Dubbed Interface Zero by those who created it, the Tendril Access Processor—or TAP—downloads the Global DataNet and Hyper Reality directly into the minds of billions of users across the solar system, bringing the world an unparalleled level of interconnectivity … and danger. Malware plagues the Deep, and hackers manipulate the Tendril Access Processor, uploading malicious viruses and stealing secrets and the identities of the unwary.
In 2088 a massive solar flare disrupts Earth’s satellite network, leaving the world in chaos as TAPs malfunctions. Hyper Reality overlays are indistinguishable from the physical world, and global rioting makes the whole world a war zone. Behind the madness, two AIs go to war, using humanity as their pawns.
Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I., faces his most fowl case yet, when a flock of murderous feral chickens terrorizes the Unnatural Quarter. Also in the caseload, Dan deals with a sinister spokesman for Monster Chow Industries, a serial-killer demon from the Fifth Pit of Hell, an evil gang dealing in black-market blood supplies led by the nefarious Ma Hemoglobin, a ghost fighting a hostile takeover in a chain of blood bars, a spreading contamination that drives vampires berserk, and a cute little vampire girl who may, or may not, be his daughter.
With his ghost girlfriend Sheyenne, his bleeding-heart human lawyer partner Robin, and his Best Human Friend Officer Toby McGoohan, Dan Shamble is ready to solve the case. The feathers will fly as he goes face-to-beak with the evil peckers.
It’s an ill wind that carries bad news, and Tori’s just had a double load of it blow through her door.
Just a few weeks after she prevented some rogue gods from blowing LA into the ocean, more dead bodies are turning up near the leftover crater. Bodies that have been shredded by something too big to be … shall we say, of this world? Worse, Uncle Christos has disappeared after stumbling onto a deadly cult masquerading as the Back to Earth movement.
The connection: Dionysus. Yes, that Dionysus. He’s resurrected his bloody fertility rite, complete with frenzied female groupies who tear men limb from limb. And he’s lured Demeter, goddess of the harvest, over to his side by finding a way to get her daughter away from Hades for good.
Predictably, Hades isn’t about to let her go without a fight. Unless Tori finds a way to bring her back, he’ll abandon the gates of Tartarus. At which time all hell will, literally, break loose.
Between saving the world, the woman, the cultists and her crazy uncle, Tori’s giving up on getting to the beach before all the good spots are taken.
