This Side of Judgment

by J.R. Dunn

Investigating two sloppy crimes, a murder and a bank computer intrusion, Washington COSSF agent Ross Bohlen finds a connection between the seemingly unrelated incidents in a cybernetically enhanced person who is presumed dead. Reprint.

Genres: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Craig]

This Side of Judgement was Dunn's first novel and was published in 1994 in hardback by Harcourt Brace with a kind of cloudy blue cover followed by a mass market release the following year from Roc with a much more fitting Donato Giancola one. It's a good thriller, a high-tech cyber-Frankenstein variant (Chipheads!) about human enhancement. It's set fifty years in the future. The viewpoint character is Ross Bohlen, an agent for the Computer Subversion Strike Force (COSSF), and, apropos to nothing, I remember telling Mr. Dunn at a convention that the Central Ohio Society of Science Fiction was curious about his appropriation of their name, and then having to explain that it was a joke and there was, in fact, no group with that name. (The real name was COSFS.) Anyway, it's a well-paced, suspenseful, and well-written crime (both cyber and physical) drama, and a good story even if some of the techs and times have overtaken it.

[Jill Rebryna]

I bought this book with every intention of enjoying it. I had no idea how much. I thought I liked Ross Bohlen, because he is the protagonist on the side of the law. Then Jason Telford was introduced, and my priorities did a 180. The end was so harsh I felt like I'd been slapped in the face, but I will never forget this book.

[Dannye]

Different, but very much like a lot of TV movies and series these days that deal with computer-enhanced humans. I have to say that when I reached the end, I had enjoyed it.

[April]

Um... no... not right now anyway.