- Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Baen; First THUS edition (Dec 1 1996)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0671877631
- ISBN-13: 978-0671877637
- Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 10.7 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 191 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Ingram
Plotting to create a supervirus she has named New Age Dawn that will control overpopulation by killing ninety-eight percent of the world's people, the beautiful Infectress seeks to overtake META and thrusts its maker, Scott, into a virtual hell.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
germ of a good book,
By john salonia (Nowhere in Particular) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Infectress (Mass Market Paperback)
Commander Cool - that's how the publisher's blurb refers to him (which would make me seek immediate refuge in a pen-name) - has a pretty good imagination. Too bad the same can't be said for his command of basic English. Typical of his grammatical shortcomings are multiple uses of "shined" as the past tense of "shine": eg., "her hair shined," "the galaxy shined," etc.; "louses" as the plural of "louse"; "laid" as the past tense of "lie", eg. "he laid down."Perhaps this sort of criticism seems niggling. It's not. It's an indication of how much our current educational standards have slipped when a Naval Commander (not an ensign, you know) and his book editor can't catch grade-school errors like these. Apart from it the irritation of what amounts to just plain bad writing, it makes the reader's take on Cmdr. Cool's invented technology harder to swallow. And that is where INFECTRESS really shines (I was tempted to write "shined"). Cool's invented computer technology rings true, and helps give this overblown plot some much-needed credibility. SPOILER ALERT: Don't read this paragraph if you plan to read this book and don't want the plot given away. Skip to the next paragraph NOW. Infectress herself isn't a very believable character. I assume from the author's treatment that we're supposed to feel a measure of sympathy for Arabella the Infectress since she was sexually abused. Since I personally don't buy into the Abuse Excuse for adult misbehavior (it would condone, for instance, the mass torture-murders of Vlad the Impaler) this didn't work for me. Admittedly this is more of a personal bias than a failure of the novel itself. But the worst part is the really, REALLY idiotically overdone final chase scene in which Scott McMichaels, developer of the META AI system that Arabella steals to develop her supervirus to kill off 98% of humanity, chases Infectress and knocks her down. She escapes. He chases and knocks her down. She escapes. He chases and knocks her down. She escapes. This pattern is repeated so many times that the end result is rather ludicrous. Finally the two mindlessly cuddle naked in a forest pool, traumatized out of all need to kill each other. Yeah, right. In all fairness to Cmdr. Cool, many parts of the novel are quite readable. He smoothly manages the ironic deaths of the various layers of spy-assassins as they move up the ladder of treachery. Little fish being eaten by bigger fish, which themselves are gulped down whole by sharks. All in all, INFECTRESS is a nice try. It shares the weakness of most hard SF novels in being technology driven, and rather weak in other literary aspects. And a big caveat to the reader: Don't believe the publisher's hype that implies that Tom Cool is the next Heinlein. It just ain't so.
5.0 out of 5 stars
What more could you ask?,
By Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Infectress (Mass Market Paperback)
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
I highly recommend this book,
By
This review is from: Infectress (Mass Market Paperback)
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.
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