My reactions to reading this story in 1990. Spoilers follow.

This is one of those sf stories that, if a few words were substituted judiciously, would be a contemporary or historical story (here a detective story). The only real sf element -- the final battle between two computer/human interfaces -- seems rather tacked on and not that germane to the story. The story details marking this as a future tale -- the base on the moon, the Consort company with its high-tech transport (it could just as easily been some other corporation), the exotic weapons -- are not that important. It was obvious, after a time, that hero Joshua Tower's friend, Lincoln Foster, was a traitor. In these stories, the traitor is always one of the cast of characters. If a character drops out of sight while you get glimpses of an anonymous menace, you know who the menace is.

This story commits the common sin of insisting our hero get romantically involved. The ending is a big vague as to how the arrangement is reached between the warring groups. Quick doesn't give us much in the way of detail as to how datahunting works. Apart from invoking the word a lot in the last chapters of the novel, Quick didn't really carry the theme of "Systems" through the novel to produce an integrated story of the covert and overt systems of civilization. I also thought Colonel Tagg's inducing of total psychosis, to the point of serial murder, in Henry Allan Higgins, DIA agent, was silly.

All this said, I liked the novel. It was a quick, suspenseful story with gritty action and ruthlessness. I thought the emotional resonance of Tower realizing Foster's treachery, a man who is a surrogate father to him, in the very room that holds memory of his real father's brutality. The relationship between the two men was one of the best things about the novel. Foster illogically vacillates between killing Tower and saving him, but it is a realistic behavior as is his lame, but sincere and rather poignant, explanation of his betrayal to Tower. I liked that Tower did not kill him but forgave him recognizing his old, selfish, brutal self (The DIA agents all come off bad to one degree or another.) Foster forever denied a peaceful retirement (the whole reason for betraying Tower) is poignant as was their parting and humanly realistic. Though I complain of even the inclusion of the Tower/Kelly relationship, I must admit it was well handled. Kelly's emotional shock and confusion in her life on the run, was realistic and the emotional details of their relationship wasn't glib. The bit with the child gangsters and computer wizards was a bit disturbing and neededt more space. Quick's narrative was interesting in its intercutting between past and present, but it was also a bit heavy on foreshadowing. ( )