"intense, intelligent, and interesting"
In the future when war broke out, the scientists were so
eager to win that they unleashed the Medusa Bomb, a weapon
of mass destruction that turned whole cities and its in
habitants into crystal. They forgot to put in a fail-safe
so the mass of crystal is still spreading. People turned
away from science and embraced religion once again. The net is replaced by the Link, a sophisticated form of
the web accessed by implants or external neural jewelry.
To have access to the Link, one must be a citizen, but to
be a citizen one must belong to a recognized religion. The
pope had a dream involving Page, an AI who lives in the
link and Emmaline the Inquisitor. On the strength of his
dream, the pope charges Emmaline with the task of finding
out if AIs have a soul. In the course of her
investigation, she meets and is attracted to Morningstar,
otherwise known as Satan, who wants to corrupt the AI for
his own purposes. Morningstar, Emmaline and the Page are
linked together in ways that become apparent as the world
hurtles towards Armageddon. FALLEN HOST is reminiscent of Huxley's Brave New World only
the author uses the trappings of religion to show how those
in authority repress the citizenry. The story line is
intense, intelligent, and interesting. Lyda Morehouse is
a very talented and creative writer who manages to use
elements of theology, science fiction and sociology to
construct a very believable world. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted April 7, 2002
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