New York Dreams (The Virex Trilogy volume 3) by Eric Brown
01/09/2004 . Source: Joules Taylor 
pub: Gollancz. 325 page paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK), $ 9.99 (CAN). ISBN: 0-575-07494-9. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
Gollancz
Ye gods, it's almost exactly two years since I read and reviewed 'New York Blues', the second in the trilogy! It says a lot for the quality of this author's writing that I can remember 'New York Blues' in great detail without having re-read it in the meantime...
Detective Halliday is rich enough not to need to work after completing his previous case, but with his partner dead and his lover with another man, his life has become hollow and meaningless. Over the course of the last year, the amount of time an individual can legally spend in their own personal reality has increased to 24 hours out of 48. This is just what Halliday does - on a stretch of beautiful, tree-clad Virginia coastline that now only exists in a dream, with Casey, the homeless waif he took in at the end of the first book. Well, a virtual version of her, at any rate. He's chosen to keep their relationship platonic, although he is beginning to feel he wants - needs - more. Casey, however, both real and virtual, is only seventeen, too young for Halliday in his opinion. Guilt-ridden, lonely and suffering the physical effects (wasted muscles, nausea, disorientation) of spending too much time immersed in VR, he's saved from making a complete disaster of his life by a call from the chairman of Cyber-Tech. Halliday has worked for and with Wellman in the past (in the first book of the trilogy, in fact). The dying man offers him a job...
What follows is a beautifully crafted, fast-moving and exciting tale encompassing murder, industrial espionage, kidnapping, self-discovery, artificial intelligence and explorations into the nature of life, sentience and immortality. Yet it's written in a thoroughly pragmatic and wholly believable way. The concepts dealt with are enormous in scope, yet seem perfectly right and natural in context. The immensity doesn't actually hit the reader until the end of the book.
There are also passages of great beauty and a delicate descriptive touch when dealing with the 'realities' of VR and an immensely satisfying conclusion. 'New York Dreams' is complex without being complicated, moving, startling and all too grimly real in places. Altogether a fine, compelling read.
I'm off to track down other Eric Brown novels...
Joules Taylor
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