Cybercats

Sequel to the award-winning The Electric Kid. Set in a nightmarish, over-populated future world where kids scavenge for a living on the garbage heaps of the city, this sounds as though it ought to be pretty bleak but in fact it's a nicely judged, amusing amalgam of SF, hard-boiled crime novel and comic book adventure. Hotwire and Blindboy are ex-street-kid computer whizzes who develop the cybercats to devour the city rubbish. All goes well until news breaks that the evil master criminal, Mouseman, who the kids sent to the chokey in the previous book, has escaped. Mouseman now has other plans for the cats and needs the kids' know-how. Knowingly PC, in that Hotwire is a girl and Blindboy is, well, blind, there are some telling side swipes at our present society and attitudes but these do not get in the way of a rollicking good read.