Product Description

London, in the aftermath of the Infowar. Surveillance cameras stand on every street corner, their tireless gaze linked to an artificial intelligence system. Censors patrol the borders of the Internet. A young woman is murdered before the gaze of eager voyeurs. A policeman sidelined to a backwater department seizes on the chance to contribute to this high-profile murder case, but soon finds himself caught up in a web of intrigue. Why was Sophie Booth's murder broadcast over the Internet? What is the link between her murder and London's new surveillance system? Who is the self-styled "Avenger," and why does he communicate only by e-mail? Whole Wide World is a gripping conspiracy thriller set in a world where information is the universal currency and some people will do anything to be able to control it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1256316 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 384 pages

From Amazon.com
If there is any justice, the excellent conspiracy thriller Whole Wide World will vault award-winning author Paul McAuley into the front rank of bestselling authors.

In the wake of a virulent "information war," England has become a police state with surveillance cameras on every street corner, linked by an evolving artificial intelligence. The government controls all access to the Internet. Privacy is a fantasy. Porn is illegal. But a young British woman manages to transmit her sexual escapades over the World Wide Web--and the acts culminate in the live broadcast of her own murder. But even as another woman is slain in the same manner, the war veteran-policeman Dixon finds himself being pressured off the case by powerful sources ranging from his superior officers to the dead woman's uncle, the powerful CEO who created the artificial intelligence that sees all and, perhaps, knows all.

Paul McAuley has received the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Philip K. Dick Award. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly
On the heels of last year's near-future novel, The Secret of Life, British author McAuley offers a stunning thriller set in London less than a decade in the future. The U.K. has been transformed by three events: the Infowar, which has wiped out most of the nation's stored computer records; the rise to power of a right-wing government sworn to eliminate all pornographic and violent materials, both hard copy and electronic; and the development of ADESS, the Autonomous Distributed Expert Surveillance System, a huge network of security cameras all guided by an evolving AI, all feeding their information into various police security computers. A market for pornography still exists, however, and young Sophie Booth, a London art student, aims to please, putting on shows for her adoring fans before her apartment's live webcams. Unfortunately, she opens her door to Mr. Wrong one day and is gruesomely murdered in front of those same webcams. A down-on-his-luck London police officer, his career nearly destroyed by false allegations of cowardliness during the Infowar, finds himself at the center of the investigation. Resented, even hated by his fellow officers, threatened by a mysterious and vicious hacker, he puts his life on the line to bring Sophie's murderer to justice. McAuley effectively combines traditional techno-thriller and police procedural techniques with a clear sense of where the World Wide Web at its worst may be going to produce a highly effective, well-crafted and unusually gritty novel that should please fans of both thrillers and computer-oriented hard SF.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The Infowar has come and gone, and London now boasts surveillance cameras on every street, Internet censorship, and stronger security measures against information piracy. When a young woman's graphic murder becomes fodder for Internet voyeurs, a London policeman makes solving the murder his personal duty. The author of the far-future "Confluence Trilogy" (Child of the River, Ancients of Days) demonstrates his talent for creating an sf conspiracy thriller set in a near-future that is both disturbing and plausible. A good choice for most sf collections with crossover potential for the suspense and intrigue audience.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Stylish, Gripping Near Future Crime Cyberpunk Fiction
Raymond Chandler meets William Gibson in one of the finest science fiction novels of recent years, courtesy of acclaimed British science fiction author Paul McAuley. This is more than a film noirish detective novel akin to the best from the likes of Raymond Chandler combined with elements of cyberpunk from William Gibson and his fellow "mirrorshades" cyberpunk fiction scribes. It is a thoughtful, often disturbing, look at surveillance and privacy; these are themes not normally found in much science fiction, with cyberpunk frequently taking the lead in these issues. However, until now, these subjects have not been presented in such a forceful, mesmerizing tale.

A fortyish detective in the London police department becomes involved in a murder investigation of a young college student, whose uncle is the inventor of the surveillance technology ADESS. This robotic technology has greatly reduced crime at the expense of personal liberty and privacy. His odyssey will take him to illicit porn dealers and computer hackers involved in a conspiracy to blackmail the deceased girl's uncle through the streets of London, and finally, to the distant data haven of Havana, Cuba and a climatic encounter with the man responsible for the girl's death. Meanwhile he is beset with fear over his girlfriend's safety when she becomes yet another pawn in the killer's bloody intellectual chess game with him. This stylish, extremely well-written novel should be regarded as one of the finest examples of contemporary science fiction, and deserves the "whole wide world" as its potential audience.

In England's hot unpleasant climes
Paul McAuley's _Whole Wide World_ is a science fiction/murder mystery, and works well as both. A young woman is murdered, her computers destroyed, and then we discover the crime was broadcast on her website. Our narrator really fills the bill as an anti-hero; short, disrespected, dumped by his girlfriend, demoted from detective work to a do-nothing police support division. He is pulled into this crime when asked to pick up and examine the computers, and finds he cannot stay away from the case.

McAuley sets the book in in London, maybe eight years from now. Cameras cover every block, and a vast AI ties them together. A terrorist virus has crippled all computer networks, and most haven't recovered completly. Social mores have gotten more restrictive; porn is completely illegal, and foreign books/movies/magazines censored. And London is hot and uncomfortable, with screens and mesh everywhere (presumably to keep out virus-carrying mosquitoes, but never specifically mentioned), more like New Orleans than the UK.

Our hero must handle colleagues who wish him ill and try to keep him away from the case, the victim's uncle who invented the CCTV AI system and has too many secrets, his absent girlfriend who can't decide what to do with him, and a series of taunting emails from the possible perp. Like all good mysteries, each question answered leads to five more; each suspect checked out only implicates formerly trusted people. McAuley does a great job ratcheting up the tension as our unnamed protagonist tries to win his good name back. The descriptions of near-future London were well-written and disturbing enough to linger for days. And the issues raised about privacy will keep you thinking long after you put the book down.

A great read for SF readers, mystery fans, and computer geeks.

Provocative and interesting--security and human rights
Since the Infowars, English Detective Inspector John ? has been plagued by his doubts and shuffled into the remote bowels of British crime enforcement. In this dystopic near-future, England and much of the world are overrun by computer viruses, networked security cameras that can track and identify nearly anyone, and new morality laws that forbid virtually everything, even requiring editing of Disney movies before they pass the censors.

But murder is still a crime and Sophie Booth's murder is the DI's chance to reclaim active status in the police. It was a particularly nasty murder--complete with torture and finally a knifing. Worse, it was broadcast over the net and only one viewer bothered to notify the police. As the DI investigates, he begins to believe that the crime is not the straighforward murder it is made out to be. Finding the killer may not be enough to unveil the entire crime. As the police force turns against him, the DI is forced underground, taking chances that put him outside the pale.

Author Paul McAuley writes a tense SF mystery. The near-future environment he describes feels real and possible. For the most part, his technological crime advances ring true. The DI is well motivated and carefully drawn. His relationship with the missing Julie adds to his humanity and the violence of the crime motivates his extreme thirst for justice.