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Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Anthony, P. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
In the virtual-reality computer game Killobyte, wheelchair-bound ex-cop Walter Tobin is a hero--and he can have the use of his legs restored. Diabetic Baal Curran is a beautiful princess--and she can forget the illness that drove away her boyfriend. But the game takes on a sinister reality when Walter and Baal are trapped in the system.
Author Notes
Piers Anthony Dillingham Jacob was born in August, 1934, in Oxford, England. He graduated from Goddard College in Vermont in 1956. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen while serving in the United States Army in 1958. He served in the U.S. Army from 1957-1959. In 1977, he received a British Fantasy Award for A Spell for a Chameleon. Anthony's family emigrated to the United States from Britain when he was six.
Highly popular because of his science fiction and fantasy works, Anthony is also known for the Jason Striker series and martial arts novels co-written with Roberto Fuentes. A highly prolific author, Anthony's other works include Bio of a Space Tyrant, Cluster, and the Omnivore series.
Anthony makes his home in Tampa, Florida. He also writes under the pseudonym Robert Piers.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Not so much a novel as a series of situational puzzles, this stand-alone book by the bestselling author of the Xanth series features two characters who play a computer-generated virtual reality game called Killobyte. Walter Toland, an incapacitated former policeman, and Baal Curran, an angst-ridden, diabetic teenage girl, get to know each other as they enter into a game that calls for them to rescue a princess from a castle. But then they find themselves trapped inside the simulation by a hacker named Phoney Phreak. While the character-bodies they wear in the computer world are in no danger, their real bodies--Baal's weakened by diabetes and Walter's by a bad heart--are very much at risk. Written in Anthony's usual glib style, the novel is unimaginative in the extreme. Watching these paper-thin characters solve uninteresting puzzles is a maddening bore; and gaping holes in the plot, technological inconsistencies and Anthony's apparent ignorance of current methods of treating diabetes combine to make this one of his weakest efforts. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Near-future jaunt into virtual reality: that is, a computer- derived total-immersion fantasy experience--a simulation that, while it lasts, is indistinguishable from reality. Policeman Walter Toland, injured in the line of duty and now a paraplegic, takes refuge from a bleak existence by playing Killobyte, a virtual reality role-playing computer game with numerous levels of expertise and an enormous variety of settings. In one such--a magic castle where the object of the game is to rescue a princess--Walter meets and falls in love with Baal Curran, a likewise lonely, plain, diabetic young woman. But their celebrations are short-lived, interrupted as they are by the Phreak--a disturbed young computer hacker whose pleasure is to fix upon game players, deny them the means to quit the game, then bug them to death. Both fall victim to the Phreak, finding themselves unable to retreat into reality; but unless Baal can give herself regular insulin injections, she will die. Aided by the Killobyte helpline, whose operators are eager to capture the disruptive Phreak, Walter and Baal tussle with the Phreak through a kaleidoscope of violent scenarios. Familiar escapist, teenage-oriented romance-adventure, at least superficially, but whose bright, positive, wholesome images clash disturbingly with the unplumbed darker aspects of the fantasy (e.g., the encouraging of casual slaughter in situations indistinguishable from reality). Overall, far from reassuring.
Booklist Review
Once again, Anthony seems to be growing as a writer. His latest novel features a crippled policeman and a diabetic woman who find mobility and love in a virtual reality environment. Unfortunately, they also find that environment under the control of a homicidal hacker
Library Journal Review
When paraplegic ex-policeman Walter Toland and diabetic teenager Baal Curran discover the virtual reality computer game known as Killobyte, they revel in their temporary ability to escape their handicaps--until a malicious hacker turns a friendly game into a deadly race against time. This stand-alone novel by the prolific Anthony features fast-paced action, a pair of engaging protagonists, and a guided tour through the worlds of virtual reality. It should be purchased where the author's works are in demand. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/92. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.