From Publishers Weekly
Rosenblum's compelling second novel examines the limits of reality and unreality in a universe whose business and pleasure are run from the confines of a worldwide network of virtual reality booths. At the center of the story is Jewel Martina, a woman of suspect parentage who, through deceit, has worked herself up from poverty into the VR labyrinth of economic intrigue and personal ambition. Her influential boss, Harmon Alcourt, cannot get enough economic power or personal prestige to satisfy himself in his underground pleasure compound in Antarctica. Jewel is caught in the web of international scandal with David Chen and Flanders, two of Alcourts's creative employees who find themselves in over their heads as their boss makes a final push to control all webs in the VR marketplace. Toss in a sassy, curious teenager, a lost love, a power hungry ex-husband and a mysterious guardian angel who reveals herself to Jewel, and you have a fine cast of characters. Rosenblum ( The Drylands ) handles the technical and philosophical complexities of VR with clarity and generosity.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
"Mary Rosenblum paints a fascinating future landscape with all the skill of a true artist. CHIMERA is a book to savor and enjoy over and over again."
PAT CADIGAN
David Chen severed his family ties to become a virtual reality artist on the Net. Jewel Martina left an impoverished family in the 'burbs to become a medical aid, on her way to becoming a VR deal-broker in the economic network that spanned the world. When Jewel saves David's partner's life, it becomes clear someone wanted him dead. There is trouble brewing on the Net, and as Jewel and David are caught up in it, they search the Net, the flesh world, and their own unhappy pasts for some answers. Nothing was ever as it seemed on the Net, where illusion was the rule of the game--but for Jewel and David, the difference beween real and virtual was a matter of life and death....
