Vic

This is one of my first audiobooks selections and I chose it for it's length (value) and my interests in computers, technology, and future predictions. I listened to the sample and it sounded a little too "off the wall" for me, but I decided to give it a go anyway.

At first I was distracted by the verbal landscape but soon I was drawn in and the characters began to become likable and someone that I could relate to.

Concepts that I really liked:
1. A cyber universe where one could almost live, die, and play in... an Internet on steroids?
2. A virus that could gap the digital world to the physical world.
3. An ancient language that was, and is, common to all people

The characters are inventive, interesting, and quite unusual. The plot takes all kinds of twists and kept me anxiously wanting to go back to listening. The reader does a great job and does not detract from the story.

Bottom line, I found this a strange, yet compelling, story that I enjoyed very much.

I liked this book and the reading. When I finished part 3 I went back to audible to see if maybe there was a 4th part I had missed. For me this book just did not hang together. The low men in yellow coats, blind willie, the college years - although loosley connected I couldn't see the reason for all of these stories being in the same book - there was little to connect the characters. The last part was the final straw - I won't give anything away here - but I couldn't find credibility.

I listened to this book right after listening to Timeline. At first I thought that the pace of this book might be a disappointment, but as the characters developed I became more involved and eventually found myself really wanting to know what was going to happen next.

The story is very believable with lots of relevant historical references to air transportation events. The protagonist, a women, faces not only the challenges of finding the cause of a mysterious air disaster, dealing with an unrelenting press, and avoiding being set up as a fall guy, but also the stigma of being a women in a male dominated engineering environment.

The ending is clever and will catch you by surprise if you do not listen carefully. There are lots of insights into air travel safety. If you like your pace more like that of a mystery novel, with lots of technical background, you will like this book.

I could hardly put down my MP3 player. Non-stop action and a really compelling group of characters.