KILLING TIME

It is 2023. Malcolm and Larissa Tressalian, the genetically engineered spawn of "The Father of the Internet," attempt to break a gullible public's addiction to the Web through an insidiously designed program of misinformation. Their motives may be noble, but their methods are corrupt. When they attempt to reveal their hoaxes, no one believes them. As most nongenetically engineered children would know, crying wolf leaves one with a lot of dead sheep. While it has an interesting premise, the story's characters are merely cyber versions of talking heads with Victorian sensibilities. Narrator Philip Goodwin makes the most of this material, managing effective dialects and creating excitement whenever possible, but Caleb Carr«s dialogue is preachy, often pedantic, leaving Goodwin little leeway for interpretation. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/ JAN 02]