ISBN 0-553-56606-7 (US pbk),,, 0-670-84081-5 (UK hbk), 0-670-84890-5 (UK trade pbk)
Near future, San Francisco.
"Virtual Light is set in the states of Northern and Southern California, a land and society increasingly divided along the seismic fault-lines of wealth and poverty, power and powerlessness: chasms crossed only in fear, exploitation and violence. The end of the American century brings with it the death of exhausted notions of the common good, as the rich cocoon themselves into impenetrable 'stealth houses' -- islands of self-indulgence amid a sea of drugs, disease and desperation.
"But Berry Rydell only wants to make a living. Not an easy thing to do in Los Angeles for an ex-cop from Knoxville, Tennessee -- especially since the network decided not to base the next episode of Cops in Trouble on his brief but all too eventful career with the Knoxville Police Department. He signs on with the IntenSecure Armed Response, and drives a six-wheeled Hotspur Hussar through the streets of Fortress LA. But his second career proves just as brief, and just as drastically eventful.
"Meanwhile, in the dank Bay fog of NoCal's premier city, an ace bicycle messenger named Chevette is about to pick the pocket of another sort of courier -- a shadowy agent of the powerful Singapore-based Pacific Rim company that calls all the real shots in the states of California.
"Then IntenSecur sends Rydell to San Francisco, teaming him up with Lucius Warbaby, a black skip-tracer adept at hunting people down through the Virtual Reality maze of DatAmerica. Rydell finds himself on a collision course that results in a desperate romance and a journey into the ecstasy and dread that mirror each other at the heart of the postmodern experience." [jacket blurb, UK hbk, 1993]
"It's the proper sequel to the Sprawl narratives; an Elmore Leonard novel on acid and a time machine." --Tom Maddox (in Covert Culture Sourcebook , 1993).
"Easier to read, but not as rich as his earlier novels. A bit of a disappointment to his hardcore fans." --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , 1995).
William Gibson's Yardshow
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*note: this link takes you to the new address... here's the old URL.)