For a book from 1995 that's about artificial intelligence and virtual reality, it's held up surprisingly well. Friesner didn't try to make dead-accurate predictions about where technology was going; she just set the story in the near future (which I think makes it about present day for me reading it in 2014) and made up a computer science that would support the story she wanted to tell.

The story itself was only so-so, unfortunately. The concept of Robin Hood and his "Merrie Men" living in modern Austin, Texas, understanding the real world and the Internet but still holding to their credo of "take from the rich and give to the poor" plays pretty well. Friesner gets in some points about sexism in the computer world/gaming, the vapidity of some New Age practices, and racism that feel surprisingly current (alas). But after a while, I realized I wasn't all that caught up in the plot and the characters were kind of flat. I felt more like I approved of the book than that I loved it. ( )