Body Electric, by Susan Squires

I started Body Electric, by Susan Squires earlier today.

Blurb:

Victoria Barnhardt set out to create something brilliant. She succeeded beyond her wildest fantasies. With one keystroke her program spiraled out of control�and something was born that defied possibility: a being who called to her.

He spoke from within a prison—seeking escape, seeking release, seeking her. He was a miracle that Vic had never intended. More than a scientific discovery, or a brilliant coup by one of the world�s most infamous hackers, he was life. He was beauty. He was genius. And he needed to be freed, just as Vic needed to be released from the shadows of her past. The world might rise against them, but on one starry Los Angeles night, in each other�s arms, they would find a way to have each other and freedom both."

I'm enjoying it so far, though I found it very hard to like Vic at first. Just one detail: the Bob McIntyre = Bill Gates thing is a little irritating. I LOLed when I came across a bit of dialogue which went kinda like this:

Other guy: "Our latest release has a bug: it freezes when it tries to interact with third party applications."
Bob Mc Intyre: "I don't call that a bug. Why should we want our operating system to be able to interact with apps we don't sell?"

Come on! Way too heavy-handed!

Posted later...

I've been lazy. I've finished both Body Electric and another book (next post!) and not posted! Gasp! Ok, let's get up to date.

Body Electric was enjouyable. The problem was that it reminded me a bit of Asaro's Phoenix Code, but wasn't nearly as well done; not the characters and not the development of the AI plot.

Jodie was the best part here, as was the bare bones of the plot (it asked a lot of questions but never went into enough depth exploring them). Vic, however, was a bit more problematic. I was cool towards her at first, and though I warmed up to her eventually, she was a bit too disfunctional for me to believe she had become sane by the end of the book. The villain was too over-the-top, though I enjoyed his come-uppance by the end of the book. And maybe I'm too much of a romance reader, but I hated that Jodie slept with Bob's wife. Absolutely no need for it.