May 5, 2014
Sweterlitsch’s strong debut takes place 10 years after a terrorist’s nuclear bomb obliterates much of Pittsburgh. Dominic Braxton’s pregnant wife was killed in the attack. Now he investigates insurance claims stemming from deaths using Pittsburgh’s City Archive, a virtual reality memorial constructed from surveillance footage and photographs. He also uses the Archive to obsessively relive time with his wife. The case of a young woman murdered shortly before the blast leads to another “missing” woman—Albion Waverly, deceased daughter of the super-rich effective ruler of the online world—whose Archive presence is being systematically deleted. Dominic dives into a world where identities can be erased but crimes cannot, his virtual wife is the least he might lose, and an enemy may be his only hope of survival. Sweterlitsch takes an unusual turn in that Dominic closes in on the truth by shredding connections between virtual and real, and the more he operates in the real world, the more vivid and compelling the story becomes. Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Agency.
July 1, 2014
An addict searches for the missing virtual traces of several women-including his dead wife-in this gritty sci-fi thriller, set in an unpleasantly plausible near-future dystopia. Ten years ago, a terrorist nuked Pittsburgh, and poet John Dominic Blaxton has never gotten over the death of his wife, Theresa, and their unborn child. Now, he compulsively visits the Archive, a virtual recreation of Pittsburgh, both in his role as an insurance investigator of cold cases and as a grieving husband replaying encounters with Theresa, taking illegal drugs to enhance his memories. An arrest puts Dominic in the clutches of an unscrupulous therapist and a wealthy man who want him to find the digital remains of a woman who's apparently being erased from the Archive. The title is an apt reference to a speech from Macbeth, which the doomed Scottish king delivers on learning of the death of his wife; it describes life as a "walking shadow," which might refer to both the virtual Archive and the thin, grim substance of Dominic's daily existence. It's a testament to Sweterlitsch's skill that he makes the reader feel Dominic's grief for his wife and unborn daughter so powerfully; it still saturates him even a decade later, leaving him an utterly broken man, unable to get on with his life in any productive way. But Dominic's destroyed mental state means that he's not someone you really enjoy spending this much time with, although the conclusion offers a hint of redemption.Vividly and beautifully written but extraordinarily bleak.
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Starred review from July 1, 2014
After Pittsburgh was destroyed in a nuclear blast, a virtual archive of the city was created for survivors to visit. John Dominic Blaxton was out of town when the bomb exploded, but he lost his wife in the tragedy. Now he works for an insurance company researching claims to confirm that people did in fact die in the blast. The job also gives him unlimited access to the archive, where he can spend more time with his "virtual" wife and imagine she is still with him. A man comes to John and asks for help finding his daughter in the alternative reality, as he believes that all traces of her are being deleted from the database. VERDICT The premise of this debut novel is fascinating in its possibilities, as the adware implants the characters wear and the archive serve as an extension of the virtual worlds, pervasive surveillance, and targeted advertising that people live with already. John's grief is a palpable, living thing, preventing him from participating in his own life. Fans of William Gibson and classic noir will love how the styles intersect here. [Sony has optioned the film rights.--Ed.]
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 15, 2014
In the not-too-distant future, a mysterious explosion has reduced the city of Pittsburgh to rubble and ashes. A virtual-reality re-creation of it, the Archive, allows people to revisit the lost city and lost loved ones. John Blaxton, who lost his wife and unborn child, investigates deaths long since relegated to files in the Archive. Then he finds a murder victim not recorded in the Archive. Is the line between physical and virtual reality breaking down? Or is there some otherand possibly more sinisterexplanation? A very good job of keeping cyberpunk (which has lost much of its original connection to punk culture) up-to-date in its extrapolation of cybernetics and culture.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)