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Review:
Bethke manages to put even less plot into a novel than Piers Anthony, and that is a considerable feat. However, if you have any interest in computers, computer support or cyberpunk fiction, you probably won't mind as you chuckle your way through the book. Starting off like "The Bastard Operator from Hell Meets Theory X", the plot wends and twists its way steadily into spaghetti. Bethke obviously knows his computers (and a solid block of insider jokes), but isn't about to let the facts get in the way of a good virtual reality. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996
(Review by Rob Slade)
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Reviews (1) and details of Headcrash

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Review:
Aliens, Tosoks, have finally made contact with Earth, but there are only seven of them, and they've arrived in a disabled spaceship. The Tosoks are intelligent and surprisingly easy to communicate with, and are happy to tour Earth and see what humans have to offer. But during a stop in Los Angeles, one of the human scientists traveling with the Tosoks is gruesomely murdered, and all evidence points to the alien Hask. The Los Angeles Police Department is determined to indict Hask for the crime, even though the aliens have little concept of laws or crime as we understand them. The only thing the U.S. government can do is secretly procure the services of Dale Rice, a leading civil rights lawyer, and hope he can clear Hask of the charges. But a... Rest of this review on the detail page
(Review by amazon.com)
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Reviews (2) and details of Illegal Alien

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Book description
Titan, Saturn's largest moon, was frozen and lifeless...but only by some definitions! Organic life had never evolved on its barren surface, but somehow Titan had become home to the Taloids, a race of self-aware robots who lived in competing city-states, grew houses and tools, tended their robotic herds, and worshipped a god called the Lifemaker.When humans discovered the Taloids on Titan, they suspected that the robots' sentience had evolved by accident--artificial intelligence gone wrong. But where was the ancient civilization that had spawned them? With no help from the Taloids--who seemed to know nothing of their own origins--Earth's finest scientists were stumped.Then strange blocks of code were discovered in Titan's ancient computer ba... Rest of this review on the detail page
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Reviews (2) and details of Immortality Option

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Book description
"I couldn't put it down" (John Varley) Through an earthquake-ravaged Midwest, an investigative reporter chases down the story of a lifetime. "Breathtaking...Steele's science [is] harder than Heinlein's...his breakneck pacing and gift for characterization are reminiscent of the late master's best work." (Washington Post
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Reviews (2) and details of The Jericho Iteration

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Review:
This is a double volume, originally published as "Software" (1982) and "Wetware" (1988). The basic premise is the tension between "thinking" robots (called "boppers" or "bops") and humanity. Two items are of interest. The first is the development of machine intelligence, which we see only in retrospect. The growth of artificial cognition is promoted by a type of genetic programming. The original programmer builds "immutable" instructions into the robots to submit their software to some minor random variation every ten months. The robots are also to build replicas of themselves during the ten-month period, although these seem to be primarily for replacement purposes, rather than reproduction. The concept of "immutable" code is int... Rest of this review on the detail page
(Review by Rob Slade)
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Reviews (1) and details of Live Robots: Software/Wetware/2 in 1 Volume