Reviews

This near-future debut novel tries hard, but doesn't quite amalgamate its ambitious themes. Twenty-two years earlier, the first Earth Congress declared all children born in the first second of the new year "Hopes," living privileged symbols of the new one-world order. The Hope of Ko, a vast corporate conglomerate, is Ren Segura, who chose the call name "Jackal" for the animal's terrifying wail, a self-pitying cry that sums up this uneven character-driven novel. Though Jackal is promising at project managing and facilitating, Ko maneuvers her into causing the deaths of her "web," her closest friends. Forced by Ko to make a deal to save her parents from disgrace, Jackal accepts virtual confinement, an experimental extension of Garbo, the VR project Jackal had previously been tapped to oversee. Experiencing years of solitary in only a few "real" months, Jackal emerges exiled to a nameless city, beset by flashbacks to her punishment and by interviews with an Orwellian interrogator/parole officer. This novel self-consciously seethes with anger and frustration at society's inability to ensure justice to the accused, rehabilitate the convicted, reassimilate the outcast and heal the hurt. Eskridge's solution to all these eternal social ails is conventional in message, though selective in execution: the redemptive power of individual in this case lesbian love. Overextended in feverish description, overwrought in its self-absorbed tone, this case study of the postadolescent psyche seems most, like its heroine, to really "vant to be alone." (Sept. 18) Forecast: An established writer of short fiction, Eskridge has garnered blurbs from the likes of Ursula K. Le Guin, Tim Powers and Vonda M. McIntyre. Whatever its faults, this first novel is likely to generate plenty of buzz as well as sales, supported by author appearances in the Northwest. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Adult/High School-Young Jackal Segura is a "Hope," groomed all her life to fulfill a promising destiny on behalf of her country, Ko-a dystopia of all-powerful corporate culture. She and her Webmates (a peer group with kinshiplike ties) are hanging out at a futuristic mall when a ghastly accident occurs, and suddenly her world is turned upside down. Stripped of "Hope" status and made a scapegoat, she is subjected to an extreme sentence of solitary confinement by means of untested virtual-reality technology. This goes on for several years, in subjective time, as Jackal fights madness and discovers uncharted inner territory. Released a few real months later, much changed, she finds her way to Solitaire, a bar patronized by "Solos" like herself and the avid fans who lionize them. Solos who have survived the VR punishment are invariably far from sane, and most are dangerous. But the real story here is what happens inside Jackal's mind. A Princess is tempered into a Trickster. A secure and highly social being is changed into a loner who can withstand, and even thrive in, complete isolation. She loses everyone close to her, including her true love (a woman named Snow), but ultimately finds her way back. And she begins to discover her destiny-with a twist. This cerebral debut novel is not for average readers, but some teens are sure to see themselves in Jackal, and will find her story both suspenseful and inspiring.-Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

As one of the elite members of society on Ko Island, the world's first corporate country, Jackal Seguro is destined for political greatness until she discovers a secret that places her on the wrong side of the government. Arrested and sentenced to virtual solitary confinement, Jackal undergoes a social and psychological transformation that eventually leads her in a direction unforeseen by those who want to control her. Eskridge's first novel offers a dystopic vision of a near future in which virtual technology becomes a tool for societal control. Featuring a resourceful and engaging protagonist, this novel belongs in most sf collections and should appeal to readers of high-tech sf intrigue. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.