Frenetic action dominates Williams's cyberthriller sequel to 2008's The Mirrored
Heavens
, replicating the rapid-fire cuts, high-tech equipment and flat characters of computer games and Bond movies. Nearly incomprehensible to new readers, this novel chronicles a dehumanized 22nd century wracked with cyberwarfare and espionage. The North American empire and the Eurasian Coalition attack each other with mind-scrambled “razors†(superhackers) and “mechs†(black ops warriors), battling over ownership of inhabited asteroids in Earth's orbit. Small icons heading each subsection provide some help in tracing the novel's disorienting shifts in points of view from super-razor Claire Haskell to imprisoned U.S. spymaster Matthew Sinclair and other players in this mélange of shifting alliances and outright treachery. Foggy betrayals and mass exterminations provide plenty of sizzle, but the lack of clear structure and satisfactory characterizations result in a disappointing fizzle. (June)
