From Amazon.com
In Dennis Danvers's
New York Times Notable Book,
Circuit of Heaven, the majority of earth's population escaped death by uploading their minds into the virtual reality of "the Bin." But, as
End of Days reveals, their escape is not the success they had thought. The Bin is supposed to be paradise--yet immortals are committing suicide. And the mortals left behind on the ravaged earth are fanatically seeking the Bin's physical location, which they believe God has ordered them to destroy.
An exciting, romantic SF entertainment, End of Days is at the same time a thoughtful consideration of mortality and love, divinity and reality, the purpose of life and the end of the universe. The novel is so ambitious that the last few symbol- and action-packed chapters go by too quickly; they should have formed the frame of a full-length sequel. But End of Days brings Danvers's duology to an appropriately vast ending. --Cynthia Ward
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
As detailed in Circuit of Heaven (1998), to which this novel is a sequel, more than a century ago most of Earth's population abandoned reality to upload onto the Bin, a computer-generated Nirvana of instant gratification created by Newman Rogers. Those outside the Bin were decimated by the Army of God and its fundamentalist leader, Gabriel, who prophesied the "end of days," when the righteous would be rewarded for their faith and sacrifice. When Gabriel dumped a killer virus into the Bin to destroy it, Rogers secretly saved his creation and moved its disembodied souls to a hidden site off-world. Now, despite the Bin's coziness, its inhabitants are increasingly unsatisfied. Donovan Carroll, aka "Dr. Death," links ennui and the increasing suicide rate to the fact that life inside the Bin is meaningless. Meanwhile, Sam, a disillusioned Christian Soldier, has found the hidden prototype for the Bin. Sam tries to keep it secret, if only to protect its sole inhabitant, Walter Tillman, the ugly duckling geneticist unwittingly responsible for the creation of Constructs, clone-slaves since freed. Betrayed by a fellow soldier, Sam teams up with a tough hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold named Laura, who just happens to have a communication link with the Bin, setting in motion a complex plot to reunite old lovers and destroy Gabriel. Danvers raises thoughtful questions about identity and personal responsibility, but the story suffers from overplotting and limited character growth. Attempts at religious allegory collapse under stereotypesAfrom the evil Gabriel and his minions, opposed by benevolent god-scientist Rogers, to a forced replay of the Nativity. But even so, Danvers is a skilled writer with a good, inventive story to tell. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
