Computers in Fiction
[Thrillers]
[Mysteries]
[Science Fiction/Fantasy] [Sagas of Silicon Valley]
[Romance/Romantic Suspense]
Blackbird Singing,
by Jay Amberg. T. Doherty, 2000, 1998.
The daughter of
Chicago Bulls superstar Sky Walker is kidnapped by a warped computer genius
who sends his demands via an untraceable computer network.
Digital
Fortress, by Dan Brown. St. Martin's, 1998.
Although the National
Security Agency's top-secret Supercomputer, TRNSLTR, is meant to intercept and
decode e-mail between terrorists, it can also be used to covertly monitor e-mail
between private citizens, which drives former NSA programmer Ensei Tankado to
paralyze TRNSLTR with an unbreakable code called the Digital Fortress. After
Tankado dies, the race is on to find his ring, upon which the decryption key
of Digital Fortress is embossed.
Love, Sex and Murder,
by Sue Cameron. Warner, 1996.
A Hollywood lawyer
involved in a case that hinges on DNA evidence uncovers information that tears
open the wound of her mother's murder years before. Hunting for the killer and
the father she never knew, Nikki Easterly discovers the world of on-line sex
where she encounters The Master-a sadomasochist who plays a role in both of
her quests.
Net Force,
"created" by Tom Clancy & Steve Pieczenik. Berkley, 1998.
To enforce Net
laws in the year 2010, Congress has created Net Force: the ultimate computer
security agency within the FBI. But when the director of Net Force is assassinated,
Deputy Director Alex Michaels is thrust into a new powerful and dangerous position
of leadership. Meanwhile, cyberterrorists are sabotaging mainframe computers
across the country, causing famine, chaos & death.
Five in a Row,
by Jan Coffey. MIRA, 2005.
After a rash of
bizarre car accidents in which it is claimed that the vehicles appeared to have
developed " minds of their own" investigator Ben Colter teams up with
computer whiz Emily Doyle to stop an obsessed, twisted hacker with a frightening
agenda.
The Terminal Man,
by Michael Crichton. Knopf, 1972.
Harry Bensen suffers
from seizures so violent that he requires a police guard when entering an L.A.
hospital for treatment. A team of doctors implant a miniature computer in his
brain aimed at controlling his seizures and sending soothing pulses to its pleasure
canyons. But when Bensen discovers how to get the pulses with increasing frequency,
he laspes into murderous rages and becomes a homicidal maniac.
Atlantyx.,
by Chase Dalton. T. Nelson, 2002.
When graduate
student Valier Russell investigates the mysterious addictive qualities of a
popular new computer game called Atlantyx and the disappearances of more than
70 players, she finds herself sucked in by a powerful force she hasn't anticipated.
Killer.App.,
by Barbara D'Amato. Forge, 1996.
Computer honcho
Dean Utley aims to use his high technology computer company to control the world.
f2f, by
Phillip Finch. Bantam, 1996.
A serial killer
who dubs himself "Snowflake" uses TRY ME--a complex computer game that only
computer wizards can beat-to choose his victims. One of them is filmmaker Kate
Lavin, whose computer genius ex-husband may be the only one who can stop "Snowflake."
Spyder Web, by
Tom Grace. Warner, 1999, 1998.
When two high-level
hackers steal a CIA device called Spyder-- a program capable of sniffing out
classified data from any system-and turn it loose on his father's online research
facility, ex-Navy Seal Nolan Kilkenny realizes that more than his father's company
is at stake.
The Truth Machine,
by James L. Halperin. Del Rey, 1997.
In the year 2024
the criminal justice system in America is revolutionized by the invention of
the Truth Machine which detects lies with 100% accuracy. But its creator himself
is guilty of a shocking crime which he must conceal from his invention or face
execution.
Watch Me,
by A. J. Holt. St. Martin's, 1995.
When FBI agent
(and expert hacker) Jay Fletcher blows an important case because she obtained
evidence before getting a search warrant, she is exiled to Santa Fe to assist
on an arson investigation. But cannot resist meddling in an ongoing case involving
a serial killer.
Mortal Fear, by Greg
Iles. Dutton, 1997.
Futures trader
Harper Cole moonlights as the systems operator for E.R.O.S.--a highly exclusive,
sexually explicit online service. When he violates policy and contacts the police
about the murder of a prominent subscriber, he finds himself the prime suspect
in the disappearance of 6 other E.R.O.S. subscribers.
Sprinter, by
Bruce Jones. Signet, 1999, 1998.
A bomber who is
also a computer security expert gains entry to the FBI's crime information computer,
which gives him access to every electronic database in the country. As the bombs
begin to go off, the killer, who is fixated with ATF agent (and amateur runner)
Jeni Starbuck, has her sprinting all over town in a crazed game of cat and mouse.
The Grid, by Philip
Kerr. Warner, 1995.
The sparkling
new Yu Corporation building in L.A. is a monument to human genius. It is run
by a supercomputer dubbed The Gridiron that has total control of the building's
management and security systems. It can even converse with its occupants. Built
to survive power outages and massive earthquakes, the brain of The Gridiron
cannot be unplugged or outsmarted. But something has gone terribly wrong and
The Gridiron has turned into a serial killer, and for the dozen people trapped
inside the building, survival becomes the ultimate achievement.
Back\Slash: A Cyber
Thriller, by William H. Lovejoy. Kensington, 1996.
A cyber-terrorist
has seized control of the Worldwide Information Network, giving him the power
to close airports, paralyze telecommunications, and effect arms deliveries prompting
FBI computer crimes special agent Luanne Russell to hunt down renegade computer
criminal K. C. Conrad and challenge him to help beat the terrorist at his own
game.
Breakthrough,
by R. J. Pineiro. Tom Doherty, 1997.
Jake Fischer and
his team at Fischer Technologies Inc. have made an astonishing breakthrough
in the form of bio-chips but outside forces are determined to control the technology
at any cost.
Turing's Delirium,
by Edmundo Paz Soldan. HM, 2006.
In near future
Bolivia, veteran cryptologist Miguel Turing Sanchez for a sceret code-breaking
organization dubbed "The Black Chamber," labors to expose a group
of young computer hackers who are staging a not-so-bloodless revolution against
the a corrupt government and greedy multinational corporations. Soon events
have him questioning if he is working for the wrong side in this war.
Exposure,
by R. J. Pineiro. Forge, 1996.
A computer engineering
professor discovers a bug in the Perseus computer chip-a chip used in thousands
of commercial and military systems--manufactured by Preston Sinclair, a billionaire
Presidential candidate. The chip causes a nuclear meltdown that kills 15,000
and threatens hundreds of thousands more. Sinclair attempts to silence Pamela
Sasser by persuading his cronies at the Defense Intelligence Agency to kill
her, but the hit man dispatched to do the job learns the truth behind his assignment
and joins forces with her.
Shutdown,
by R. J. Pineiro. Forge, 2002, 2000.
After a series
of high-tech failures causes the deaths of hundreds of people, hacker-turned-FBI
analyst Erika Conklin comes to the conclusion that international corporate sabotage
is involved.
Firewall, by
R. J. Pineiro. Forge, 2002.
A former CIA
agent must prevent Firewall--an orbiting satellite holding the government's
deepest secrets-from being used to destroy the United States.
Hard Drive, by
David Pogue. Diamond, 1993.
When a computer
programmer at Artelligence warns his superiors that a simple virus could infect
every financial and military computer system in the world, no one heeds him
until it is too late.
The Extremes,
by Christopher Priest. St. Martin's, 1999.
Can virtual reality
scenarios somehow influence real events? That's what FBI Agent Teresa Simons
wants to know after her husband is gunned down in a shooting spree in Texas
at the same time a similar mass murder is committed in England.
Flame War: A CyberThriller,
by Joshua Quittner & Michelle Siatalla. Morrow, 1997.
As the U.S. Congress
prepares to adopt an encryption program that would allow government access to
all electronic communications, a brilliant codemaker, together with a team of
hackers who call themselves the Urban Crypto Militia, plans to unveil his own
code, one that will ensure the privacy of all communications on the Internet,
even from the government.
Deadly Games,
by Thom Racina. Signet, 2003.
Are the murders
of religious leaders around the country related to a best-selling computer game
that contains subliminal messages of hatred?
The Capricorn Quadrant,
by Charles Ryan. NAL, 1990.
A computer virus
has infiltrated the most lethal weapon on Earth: a Soviet stealth aircraft with
the power to ignite nuclear holocaust. In Moscow, the liberal head-of-state
finds his desperate race to head off disaster hampered by old guard resistance,
while in Washington, the U.S. President faces mounting military pressure to
counter what appears to be a Soviet build-up in the Pacific.
Self's Punishment,
by Bernhard Schlink & Walter Popp. Vinatge, 2005.
When Gerhard Self,
a former Nazi prosecutor turned private detective, is hired by a boyhood friend
to find a hacker who has invaded a chemical plant's computer system, his investigation
takes a deadly turn and leads him into a confrontation with the dark secrets
of Germany's past.
Virus, by Graham Watkins. C&G, 1995.
Now this is a
real computer virus! Doctors investigate the serious addiction of their patients
to their computers that is creating serious medical and psychological conditions.
Perfect Harmony, by
Barbara Wood. Little, Brown, 1998.
Three people have
died after taking herbal remedies manufactured at Charlotte Lee's biotech firm.
The FDA determines that the victims--all of them Charlotte's enemies--were poisoned
and that the poison was added before the products left the plant. Then Charlotte
is contacted over the Internet and told to confess to the murders at a press
conference in 12 hours or more people will die. With the help of a former lover
who's now a computer security expert, Charlotte is drawn into a frantic chase
that takes her deeper into the virtual world--and deeper into her own past.
You've Got Murder,
by Donna Andrews. BPC, 2002.
Turing Hopper
is an AI personality who is so real, she actually believes she is becoming human.
Assisted by her sentient colleagues, she uses all of her faculties to solve
the disappearance of her programmer. Followed by: Click Here for Murder
(2003) and Access Denied (2004).
Raw Data,
by Sally Chapman. St. Martin's, 1994.
This novel is
the first in a mystery series featuring Julie Blake, a computer-fraud investigator
in Silicon Valley, and her hunky partner (both professionally and personally)
Vic Paoli. Followed by: Love Bytes (1994); Cyber Kiss (1996);
Hard Wired (1997).
The Blue Nowhere,
by Jeffrey Deaver. S&S, 2001.
A team of homicide
detectives and computer crime cops recruit a jailed computer whiz to assist
them in hunting down a hacker-turned-killer.
Illegal Tender, by Gerald Hammond. Minotaur, 2001.
When Elizabeth
Ilwand responds to a seemingly legitimate email and is subsequently taken for
more than a million pounds. amateur sleuth Henry Kitts, who also happens to
be a trustee in her company, tries to get to the bottom of the fraud.
The White Tower, by Dorothy Johnson. Minotaur, 2006.
Australian self-made
sleuth and computer-crime expert, Sandra Mahoney, investigates the "suicide"
of a young man who was involved in an elaborate Internet role-playing game.
Hacker, by
Lee Martin. St. Martin's, 1992.
Overworked Fort
Worth police detective Deb Ralston must contend with an ax murderer who has
begun to hack up computers and their users. Connecting the cases is the presence
of a mysterious electronic virus found on the computer systems of the victims-a
virus that suddenly appears in the circuits of her husband's computer.
Terminal Games,
by Cole Perriman. Bantam, 1994.
When subscribers
to a late-night Internet fantasy service begin to die mysteriously, Marianne
Hedison begins to see a chilling pattern. LAPD detective Nolan Grobowski, who
doesn't know a mouse from a modem, initially suspects Marianne, but then accepts
her help.
Dot Dead,
by Keith Raffel. Midnightink, 2006.
After he is attacked
at his home and his maid murdered, high-tech hotshot Ian Michaels finds himself
having to prove his innocence to both his boss, her family, and the police.
The Fool's Run,
by John Sanford (writing as John Camp). Holt, 1989.
Kidd--Vietnam
Vet, computer whiz, artist and believer in the power of the Tarot--is recruited
to infiltrate a company's computer system and destroy it. He should have known
that the $2 million payday was too good to be true. Read also: The Empress
File (1991), The Devil's Code (2000), and The Hanged Man's
Song (2003).
Dirty Deeds,
by Mark Terry. High Country, 2004.
A porn video discovered
while restoring church records lost in a computer crash leads computer troubleshooter
Malloy to search for a TV preacher's apparently kidnapped and raped daughter.
Mayhem ensues.
Monkeerwrench,
by P. J. Tracy. GPPS, 2003.
Grace McBride
and the team at her software company Monkeewrench are horrified to learn that
events in their murder mystery computer game "Serial Killer Detective"
are being replicated in the real world by a ruthless killer. Reluctant to go
to the police, the team tries to analyze the game in order to anticipate the
murderer's next move.
Smart House, by Kate
Wilhelm. St. Martin's, 1989.
When computer
genius Gary Elringer sinks most of his company's funds into the construction
of a fully automated Smart House, his stockholders are less-than-pleased. He
invites them to his house to play a game of Assassin and both Elringer and one
of the stockholders end up dead. Everyone seems to have an alibi leaving investigators
Charlie Meiklejohn, a retired cop, and former psychologist Constance Leidl to
wonder just how smart Smart House is.
Killobyte, by
Piers Anthony. Putnam, 1993.
Paralyzed while
in the line of duty, ex-cop Walter Toland discovers Killobyte, a virtual reality
computer game that enables him to walk, fight an army of sorcerers and help
diabetic Baal Curran forget the illness that drove her boyfriend away. But he
becomes trapped in the system with a mysterious player with an urge to kill.
The Computer Connection,
by Alfred Bester. ibooks, 2004, 2000.
Be careful what
you ask for. A group benevolent immortals recruit brilliant physicist Dr. Sequoya
Guess. to help them gain control of Extro, the super-computer that controls
all mechanical activity on Earth in order to eliminate all political repression
on Earth and produce a race of supermen. But Extro takes over Guess instead
and uses him to carry out its plans to rid the world of humans.
2001: A Space Odyssey,
by Arthur C. Clarke. ROC, 1993, 1968.
On a journey to
Saturn, the crew of Discovery finds their mission jeopardized by HAL-a psychotic
computer with a mind of its own.
Computer One,
by Warwick Collins. M. Boyars1997, 1993.
Prof. Enzo Yakuda
believes that a malfunction in Computer One--the international network which
runs virtually everything on the planet, will lead to disaster.
V.I., by
Don DeBrandt. Ace, 2000.
An organism from
an alien world has linked with an artificial intelligence. The result is a real
computerbug that hungers for flesh and blood.
God Game,
by Andrew Greeley. Warner, 1986.
A man is testing
his friend's new computer game "Duke & Duchess" when a lightning bolt strikes
his satellite dish. Suddenly there are people really living on his computer
screen and they believe that he is God.
The Labyrinth Key,
by Howard V. Hendrix. Ballantine, 2004.
The race to invent
the first quantum computer which can crack any enemy's code is at the core of
the Cold War between the United States and China.
Noir, by
K. W. Jeter. Bantam, 1998.
If you liked
Blade Runner (the author was the protege of Philip K. Dick and has written
a couple of Rick Deckard books himself) this bleak novel set in the near future
will appeal to you. McNihil is an ex-cop so disenchanted with the world in which
he lives that he has had his eyes surgically altered so that he sees everything
through a computer-generated overlay that simulates the black-and-white hard-boiled
detective films of the 1930s. Coerced into investigating the murder of a corporate
executive, he uncovers a killer whose existence crosses the boundaries between
real and virtual worlds.
WebMage, by
Kelly McCullough. Ace, 2006.
The Fates are
still with us and they've gone digital. When one of the them downloads a spell
to eliminate humanity's free will into the server that controls destiny, their
plans are thwarted by hacker/wizard and college student Ravirn, with the aid
of Melchior, his "familiar" who doubles as a laptop. Needles to say,
all Hades breaks loose.
O Pioneer, by
Frederick Pohl. TOR, 1998.
Earth just isn't
big enough for Evesham Giyt, a solitary & brilliant computer hacker who
longs for the long-gone frontiers and hardy pioneers of the past. When a technology
is discovered that allows instant transport to distant worlds, Evesham leaves
Earth for the rugged colony of Tupelo where he is soon elected mayor of the
human population.
The Hacker and the
Ants, by Rudy Rucker. Morrow, 1994.
When he isn't
dueling with his soon-to-be-ex-wife and barring realtors from his door, computer
programmer Jerzy Rugby spends his days in cyberspace-a virtually real combination
office, lab and funhouse--aiding GoMotion Unlimited in its quest to bring truly
intelligent robots into existence. Suddenly millions of ants appear out of nowhere
to wreck havoc throughout the shared computer network and Jerzy finds himself
wanted for sabotage, computer crime and even treason.
The Terminal Experiment,
by Robert J. Sawyer. HarperPrism, 1995.
To test his theories
of immortality, Dr. Peter Hobson creates three electronic clones of himself,
who escape from his computer into the international electronic matrix, where
one of them begins to kill.
The Halting State,
by Charles Stross. Ace, 2007.
In the year, 2018,
Sgt. Sue Smith investigates a daring Edinburgh robbery at a dot.com start-up
copmany perpetrated by a band of marauding orcs with a dragon in tow in the
virtual reality land of Avalon Four, and discovers that events in the virtual
world could have a devastating impact on the real one--it seems that someone
is about to launch an attack upon both.
Boomtown
by Greg Williams. Overlook, 2004.
In the 1990s,
a group of up-and-coming dot.commers heading for a scheduled IPO are in for
a rude awakening. A satirical novel in the spirit of Bright Lights, Big
City.
The First $20 Million
is Always the Hardest, by Po Bronson. Random, 1997.
Andy Caspar's
seemingly impossible mission is to design a $300 PC. As Andy and his team of
misfits actually make progress toward their goal, the powers-that-be decide
the project is a threat and pull the plug. Afterwards, Andy and his friends
start their own company, pitting them against master chip designer Francis Benoit
and the entire PC industry. Readers in-the-know will recognize thinly disguised
stand-ins for the likes of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Netscape CEO Jim
Clark.
miscroserfs, by Douglas
Coupland. ReganBooks, 1995.
Bill is wise.
Bill is kind. Bill is benevolent. Bill, Be My Friend...Please! This is
the hilarious story about a handful of misfit Microsoft techies who realize
that they don't have lives and are determined to get them!
The Deal,
by Joe Hutsko. Forge, 1999.
Peter Jones,
the brilliant & mercurial inventor of the PC, is so consumed by his vision
of a better world through technology that he doesn't see that his company is
failing forcing marketing genius Matthew Locke to wrest the company from its
founder.
The Deus Machine,
by Pierre Ouellette. Villard, 1994.
In the year 2005
economic depression and political upheaval threaten the country, prompting a
secret military cabal to create DEUS, a supercomputer that literally has a mind
of its own. When DEUS begins to create bizarre and deadly new life forms in
an attempt to self-destruct, only unemployed computer genius Michael Riley is
skilled enough to stop it. Even as DEUS is propelled toward annihilation, it
forges a bond with Riley, the woman he loves, and the fatherless boy it comes
to regard as a friend.
The Bug,
by Ellen Ullman. Talese, 2003.
In the 1980s,
a quality assurance tester and a programmer try to track the source of a bug
that appears and disappears, defying their efforts to uncover it.
Cyber Bride,
by Annette Couch-Jareb. Avalon, 1999.
Reclusive artist
Kate Delaney learns that the handsome man who lives above her and her anonymous
Internet friend are the same person and wonders if such a man is trustworthy.
Trust Me,
by Jayne Ann Krentz. Pocket Books, 1995.
Hired to cater
the wedding of Pamela Bedford to rich handsome computer genius Sam Stark Desdemona
Wainwright is left with the bill when the groom is left at the altar. After
she demands payment from the emotionally aloof Stark, he is impressed enough
with her business saavy to offer her a job as his company's "social event consultant,"
she finds herself attracted to her new boss--a man with the brain of a computer
and the body of a hunk.
Tender Malice,
by Catherine Lanigan. Mira, 1998.
Beautiful and
brainy Karen has created Mastermind--a computer program that can change the
world. It has already changed hers. Suddenly she has a life beyond the computer
screen and two men who want to share it. But someone wants Mastermind and will
kill to get it.
Love Bites,
by Lynsay Sands. Dorchester, 2004.
This novel gives
a whole new meaning to "Books with Bite." Computer programmer Etienne
Argeneau finds himself the target of a killer but he continually confounds medical
examiner Rachel Garrett because he just won't stay dead. After she gets in the
way of the latest assassination attempt, Etienne does the only thing he can
do to save her: he turns her into a vampire like himself and takes her home
to meet the folks.
Created and maintained by: Lynne M. Kennedy.
© Copyright 2008,
1999 Sachem Public Library. All rights reserved.
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