Jesse Gordon's stories are always a delight. The characters come to life as you read. When one story is over, you'll want to start another as soon as you can.

This story is freaky-weird in a Twilight Zone cool way. I love how [Bryan] nearly kills himself through starvation and dehydration (there are some things the internet can't give you!), and the parental units (I can't really label them parents...that seems too personal, too responsible) die... *shivers* That last paragraph was perfect.

--"capall-rundaimhair"

I thought I was in for a little cyber-punk nostalgia but I was wrong. This was much better than most of that genre and with characters which were fleshed out extraordinarily well. They were good characters...there just wasn't much to them.

And better yet, this futuristic society was explained much better than most. I had no trouble connecting the dots and seeing where this thing was going. Obviously the kid was going to escape and start some kind of counterrevolutionary movement to overthrow the evils of the Internet.

Man, was I wrong. It showed some character by the author to pass up the "easy" ending and have the kid climb back into the belly of the beast.

Great stuff with good structure, believable characters and a real kicker at the end. I read this thing days ago and can't stop thinking about it.

--Bill Wolfe

Tell me please that this was published in a million different venues, or at least is being made into a segment in Animatrix 2...truly brilliant, enjoyed every aspect of it, and the surreal / real ending was a bona fide coup de grace.

I think Jesse's greatest achievement here is taking a topic that's generally considered passe these days (was hot ten years ago+) and making it seem perfectly relevant and par-for-the-course. I mean, typically the words "virtual reality" would make one giggle nowadays, but not herein. It helps that the writing's tight, characters appropriate, and background info. delivered unobtrusively (via newscasts, a classic, but it works).

The mix of quasi-1984 / Orwellian social and political values with Matrix technology once again proves its merit in words and story. It just works every time in the right hands.

--Lee Alon