From Publishers Weekly
The most over-used New Age career advice is "Follow your bliss." For Slocum, protagonist of this near-future, emotionally charged novel mixing the generic (Town) and the specific (Town's Portuguese residents), it might have been "Flee your bliss." Foy (The Memory of Fire, etc.) starts Slocum off down and out, living on a disabled sloop in a rundown marina in a decayed New England seaport. Then things get bad. Desperate to regain real feelings after leaving a fast-track position at X-Corp Multimedia and destroying his marriage through addiction to 3-D drama, Slocum faces both a challenge and a mystery when an ocean liner pulls in next to his sloop. The liner's first officer wants Slocum's berth, and its seemingly sole passenger, a young woman named Melisande Yonge, wants to meet him. A hurricane is coming up the coast, and everyone is scrambling for safety. Slocum, trading on contacts and bartering away his last possessions, finds himself fighting for his sanity and Melisande's heart against the computerized tentacles of X-Corp. In a style that imitates the sensory experience of 3-D, the author presents the hardscrabble existence of people who reject security for freedom in a world where a sign like "Donaldson Salvage" has rusted out to "SO SA VAGE." Despite undeveloped elements like a serial killer and computer sentience, the book retains a tight focus on Slocum's mental and physical plights. The gathering tensions will keep Foy fans turning the pages. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
When Slocum's career with X-Corp Multimedia comes to an abrupt end, so do his marriage and his prospects for a decent future. Reduced to living aboard a sloop moored in a New England harbor town, he struggles to rebuild his life until the arrival of a mysterious ocean liner and the resurrection of his hidden past threaten to take away everything he has. The author of The Shift creates a dark and foreboding near-future of high-tech conspiracies and low-tech heroism. A good choice for most sf collections. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
As dark and detailed as a Mahler symphony, Foy's new novel is the story of a man breaking free of an addiction only he recognizes as destructive. In the near future, the virtual reality world of the Flash is so pervasive that couples make love with VR masks, or "face suckers," on, seemingly embracing glamorous partners of their fancy. Former high-powered executive Slocum's increasing numbness to everyday life compelled him to seek out a fringe existence in a crumbling New England marina, where his new office is a sloop with a dodgy engine and a bad-tempered tomcat. The retreat cost him wife and daughter but didn't quite dispel the cottony numbness. One morning he wakes to find an enormous luxury liner looming over him in the harbor. The ship and its mysterious female passenger will either finally free him or crush him in its wake. The richly textured setting of oily ropes, Portuguese fada music, weary prostitutes, cold beer, and the metaphysical threat of a hurricane should entrance whoever wishes Hemingway had written sf. Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
“A style that imitates the sensory experience of 3-D.”
— Publishers Weekly

“Hemingway meets magical realism.”
— Locus

“A storyteller who, like Conrad, can compress into a tale you can’t put down all the complexities of time and place.”
— Doris Lessing


From the Trade Paperback edition.


Review
?A style that imitates the sensory experience of 3-D.?
? Publishers Weekly

?Hemingway meets magical realism.?
? Locus

?A storyteller who, like Conrad, can compress into a tale you can?t put down all the complexities of time and place.?
? Doris Lessing


From the Trade Paperback edition.


Book Description
DANGEROUS FANTASIES

Slocum had it all: the perfect family, the perfect home, and the perfect job with X-Corp Multimedia–a major producer of interactive 3-D dreams.

Then Slocum’s career at X-Corp self-destructed, and with it his life. Now his world has shrunk to a tiny sloop berthed in the dingy harbor of a dying New England seafaring town. There he studies the legendary Smuggler’s Bible and dreams of sailing off to a life of freedom.
Then an enormous ocean liner docks beside him: a floating palace of glittering wealth and mystery with a single enigmatic passenger, a woman who restlessly walks the decks, unable to leave the ship.

For Slocum–rejected by his wife and daughter, hounded by his vengeful employers, harassed by the town police, his credit cut off, his funds running out–the alluring woman soon becomes his sole hope of escape. Only by learning her terrifying secret can he free her from her gilded captivity...and realize his own dreams–which, in a world of mass-produced fantasy, is the most forbidden pursuit of all.



From the Inside Flap
DANGEROUS FANTASIES

Slocum had it all: the perfect family, the perfect home, and the perfect job with X-Corp Multimedia–a major producer of interactive 3-D dreams.

Then Slocum’s career at X-Corp self-destructed, and with it his life. Now his world has shrunk to a tiny sloop berthed in the dingy harbor of a dying New England seafaring town. There he studies the legendary Smuggler’s Bible and dreams of sailing off to a life of freedom.
Then an enormous ocean liner docks beside him: a floating palace of glittering wealth and mystery with a single enigmatic passenger, a woman who restlessly walks the decks, unable to leave the ship.

For Slocum–rejected by his wife and daughter, hounded by his vengeful employers, harassed by the town police, his credit cut off, his funds running out–the alluring woman soon becomes his sole hope of escape. Only by learning her terrifying secret can he free her from her gilded captivity...and realize his own dreams–which, in a world of mass-produced fantasy, is the most forbidden pursuit of all.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Slocum had it all: the perfect family, the perfect home, and the perfect job with X-Corp Multimedia - a major producer of interactive virtual-reality entertainment. In a world divided between protected enclaves of luxury and blighted, decaying landscapes, the ubiquitous 3-D telecasts over the Flash hold millions in thrall with their packaged, programmed dreams." "Once Slocum helped devise those dreams, until his career at X-Corp self-destructed and with it his marriage. Now his world has shrunk to a tiny sloop berthed in the dingy harbor of a dying New England seafaring town, where the main attraction is a virtual-whaling theme park. In his solitary cabin he studies the legendary Smuggler's Bible and dreams of sailing off to a life of freedom." "Then an enormous ocean liner docks beside him in the harbor: a floating palace of glittering wealth and mystery, with a single enigmatic passenger, a woman who restlessly walks the decks as if unable to leave the ship. For Slocum - rejected by his wife and daughter, hounded by his vengeful employers, harassed by the town police, his credit cut off, his funds running out - the alluring woman soon becomes his sole hope of escape. Only by learning her terrifying secret can he free her from her gilded captivity ... and realize his own dreams - which, in a world of mass-produced fantasy, is the most forbidden pursuit of all."--BOOK JACKET.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

When Slocum's career with X-Corp Multimedia comes to an abrupt end, so do his marriage and his prospects for a decent future. Reduced to living aboard a sloop moored in a New England harbor town, he struggles to rebuild his life until the arrival of a mysterious ocean liner and the resurrection of his hidden past threaten to take away everything he has. The author of The Shift creates a dark and foreboding near-future of high-tech conspiracies and low-tech heroism. A good choice for most sf collections. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews