Books by author: J. Frederick George

Having managed to finish Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, I decided to finish out his remaining novels. The Cobweb concerns an Iraqi plot to develop biological weapons inside the United States, a CIA analyst who stumbles on the plot but is powerless to stop it, and a rural deputy who is caught in the titular cobweb.

This novel was, like Interface, originally published under a pseudonym. It is more plausible and a stronger novel than Interface, and although the Saddam Hussein references are now out of date, its topic remains relevant. It may not quite live up to Stephenson's popular science fiction, but it's an engaging read with several strong characters and an intricate plot.

Interface is very much like a Michael Crichton book ( Terminal Man, for example). It has the same level of pseudoscience and the same loopy plot style. It's as good as Crichton, and as bad. Fun, but not lasting.