Janus Trap

The cyberpunk Aborigines are back - for revenge, after the Cerberus rebels' attempt to use a superweapon against Earth's alien enemies rebounded on the Dreaming. Tampering with the rebels' matter transporter, they create duplicates of Grant, Kane and Brigid, who will infiltrate the fortress and destroy it from the inside, assisted by an Aboriginal assassin. Meanwhile, the three rebels themselves are trapped in a dream world which subverts their memories of their earlier lives. Even when they begin to suspect it isn't real, will they want to give up this perfect illusion and return to messy, dangerous reality...? All right, we've all seen the two elements of this plot - evil duplicates, and the perfect dream world - before, but combining them makes for a story with action and with emotional depth. Readers who enjoy the rollicking all-guns-blazing stuff will find plenty to enjoy, particularly a suspenseful attempt by one character to escape death by composting machine (apparently even environmentalism has its dangers!) Meanwhile, the fantasy world shows us sides of the main characters that we've never seen before, and adds depth to this future world by showing us how the majority of its citizens live. With ironic fates for the bad guys and a pitch-perfect final paragraph, this is a solid, satisfying read with a lot to say about human nature.

Outlanders is just getting better and better at the moment. For the 50th book we get a great doppleganger story where we get a peak at the backgrounds of some of the main characters. There's some nice emotional bits with Brigid and Abi plus a throwaway line about needing an I.T. expert which made me laugh. All-in-all a good read.