cover image Logos Run

Logos Run

William C. Dietz. Ace Books, $24.95 (357pp) ISBN 978-0-441-01428-6

At the start of Dietz's fast-moving sequel to Runner (2005), human civilization is about to lapse into a new dark age after the collapse of an interstellar empire threatens to isolate many of the inhabited worlds. However, the web of star gates that once spanned the empire may be reactivated if the duo of super-courier Jak Rebo and ESP-sensitive Lonni Norr can deliver the shape-changing AI, Logos, to the control center housed in the artificial satellite of a remote planet. Antitechnology fanatics would do anything to prevent that, the unscrupulous Techno Society craves the power that will accompany control of the restored network, and Logos has selfish plans of its own. In addition, the disembodied spirits of dead characters hang around to influence the action and sometimes to possess the bodies of the living. In a military SF novel that will entertain readers with a taste for cheerfully casual mayhem, much treachery and betrayal ensue, and there's seldom a dull-or quiet-moment.