THE WEB: 2027 depicts a world very different from ours. Life is dominated by the Web - a global cybernetwork of virtual worlds. And no-one's lives are dominated more than the children's - most of their schooling is in the Web and nearly all their leisure time is spent there. The Web has become big business. But there are pressure groups who see its influence as insidious, evil even. The actions of one ageing technocrat are about to make the worst fears of the doomsayers come true. And the children of the world are in the front line.Originally published 1997-98 as six slim volumes aimed at younger readers, these novellas now appear as an omnibus edition. Their shared setting is the evolved Web of 2027, a near-infinite interactive virtual reality whose potential for appalling booby-traps is exploited by the Sorceress. This aged woman plans to grab computerised immortality at others' expense, and reappears as the villain of each story. Baxter's GulliverZone features a VR theme park based on Gulliver's Travels, with the nice idea of equal rights for computer viruses; Bowkett's Dreamcastle is a more conventional D&D-style adventure game; Brown's Untouchable sees the Web from the viewpoint of a monstrously exploited Indian pariah-caste girl; Joyce's Spiderbite revolves around the secret world domination plans of the "Church of Planetology" which plants controlling "engrams" in young innocents' minds (hello, L. Ron Hubbard!); Hamilton's Lightstorm moves out into the real world of corporate ecological vandalism; and Furey wraps up the linked stories and finally deals with the arch-villain in Sorceress. There are no real duds ... but extra marks to Brown for setting and poignancy, Joyce for ingenuity of plot and payoff, and Hamilton for thoughtfulness about how even good guys may want to project a misleading Web persona. --David Langford

Genre: Science Fiction