The Veiled Web

By Catherine Asaro

Book Overview

Ballerina Lucia del Mar has two great passions: dance, which consumes most of her waking hours, and the Internet, which brings the outside world into her tightly regimented life. These two passions... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553581511
• ISBN13: 9780553581515
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Spectra
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 1.0" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

A VEILED WEB by Catherine Asaro

Catherine Asaro has created a crossroads for romance and science fiction fans to feast on with her extraordinary new novel, A VEILED WEB. She not only tells a tale involving American ballet star, Lucia del Mar, and a vastly intelligent Moroccan businessman, Rashid al-Jazari, who created a computer system that is revolutionary in scope but shows up the differences in their cultures.This is a truly fascinating book that will thrill you with edge of your seat adventure as Lucia and Rashid are kidnapped and thrown into a quandary as how to escape their captors. Rashid comes up with a solution and takes Lucia to his home in Morocco as his wife. Here she encounters Rashid's work on artificial intelligence as well as his family and the challenges she has to overcome with being Rashid's wife. Immersed in all this is Lucia's growing attraction for a man not of her culture, her love of dance, which is her life, and her compelling need to talk with Zaki in the Jarizi Suit. This book snags you and doesn't let go for a minute.This is a book you want to read more than once. To me this is a "Golden Keeper!"

Something to think about no matter what your background

An American ballerina and a Moroccan computer scientist enter into a marriage of convenience to escape from kidnappers. She learns about him, his family and his culture while he learns about her and tries to learn who is after them. Meanwhile, the AI entity he's created learns about everything, as they try to prevent anyone from learning about it. The AI proves his true nature in a tear-jerking climax, while the strength of the hero and heroine's love for each other must prove sufficient to overcome their own natures and social conditioning.In a fresh and exciting turn from her more familiar science fiction epics, Asaro sets The Veiled Web in the near future (2010) on a very recognizable Earth. The book draws on Asaro's experience as a ballet dancer to present a realistic portrait of a dancer's life, without ever becoming weighed down by the details of individual dance steps or procedures. Similarly, just the right level of detail is given about Moroccan culture and architecture, rather than turning into a lecture on Islam or Moroccan history. The level of detail provided for the computer segments suffers slightly from the fast pace of change in that field, but once the basics are covered, Asaro dips into the more advanced AI concepts with the same light finesse she gave ballet and Moroccan culture.Personally, I found the AI concepts riveting and thoroughly engrossing. The science is explained clearly, but the details can be passed over as more colorful phrases in a foreign language, without impacting the romantic suspense that is the heart of the story.Most authors would be satisfied with a single rich backdrop, or one weighty set of issues. Not Asaro. It's a tribute to her storytelling skills that she manages to seamlessly weave together three elaborately detailed settings (the world of ballet, Morocco, and cyberspace) and two sets of neatly meshing yet distinct issues (the clash of cultures and religions, and the nature of thought and spirit). Each reader will probably find a different mix of setting and issues of primary interest. But no matter what your background, this book will give you something to think about, and people for which to care.

Best NEW book I've read in years

Just finished reading Catherine Asaro's THE VEILED WEB. Couldn't put it down; she combines depth of characterization with superb action. Both Lucia and Rashid come alive for me, as well as several of the other characters.As a person with interests in both ballet and computers, and with many friends in intercultural marriages, the total effect on me was much more than the sum of its parts.I hope to see more of Rashid and Lucia, and their offspring, in the very near future.

Romance is the focus

Although Asaro has a following in both Science Fiction and Romance, "The Veiled Web", is first a romance; the Science Fiction content is secondary. Asaro's reoccurring theme of emerging machine intelligence serves as a driver for much of the action in the novel, but story focuses on odd and unlikely meeting and marriage of Lucia del Mar, a ballerina bearing a striking resemblance to (dare I say it?), the good doctor, and a Moroccan software designer. Oh, and we must include his son, Zaki, an electronic "tourist guide", who resents being shutdown. With this nicely paced, well written romance, Asaro forges a link between the romance novel and the international espionage genera. Well met!

Reader from Texas

A terrific read, in a very different way than her "Skolian Saga" books. The characters were well-defined and real. The author did her homework on Islam and AI. In particular, she accurately conveyed a sense of how some Muslims practice Islam without resorting to the usual stereotypes, an approach I found most refreshing.