Saint Vidicon to the Rescue

March 15, 2005
Technogeek Tony Ricci's latest assignment is to debug a marketing firm's system. For him, this bug is a first: pages of Bible-like text unreel for exactly six minutes, intermittently throughout the day. Tony notices that the scrolling text tells the story of one St. Vidicon of Cathode, humanity's defender against the consequences of Finagle's General Statement--"The perversity of the universe tends toward maximum"--and Murphy's Law, one of Finagle's corollaries, as they apply to all things electronic and mechanical. Utterly absorbed in tracking the virus, Tony is surprised when he finds himself--at least, a part of himself--inside the computer network and face-to-face with St. Vidicon, who needs a part-time assistant to help answer prayers and fix things. In return, Tony will get some badly needed assistance with his love life. Soon, Tony and Vidicon face the biggest challenges of their virtual lives, with the safety of the world hanging in the balance. Extremely enjoyable light fantasy seasoned with a dash of physics, some sweet romance, and good philosophizing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)