- Paperback: 293 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins (Aug 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0061054305
- ISBN-13: 978-0061054303
- Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 10.4 x 2.5 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,598,038 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Synopsis
Giving up her career as a near-death experience performer, celebrity Lydia Melmoth is unwilling to subject herself to another brush with death, until her mother's pressing need for money pushes Lydia into a comeback. Original.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
An entertaining noir satire - think "Serial Mom".
19 Nov 1998
Format:Paperback
"Virtual Death" starts slow, and it has some first-novel rough spots, but Aaron hits the mark more often than not. She kept me smiling.
Rating: "A". Recommended. PK Dick award nominee, 1996. I'm looking forward to her(?) next book.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
An interesting novel.
9 Oct 2005
Format:Paperback
An interesting story, to say the least. As others have mentioned, its a slow read from the start. Once it gains momentum, it's a pretty wild ride. I'd recommend it for a weekend read, for sure.
A prior poster (Mr. Tillman) mentioned seeing a picture of "her". Sadly, Mr. Tillman is incorrect. Shale Aaron is none other than Robert Boswell, a faculty member of New Mexico State University.
A prior poster (Mr. Tillman) mentioned seeing a picture of "her". Sadly, Mr. Tillman is incorrect. Shale Aaron is none other than Robert Boswell, a faculty member of New Mexico State University.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
An entertaining noir satire - think Serial Mom
27 Jan 2005
Format:Paperback
_________________________________________
Lydia Melmoth is a Death Artist - she died 7 times before she was 18,
still the world record. Now retired, she's being pressured to die again -
by her Mom, who's raising money for the Banjos, a terrorist group that
assassinates gun-shop owners:
"For every 1 of them we get, we save 100 others. I can show you our
stats. A net saving of 99 lives."
"How do you figure this?"
"It's a complicated formula," Mother told us. "It has to do with both the
actual sales lost from having a dead salesperson, and the more
generalized slowdown that comes from people being reluctant to be
associated with guns."
"Plus we often get to take all the guns in the shop for our own use..."
"Let me give you the rest of our figures, Lyddie," Mother said. "Now,
each of our actions --"
"Assassinations..."
"Yes, dear, each costs us roughly $10,000. I know that sounds like a lot,
but think of all that goes into it - the travel, the surveillance, & you
wouldn't believe our overhead! Now each $10,000 action, we estimate,
saves 100 lives... Now, Lyddie, we believe that your event will earn us
at leat ten million dollars." She glanced at Blu Fen.
"Minimum," he said.
"That means you could be responsible for saving 100,000 lives..."
* * *
Blu Fen, Lydia's latest lover, secretly filmed the two making it as he
slipped her the death-drug, and then released the results as a wildly-
popular snuff-porn video, with all the profits going to him...
"It's true that I behaved badly, not telling you about the camera - or the
die - but I asked you 1st if you'd do it willingly, and you refused.
Sometimes a person has to take fate into their own hands. That film is
going to make *millions*...
"Virtual Death" starts slow, and it has some first-novel rough spots, but
Aaron hits the mark more often than not. She kept me smiling.
Shale Aaron is something of a mystery-woman. "Virtual Death"
is her first novel, and first fiction I can recall seeing. I've seen her
photo in Locus - a distinguished-looking middle-age woman, and
that's all I know about her.
VIRTUAL DEATH was a PK Dick award nominee in1996.
Recommended.
Happy reading--
Pete Tillman
Lydia Melmoth is a Death Artist - she died 7 times before she was 18,
still the world record. Now retired, she's being pressured to die again -
by her Mom, who's raising money for the Banjos, a terrorist group that
assassinates gun-shop owners:
"For every 1 of them we get, we save 100 others. I can show you our
stats. A net saving of 99 lives."
"How do you figure this?"
"It's a complicated formula," Mother told us. "It has to do with both the
actual sales lost from having a dead salesperson, and the more
generalized slowdown that comes from people being reluctant to be
associated with guns."
"Plus we often get to take all the guns in the shop for our own use..."
"Let me give you the rest of our figures, Lyddie," Mother said. "Now,
each of our actions --"
"Assassinations..."
"Yes, dear, each costs us roughly $10,000. I know that sounds like a lot,
but think of all that goes into it - the travel, the surveillance, & you
wouldn't believe our overhead! Now each $10,000 action, we estimate,
saves 100 lives... Now, Lyddie, we believe that your event will earn us
at leat ten million dollars." She glanced at Blu Fen.
"Minimum," he said.
"That means you could be responsible for saving 100,000 lives..."
* * *
Blu Fen, Lydia's latest lover, secretly filmed the two making it as he
slipped her the death-drug, and then released the results as a wildly-
popular snuff-porn video, with all the profits going to him...
"It's true that I behaved badly, not telling you about the camera - or the
die - but I asked you 1st if you'd do it willingly, and you refused.
Sometimes a person has to take fate into their own hands. That film is
going to make *millions*...
"Virtual Death" starts slow, and it has some first-novel rough spots, but
Aaron hits the mark more often than not. She kept me smiling.
Shale Aaron is something of a mystery-woman. "Virtual Death"
is her first novel, and first fiction I can recall seeing. I've seen her
photo in Locus - a distinguished-looking middle-age woman, and
that's all I know about her.
VIRTUAL DEATH was a PK Dick award nominee in1996.
Recommended.
Happy reading--
Pete Tillman
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