Едно е най-самотното число

Tom Clancy's Net Force Explorers #3

by Diane Duane, Даян Дуейн, Ани Пармаксизян (translator)

Прозрачната стена между виртуалния свят и реалността се срутва, когато един свръхинтелигентен тийнейджър, Роди Лофисър, открива начин да навреди на приятелите си. Мнозина попадат във виртуалния капан, заложен от него. Обиденият Роди дори не осъзнава размерите на заплахата, която е създал. Въпрос на време е смъртоносната програма да попадне в ръцете на международни терористи.

Един тийнейджър е създал съвършената машина за убиване и може да бъде спрян само от други тийнейджъри — интелигентни и съобразителни като самия него — Нет Форс Експлорърс.

Перфектен трилър.

Сан Франциско Кроникъл

Том Кланси, безспорният фаворит, шампионът сред писателите предлага неописуеми приключения — висш пилотаж сред експлозивна смес от престъпления, екшън и нови технологии.

Ню Йорк Таймс

Genres: Adventure, Fiction, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Thriller, Futuristic

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Diane Duane has been a writer of science fiction, fantasy, TV and film for more than forty years.

Besides the 1980's creation of the Young Wizards fantasy series for which she's best known, the "Middle Kingdoms" epic fantasy series, and numerous stand-alone fantasy or science fiction novels, her career has included extensive work in the Star Trek TM universe, and many scripts for live-action and animated TV series on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as work in comics and computer games. She has spent a fair amount of time on the New York Times Bestseller List, and has picked up various awards and award nominations here and there.

She lives in County Wicklow, in Ireland, with her husband of more than thirty years, the screenwriter and novelist Peter Morwood.

Her favorite color is blue, her favorite food is a weird kind of Swiss scrambled-potato dish called maluns, she was born in a Year of the Dragon, and her sign is "Runway 24 Left, Hold For Clearance."

(From her official website)

Reviews

[Lorenzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

In un futuro dove la realtà virtuale fa parte della vita quotidiana, un gruppo di ragazzi si trova per confrontare le proprie simulazioni.
Uno di questi però un giorno decide di rompere irrimediabilmente la simulazione di un'altra persona, il gruppo come punizione decide allora di allontanarlo.
Accadono però dei fatti strani, in particolare una persona del gruppo viene colpita da uno strano caso di meningite mentre partecipa ad una festa virtuale. Che sia una vendetta del reietto che ha scoperto un modo per ferire tramite la realtà virtuale le persone nel mondo reale?

[Gabor · Rating 1 out of 5]

One is the Loneliest Number is the third book in the Net Force Explorers series, and honestly? It's a slog. I can't tell if the story itself is just inherently boring or if the writing is that flat, but I kept nodding off every time I picked it up. The plot is dull, sure, but even worse, the characters have zero personality. For such a short book, it felt exhausting to get through.
If I could I’d give it half a star

[Geert Daelemans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tedious beginning, mediocre ending

Madeline Green, also known as Maj, is a member of the Group of Seven: a gathering of youngsters that enjoy creating virtual simulations of historic events. Maj has just finished her simulation of a 1964 bomber plane that originally crashed on its maiden voyage. She invites the Group of Seven to watch and judge her latest creation. But early in the simulation something goes dreadfully wrong: Maj is unable to control the plane and she crashes almost directly after take-off. When it becomes clear that Roddy, the super intelligent loner of the group, has sabotaged Maj's simulation just to prove that he can, the group decides to teach Roddy a lesson. But this only inflames the situation: Roddy's out for revenge.

It is difficult to make sense of the author's decision to use the first quarter of One Is the Loneliest Number as a tedious description of a virtual simulation. Apart from a poor introduction of the main character is does not contain any information that tickles the curiosity of the reader. It is more than obvious that the simulation is going to crash, so building towards this is not adding much suspense to the story.
Luckily once this mind-numbing setting has been concluded the story really starts. The tone and rhythm completely change, another character is introduced in the form of Mark Grideley who immediately takes the lead and makes the character of Maj obsolete. It is as though the author realised his mistake and quickly took action to make the plot more exciting.

All considered this story turns out to be only a mediocre episode of the Netforce series, only to be read if you feel the urge to read the complete series.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Old Children's Book. Liked it as a kid, but haven't read it in years.