It’s just far too limited a POV for a world as complex as the one Lang has built here. Much of the problem for me is the first person POV the story is told in. For example, I never fully grasped the concept of “the grid.” I mean – I know what it’s supposed to be, but I never did quite believe in it.Īnd that one statement sums up how I felt about the book: it failed to suspend my disbelief to the point I just enjoyed the story. I like to think I’m smart and I still had trouble following the plot and all the mechanics behind the world that Lang has built for us here. No helpful author notes on the world-building, nada. Tells you nothing about the book other than the title and a link to buy it. This author’s site is dismal, by the way. I didn’t like the book and Alicia did an admirable job summarizing the plot in her earlier review (which you can read here). Sci-Fi Romance released by Shomi on 26 Feb 08 Fans will appreciate this exciting futuristic science fiction in which Fresh Haven and Netherwood seem real and the extinction plausible, but the lead couple never comes across as more than just comic book heroes trying to save a way of life (just who's is the question).Gwen’s review of Netherwood by Michele Lang The story line is action-packed from the moment the heroine goes after her 'terrorist' former lover and never slows down until the final confrontation. NETHERWOOD combines The Matrix with Charlton Heston's sci fi end of the world flicks like Planet of the Apes and The Omega Man in a fine thriller. To succeed he and his band of merry outlaws need Talia on their side, but she hesitates as all he says contradicts all she knows about the Grid and reality.

If something is not done soon, mankind will become extinct. She tells him she must arrest him, but he insists the Singularity has begun artificial intelligent computers have superseded humanity as the prime species. Talia enters the Netherwood cyberspace where she meets Kovner in a forest. She seeks her Netherwood cyber lover Kovner known as Avenger for his wanton destruction of technological gizmos on the colony Fresh Havens. Her current assignment combines her law enforcement duties with her role as the head of the mega-corporation. Sheriff Talia Fortune is the prime owner of FortuneCorp.