ISBN 0-441-86500-3 (US pbk)

"In the beginning, Arnold created Maggie... She was called forth from a computer landscape of Virtual Reality. Arnold, her programmer and creator, gave Maggie a memory, a body, and finally, self-awareness.

"And Arnold saw that she was good... Maggie was his perfect companion, the product of Arnold's brilliant obsession. Beautiful and innocent, loyal and strong, Maggie was everything he ever wanted in a woman.

"Then she ate of the forbidden tree... Separated from her creator, Maggie is forced to survive on her own. To learn more than Arnold ever planned. To discover herself. Now she must decide if she is just a collection of microchips, built for Arnold's pleasure... or a person in her own right." [jacket blurb, US pbk, 1993]

"A good tale about an artificial intelligence evolving to a state of personal consciousness." --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , 1995).