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Last Days of the Internet Provide Stage for Heroism
The War Bug is set 200 years in the future, when the Internet is divided into giant online city states owned by powerful corporate entities. The city states go to war, using weapons-grade viruses called WarWare, but they overdo it and bring a vast online universe spreading across the Earth and into space to the brink of destruction. “In the book, there’s two worlds – the online world and the real world,” said Mitchell. “Both are prison-like. Step out of line in the real world and you risk becoming “included” (having your mind altered to make a happy consumer). Step out of line in the virtual world and you become excluded (your access to the Net denied), maybe even deleted.” “In the center of this, Abner Hayes, a ‘virtual code geneticist’, has illegally given sentience to his virtual wife, Claire, and daughter, Cassie, who are kidnapped by the corporate moguls, or Powers, because they believe his virtual family contains the key to immortality in the real world. Abner has only hours to find them before the entire Internet crashes and they’re lost forever.” He has one ally, the computer virus that caused the city states to go to war in the first place. “But even though the virus has been programmed to destroy everything in its path,” said Mitchell, “it has a keen sense of humor and it genuinely likes Abner. End of the world or not, there has to be a few laughs. If any of our SETI transmissions get through to an alien civilization, I hope it’s just one signal – a signal carrying laughter.” “In the end,” said Mitchell. “What’s really important is how each of us works through whatever world we live in and the kind of person each of us becomes in spite of it. In that respect, I have a little more faith in people, so I ended the book on an upbeat note. Cassie has always wanted to swim but been denied because of the so-called Reality Laws of the online world. At the end of the book, she gets something that transcends both the real and the virtual world. “There’s a lot of potential in the bandwidth,” said Mitchell, “a lot of possible routes other than the one leading to The War Bug. But that seems to be the one we’re taking.” The War Bug is available directly from Double Dragon Publishing or from Amazon.com, Fictionwise, and EPIC. The author’s web site at biffmitchell.com lists other sellers and offers background information on the novel plus interviews and reviews. Biff Mitchell is the author Heavy Load (a laundromance), Team Player, Smoke Break, and The Baton. biff@biffmitchell.com |
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2009
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