En la ciudad de Los Ángeles se inaugura un rascacielos informatizado regido por un superordenador al que han llamado Abraham. De pronto, en el edificio, se empiezan a producir extrañas muertes. Los principales sospechosos son un estudiante que encabeza manifestaciones contra el propietario de la constructora, y uno de los técnicos del equipo del arquitecto, que se ha peleado con él. Pero acaso el verdadero culpable no sea humano...

A fairly straightforward techno-thriller about a new high-tech building controlled by what turns out to be an AI and which considers the humans visiting it to be some sort of infestation. Accordingly, it sets out to eradicate them.

Not an original theme, but Kerr carries it off well enough. The novel was written in 1995 and so shows its age in a number of ways; the names dropped, attitudes towards women and smoking, and telephones with attached handsets. Yet it carries its age well. There is a loose end, a technical error regarding imaging lasers, a high body count and (perhaps the most jarring note of all) the tech talk is a mix of the informed and the wrong, and we can switch from one to the other in the same sentence. And the AI's inner dialogue appears to be conducted in Orwell's Newspeak, which came as a bit of a surprise. Characters are a bit one-dimensional, though the prima donna architect does have some sort of personal growth. The police are pretty well all out of 1970s cop show central casting. But the world-building is subtle and well-done - internal evidence gives the date of the story's action as 1997, two years ahead of when it was written.

It held my interest and I didn't have to suspend too much disbelief. ( )

Mala traduccion muy localista amigo Kerr quedate con Bernie que lo logras mejor que esto. Un programa de computacion que se apropia de un edificio y juntar todos los lugares comunes que pueden imaginarse y mas ( )

A "smart building" goes all Jurassic Park on its inhabitants.

This abridged audio version was probably quite enough of the book for me. With one exception (a reference to "an eye for an eye"), I can only imagine that the parts not included were mostly exposition.

Entertaining, interesting to imagine the possibility of how such a thing could happen. The building has very inventive ways of knocking off its inhabitants. ( )

Recomendado por un amigo canadiense como una obra maestra. Para mí no fue para tanto ( )