“Gleeful, shrewd, speculative, cynical, closely observed . . . The Zenith Angle offers wisdom and solace, thrills and laughter.”—T he Washington Post “Compelling and important  . . . A darkly comic fable of info-war, the black budget, über-geek idealism, and the politics of Homeland Insecurity.”—William Gibson, author of Pattern Recognition              Pioneering computer wizard Derek “Van” Vandeveer has been living extra-large as a VP for a booming Internet company. But the September 11 attacks on America change everything. Recruited as the key member of an elite federal computer-security team, Van enters the labyrinthine trenches of the Washington intelligence community. His special genius is needed to debug the software glitch in America’s most crucial KH-13 satellite, capable of detecting terrorist hotbeds worldwide. But the problem is much deeper. Now Van must make the unlikely leap from scientist to spy, team up with a ruthlessly resourceful ex-Special Forces commando, and root out an unknown enemy—one with access to a weapon of untold destructive power. “Great fun . . . A cyberthriller of 21st-century technologies [that] peeps wittily behind the national security scenes of a modern superpower.”— New Scientist “A comedic thriller for the homeland security era.”— Entertainment Weekly “A darkly comic fable of info-war, the black budget, über-geek idealism, and the politics of Homeland Insecurity. Sterling’s grasp of the surfaces of contemporary reality is deftly prehensile; his understanding of what underlies those surfaces is both compelling and important.” —William Gibson, author of Pattern Recognition “Vibrates with fantastic in-jokes and insights . . . Rockets along like a hijacked airliner heading straight at you, like a flash-worm compromising every unpatched Windows box on the net at once. Lots of books are called ‘thrillers,’ but very few are this thrilling.” —Cory Doctorow, author of Eastern Standard Tribe  and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom “[Sterling offers] great insights about the inner workings of government, private industry, and the threats that could disrupt the online world as we know it. The Zenith Angle mixes technology, politics, dry humor, and suspense to provide a first-rate read.” —Howard A. Schmidt, former CSO for Microsoft and former Special Adviser for Cyber Security for the Bush Administration “A Catch-22 for the slashdot generation: a wry, cynical, informed peek at the paranoid world of the post-9/11 cyberspookerati. Buy it, read it, be very afraid.” —Charles Stross, author of Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise “Perhaps the sharpest observer of our media-choked culture working today in any genre.” — Time “Known for putting more interesting ideas on one page than most writers include in an entire novel.” — The Seattle Times “One of America’s best-known science-fiction writers and perhaps the sharpest observer of our media-choked culture working today in any genre.” — Time “Bitingly satiric—and quite often brilliant.” — The New York Observer “Known for putting more interesting ideas on one page than most writers include in an entire novel.” — The Seattle Times “Nobody knows better than Bruce Sterling how thin the membrane between science fiction and real life has become, a state he correctly depicts as both thrilling and terrifying.” —Kurt Andersen, author of Turn of the Century “The reigning master of near-future political SF.” — Publishers Weekly “Sterling [has a] gift for creating sympathetic yet fallible characters.” — Library Journal Like his peers William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, bestselling author Bruce Sterling writes cutting-edge speculative fiction firmly rooted in today's reality. Now in "The Zenith Angle, he has created a timely thriller about an information-age security expert caught up in America's escalating war on terror. "Infowar. Cybercombat. Digital security and techno-terror. It's how nations and networks secretly battle, now and into the future. And for Derek "Van" Vandeveer, pioneering computer wizard, a new cyberwarrior career begins on the fateful date of September 11, 2001. Happily married with a new baby, pulling down mind-blowing money as a VP of research and development for a booming Internet company, Van has been living extralarge. Then the devastating attacks on America change everything. And Van must decide if he's willing to use the talents that built his perfect world in order to defend it. "It's our networks versus their death cult," says the government operative who recruits Van as the key member of an ultraelite federal computer-security team. In a matter of days, Van has traded his cushy life inside the dot-com bubble for the labyrinthine trenches of the Washington intelligence community--where rival agencies must grudgingly abandon decades of distrust and infighting to join forces against chilling new threats. Van's special genius is needed to make the c