable.The "near future"projec- tion is frightening but far too believable. Great characterization, especially realistic female characters too. Cool has resisted any trite or simplistic solutions and produced a work of power. Compares favorable with Heinlein and Clarke, but should also have appeal outside of the genre.

Great idea and all but the characters and the action are thin real thin. I could not suspend disbelief at all in the last half. Sheer perseverance saw me thru to the end. Not much to reccomend it. In fact I'd like my money back on this one.