When Earth is threatened by a deadly plague, one man enters a virtual world to find the key to humanity's survival. Will he find it in time?
When Earth is threatened by a deadly plague, one man enters a virtual world to find the key to humanity's survival. Will he find it in time?
Mathew Grey is a brilliant scientist who accidentally unleashed a man-made plague that ravaged America's heartland, and now threatens the rest of the planet. Riddled with guilt and running out of time, he decides to use a dangerous technology to enter a computer-generated reality called Cyberdrome, hoping to unravel a mystery that could be the key to Earth's survival.
Alek Grey was an athlete whose career was cut short by a near-fatal accident. Now he is a software hacker with the unique ability to outsmart the best Artificial Intelligence programs of his day. When he is called in after one of his programs inadvertently attacks Cyberdrome, he is shocked to learn that both his father and ex-fiancée have become trapped inside the simulation, unable to be removed without risk of death.
Alek knows of only one way to rescue the people he loves, but will he risk all of humanity to save them?
Professional Reviews
Believable Science Fiction
This came recommended on one of the discussion boards here at Amazon, so I picked it up to give it a try after liking the free Kindle sample. I was not disappointed - one of the points I really need for science fiction novels is for it to be believable. In other words, if there is going to be some futuristic theme or plot in the novel, rather than taking a leap of faith I need to be able to conceptualize it. The authors didn't disappoint in the case, and combined with nice character development and interaction I was sorry to see this book end.
I did like how the authors left you hanging at the end with unfinished business, which I hope will turn out to be a sequel!
Real Scifi!
What a thrill ride! Just finished Cyberdrome. The sample convinced me to buy the full download right away. Top notch, highly original, this should be selling in bucket-fulls.
Cyberdrome is relentlessly fast-paced. It is very imaginative, with multiple environments and scenarios, and a multitude of potential bad guys. Separating out the heroes, anti-heroes and out-and-out bad guys from the rest, while keeping abreast of the twists and turns in this fascinating plot, is a job and a half! The film Tron comes to mind here, with humans trapped inside a giant computer but there the resemblance ends. Instead of low-res graphics, Cyberdrome is the equivalent of fully rendered 3D action, with protagonists pitted not against a guy on a cycle but against a megalomaniac computer program with versatile adversaries at its command.
Being ex-IT myself I liked all the computer references but understanding these was not essential to following the thrust and heady zest of the novel.
Reminds me also of Ghost in the Shell, where variously cyberised humans inhabit a hazardous future world somewhere between program data and reality. However, Cyberdrome has the benefit of humans fully integrated with the computer and non-stop, heart-pumping action along the way. If you like the film `Avatar', you will almost certainly like this.
Great Science Fiction: Matrix meets Tron meets science!
Part of my initial interest in this story came from the similarities in base concept to the Matrix and Tron. Humans enter a virtual world to save the lives of real people. Programs that think and evolve on their own. Computer systems represented by a 3d virtual environment. However, this story adds more science-based concepts and doesn't suffer from fridge logic level plotholes. Think you see a plothole? A scientist notices and explains it.
This also combines more real-world scientific concepts than the previously mentioned works. Nanobots, the grey goo scenario, genetic algorithms, and metamaterials all make an appearance. Though there are some unrealistic aspects, they are generally kept manageable and don't break suspension of disbelief.
I also like how there is an actual reason for the people in the world to exist, and they have their own DNA allowing them to have complex behaviors, unlike the programs in Tron that are able to exist as people and have personalities despite only being made of a few thousand lines of code that should only allow for a very small set of actions based on specific cases.
The world is very entertaining, to the point that I devoured this book in 24 hours.... and immediately went looking for more. I was expecting to see a series of novels, with the potential for a highly entertaining cartoon series (special effects would be too pricey for live action... the CGI involved would be on the order of the recent Tron movie). However, what I found was that this was based off of some simulations that the author had created, with the idea of a potential computer game (possibly an MMO) based off of this.
I'm eagerly awaiting future developments in this story universe. This story has a huge potential for expansion, all based on what has been defined so far in this one novel. Multiple Earths, people to be rescued, and computers systems to explore. Everything a fan of the cyberpunk genre would ask for.
This original science fiction novel reminded me of the earliest Foundation books by Isaac Asimov. The Cyberdrome Corporation is using technology the way Harry Seldon used psychohistory to predict the course of human development by creating hundreds of simulated worlds inside their super-computer. Like the scientists of the Foundation who monitored the progress of galactic civilizations, the Cyberdrome scientists observe and test the simulated inhabitants of this digital universe, harvesting unique technologies that develop there and selecting the most intelligent individuals for advancement in their system. An interface allows the real humans to interact with the digital world through highly advanced Avatars at a speed up to 100 times faster than reality. When a rogue virus gets past the security firewalls at Cyberdrome, wreaking havoc on the program and trapping the humans currently interfaced with the system, corporation leaders bring in Alek Grey, a security expert who also happens to be related to one of the top scientists endangered by the disaster. Alek enters Cyberdrome with a nearly impossible mission: assess the damage done by the invading virus, neutralize the threat posed by a super-intelligence that may have evolved artificially within the system, back up a security team whose initial mission has gone awry, rescue his father, his ex-fiancee and a few dozen other human minds trapped in the program—and, of course, figure out who was behind the attack on Cyberdrome in the first place. A recommended read for science fiction lovers!
Suite 16 is a collection of sixteen sci-fi/paranormal novellas and the book represents author Jay Dubya's 38th published work, presented in hardcover, in paperback and in Kindle and Nook e-book formats.
The entire BetterWorld cyberpunk trilogy plus added material is now available in one ebook! In the trilogy, an unemployed bipolar journalist, her VR-addicted younger sister, and a teenage hacker try to stop a giant corporation from controlling the wo
