Black Glass

Taking the fall for his younger brother, Richard Candle went from being cyber cop to condemned criminal. After four years of UnMinding--, his mind suppressed, his body enslaved--he's released to discover his brother has slipped back into the underworld of the V-Rat, the virtual reality addict. Meanwhile, Candle's harried by the murderous Grist, the head of the world's biggest multinational. But his real enemy is something else: a conscious program, the Multisemblant, a meld of copied personalities, the dark side of five powerful people, with its own brutal agenda. Human society is sinking ever deeper a mire of escapism—but Richard Candle, looking for his missing brother, fights his way through the real world of underground stock markets, flying guns, the trash-walled labyrinth of Rooftown and the fringe of the fringe.

Winner of the Bram Stoker Award, given by the Horror Writers of America, for his story collection a€?Black Butterfliesa€? (Leisure Books), John Shirley is the author of numerous novels, including the recent Demons, which has been optioned by the Weinstein Group and is in development as a film; other novels include Crawlers, Eclipse, A Splendid Chaos, The Other End and City Come A-Walkina€.