Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of PeaceMaker (PeaceMaker, Bk 1)

PeaceMaker (PeaceMaker, Bk 1)
thunderweasel avatar reviewed on + 147 more book reviews


When a computer is trying to kill you, you know you have problems.

So is (sort of) the basis of PeaceMaker, a story set only a few years ahead of our time, but speaks of a virus program incorporated into a computer system purchased and used by millions the world over. This virus, discovered several years after the system's initial release, has a code so interchangable and labryinthine, its capabilities can only be imagined. It's up to Raymond Brown to find that out and stop it before the entire world's technological systems are wiped out.

Of course, you have to consider his everyday life - his co-workers and new company hires, his two kids with his ex-wife, the former mistress that ruined his marriage and may be responsible for the potential release of the virus...oh, I didn't mention that? Dianne Morgan, his ex-lover, heads the Domain, an organization bent on gaining the power to change the world and bring it significantly closer to peace...yeah, right.

Even reading this book and its sequel, Unholy Domain, in the wrong order, the entire story is a major thrill ride. Ronco's writing incorporates twists and turns not found in others of its kind, putting the characters in all kinds of situations and inducing reactions the reader wouldn't expect. It's hard to go from realistic sci-fi to post-apocalyptic thriller, but Ronco does it with utmost success. And his haunting images of the artificial intelligence known as PeaceMaker? It'll make you look twice at that old dust-gathering desktop computer in your office...