This Side of Judgment

Known for his short stories in SF magazines, Dunn makes a solid book-length debut with this near-future adventure-thriller that combines elements of both The Fugitive and Frankenstein. In the 21st century, the U.S. has been fractured by invasion from the south and by foreign and domestic terrorism. The Latino troops have been routed and much of the Southwest has been depopulated, with thousands of survivors having made their way to the small, snowbound town of Ironwood, Montana. When a savagely mutilated corpse is discovered in Ironwood, the question that haunts local police and vigilante groups is whether the town's refugee camps shelter even more frightening ``invaders'': remnants of a group of cybernetically enhanced supermen from California, referred to as ``Chipheads.'' Enter Ross Bohlen, a gifted but short-fused antiterrorist operative from Washington, D.C., who, in following his instincts in tracking down Chipheads, ends up at odds with his corrupt, bureaucracy-bound bosses and the shell-shocked local sheriff. Complicating the dramatic mix is the presence of another group of Chipheads who want to share their enhanced powers with humanity even while they're fighting off the pychosis-inducing effects of cerebral chip implantation. The satisfying cat-and-mouse development ends with a scene right out of the David Koresh files, proving that you don't have to be enhanced to be crazy. Though curiously old-fashioned in style and story line for a tale whose hard-science plot element is straight out of cyberpunk, Dunn's first novel proves a page-turner. ( Aug )