Seeing double

[sawyl]

Currently about half way through Double Vision by Tricia Sullivan and so far, it's pretty interesting. Cookie, the main character, works for Dataplex as a psychic flier observing a war on an alien planet between humans and a bizarre, branded goods obsessed ecosystem called The Grid. In her spare time, Cookie likes karate, reading and playing dungeons and dragons with her friend Miles who's writing a game for the Apple II - all good wholesome 80s activities, but could they possibly be too wholesome?

According to the publisher's blurb on the back, the book combines the anti-consumerism of Gibson and the unreality of PK Dick, but so far I've found that it reminds me far more strongly of Marge Piercy's 70s classic Women on the Edge of Time.

Comments

[sawyl.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's the same. The book says pretty early on that although Cookie isn't physically present in the Grid, her mind is linked to an auged up native creature called Gossamer, which has been tasked with flying military recon. The mil need a human mind in the loop because, for some reason, the Grid's foot-soldiers aren't visible to the military AIs because they lack the necessary imagination.