Charlie Stross' Halting State takes place in a near-future that's future enough that the event that kicks off the novel is a heist that takes place in a multi-player online game and it matters outside the game. But it's also "near-" enough that the police officer who is assigned to the case is a little flummoxed as to how to investigate such a thing. The book trucks along with expanding action and is quite a good read. Oh, and the whole thing is in second-person (as my clever wife pointed out, just like an old text adventure) which was nowhere near as distracting as I thought it might be.

FuzzyCo grade: A