The initial mechanism of a bank robbery of a bank that exists only within an online game should not deter those who are not gaming is just a first step. Fun is made of corporate-speak, internet over-connection and geeks galore - but at the bottom this is a rock solid procedural with a clever and appealing set of smart characters. It is like a fantastic rollercoaster that is always running just a bit above your comprehension. I initially found it hard to get into the three rotating storylines and the fact that the narration is, oddly, in the second person - but it was worth the work to do so. Halting State and Rule 34 are a swirling, clever, funny and very complex pair of police procedurals done just enough into the future to look at the next big thing in social engineering, computing, communications and just about anything else you can imagine. Morgan (Altered Carbon) and most recently Charles Stross.

Hamilton (Void Trilogy, Greg Madel Series), Dan Simmons (Hyperion), Alastair Reynolds (Revelation Space Trilogy, Terminal World), Richard K. I enjoy hard science fiction particularly when it comes in very long books or multiple book series - with one or more of the following themes: modern space operas, complex storylines, detective or noir/cyberpunk overtones, cascading clever thoughts/dialogue and/or military. The effortless transformation of today's technological frustrations into tomorrow's nightmare realities is all too real for comfort.2 Smart Books Well Worth the Listen - Great Reader Hugo-winner Stross (Glasshouse) creates a deeply immersive story, writing all three perspectives in the authoritative second-person style of video game instructions and gleefully spiking the intrigue with virtual Orcs, dragons and swordplay. As an electronic intelligence agency trains innocent gamers to do its dirty work, Elaine sets Jack to catch the poacher. The theft is routed through Avalon Four, a virtual reality world complete with supposedly robbery-proof banks. Sue Smith of Edinburgh's finest, London insurance accountant Elaine Barnaby and hapless secret-ridden programmer Jack Reed peel back layer after layer of a scheme to siphon vast assets from Hayek Associates, a firm whose tentacles spread into international economies.

faces bankruptcy over its failing infrastructure. This brilliantly conceived techno-crime thriller spreads a black humor frosting over the grim prospect of the year 2012, when China, India and the European System are struggling for world economic domination in an 'infowar,' and the U.S.

Halting State by Charles Stross