Hello! My brain hurts, and I'd like it to hurt less. For some reason, I have a bee in my bonnet about a science fiction book I read some 15-20 years ago. I want you to help me remember what it's called. This should be fun, because I don't remember much, and before you ask, yes, I've exhausted Google (including their advanced book search), Bing, and the Library of Congress online search. So here's what I know: Title: I don't know, and if I did, would I be asking? Author: No idea. Genre: Science Fiction / Computer Thriller Year(s) published: Between 1988(?) - 1999(?) Plot: From what I can remember of the story, there's a new BBS where users join, and become so addicted, they they die of dehydration/starvation and the like, and are found in their homes days later, still at their keyboards. It's because something in the software is making it addictive. Keywords I remember: Penultimate software, BBS, VGA graphics If you can help me remember this, I will be very grateful, because right now, I just can't think of what it could be.
I think I read something similar. Did it involve the entire U.S. population pretty much succumbing to this and the story being told by ex-pats trying to re-enter the now quarantined U.S.? If so, I don't remember the title, but I'll look through my books to find it.
[tackles Defcon to the floor and smothers him in kisses] Yes! That's it! Argh! Why was that so hard for me to find?! I tried every single search term I could think of, but I never got close to it! Thank you! Edit: Actually, at one point, I did type "Virus" (as one of the many PC terms I was trying) along with "Penultimate" into several search engines, and all I got was "You need Norton Antivirus!" Seriously, we need a real book searching engine.
Your welcome. Don't know if I should admit that it only took me a couple of minutes on Google books or if I should pretend that I searched for hours. How I found it: searching "penultimate software" lead me to this : http://books.google.de/books?id=mFn...en&sa=X&ei=85M4U470IsbCtAaPw4HIBw&redir_esc=y With the info from that link which sadly cut off the novel's title in the viewable part I changed the search terms to: penny 1995 virus novel And that led me to the link I posted earlier.
Curse you, J. You made me pootle over to Amazon UK and buy a used library copy of the book. In my defense the book plus p&p cost less than £5.