If she marries him at all. I figure it's just as likely she'd vanish into the underworld, given her abilities, than consent to an arranged marriage from a father with whom her relationship is, as described in that bizarre and horrifying novel that I can never unread, not exactly the textbook example of strict conformity to parental mandates nor to parents having their childrens' best interests in mind. Of course, if technomancer powers are magical/cyberphobic in nature in SR4, Hitomi is supposed to have miraculously survived a near-total-drain by a vampire, which would leave her Essence hovering below 1.0. That'd make her irreconcilable with any technomancer potential and thus faded/burned-out come the Matrix 2.0.

At that age, she won't remain otaku very long...

Well, one of the wonderful absurdities of Psychotrope was that the otaku created by the aforementioned Psychotrope/Mirage entity were all adults and presumably somehow immune to the age-related degradation of ability associated with a standard otaku.

Red Wraith is the oldest IIRC. Or is it Darkfather?

Thanks for bringing that up BTW WireKnight. It's been some years since I read that one, and I was beginning to wonder if I'd just imagined the AI being called Psychotrope (after the psychtropic conditioning it used to make them otaku I think).

Wasn't she also infected with HMHVV?

Though some heavy-duty medical procedures paid for by daddy kept the virus from breaking out entirely...

I suggest waiting for Shadows of Asia, which should be available pretty fragging soon.

Maybe she was infected, maybe not. Daddy allowed the vampire attack to happen so he could test a possible HMHVV vaccine.

Then there's also the tidbit people seem to have missed about Hitomi being kidnapped in SOTA:64...

Kidnapped, or extracted?

Now that would be telling... anyway the truth will be revealed soon enough.

Nevermind.

Bizzare and horrifying? Unhealthy familial relationships?

Hmmmmmm. This sounds like a book I may just need to read.

I must say it's Smedmans best.
Of course I like all of her stuff, more or less. She's no Nigel Findley, but who is?

Mel Odon was always my fav beside Nigel. Nigel had a habbit of refereing to old tech to get the job done. The main character in one of his books used a 50 year old Barret and a 100 year old Barracuda. Something about people in the future using old time tech to do things always rang wrong with me.

there was also the teacher lady with the slashed wrists

Cool, the Dissonant Otaku Vampire Empress of Japan (seems like something Warren Ellis would have dreamt up along with Sumatran Robot Death Sluts)...

Yeah, which I never would have worried about if you hadn't brought up the reference I completely missed. Now there's something else to fear for my runners. And just when the Emporer was getting so nice, gets a shrew "Dissonant Otaku Vampire Empress of Japan" .

I actually hope it doesn't swing this way though. I remember rooting for Hitomi after just the first section of that book. Got a bum deal to begin with, then gets screwed with by Pax? ouch. Good make a nice adversary for the slitch though if she wasn't converted.

And JongWK, don't say "I suggest waiting for Shadows of Asia". I'll cry.