BKVNGDTH.RVW   20000213

"Vengeance in Death", J. D. Robb (Nora Roberts), 1997, 0-425-16039-4
%A   J. D. Robb (Nora Roberts)
%C   200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY  10016
%D   1997
%G   0-425-16039-4
%I   Ace/Berkley/Boulevard/Charter/Diamond/Jove Books
%O   www.berkley.com/berkley online@penguin.com service@penguin.ca
%P   357 p.
%T   "Vengeance in Death"

I have no idea why this book is cast as science fiction, or supposedly
set sixty years into the future.  Aside from the odd mention of
androids, robots, and stunners, it proceeds pretty much like any
current hard boiled cop story.  We are told that aircars and
helicopters flit constantly through the canyons of New York (and
wouldn't *that* be really likely), but the chases that happen stick
almost exclusively to two dimensions.

(The book also seems to have some pretensions as a romance, but all
the tender love scenes appear to occupy a maximum time of thirty seven
seconds, with little foreplay aside from some yelling and screaming. 
This is actually a very masculine romance.)

There isn't any understanding (or explanation) of the current level of
the technology used, let alone where progress might take it.  If you
try to trace a phone call, the caller can "jam" you from the other
end.  Digitized video can be altered (surprise!) but apparently nobody
has heard of digital watermarking, a technology that is readily
available now.  Failing to "register" computer equipment (with some
kind of security agency?) ensures that no information can be obtained,
even when data is transferred to or from the secured location from a
public net.  Nobody has heard of digital cash, either, although
somehow a "transfer" of funds (which implies a source and a
destination) is untraceable.

Fiction this may be, but science it is not.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 2000   BKVNGDTH.RVW   20000213