The Cobweb

Bantam is proud to reissue — in stunning new packages — two remarkably prescient political thrillers coauthored by one of the biggest names in cutting-edge fiction. A decade ago Neal Stephenson, the acclaimed author of Quicksilver and Cryptonomicon, teamed up with J. Frederick George to write a pair of gripping science-based political thrillers under the pseudonym Stephen Bury. Each book remains conspicuously relevant, and each has a biotech twist that now seems eerily plausible — Interface and The Cobweb

The Cobweb focuses on the first Gulf War. During the lead-up to Desert Storm, the murder of an Arab exchange student at a local university puts Iowa deputy sheriff Clyde Banks on a collision course with both the CIA and Saddam Hussein. With Banks' wife's Army Reserve unit off in the Middle East, it seems those students are Iraqis sent to conduct agricultural research on biological weapons, right here in his midwestern town.

Bantam is proud to reissue--in stunning new packages--two remarkably prescient political thrillers coauthored by one of the biggest names in cutting-edge fiction. A decade ago Neal Stephenson, the acclaimed author of Quicksilver and Cryptonomicon, teamed up with J. Frederick George to write a pair of gripping science-based political thrillers under the pseudonym Stephen Bury. Each book remains conspicuously relevant, and each has a biotech twist that now seems eerily plausible. Seattle Weekly called Interface a Manchurian Candidate for the computer age. William Cozzano is a likable presidential candidate who had the election in his hand--until a debilitating stroke. When a shadowy group of backers implants a biochip in his head that not only restores his functionality but also wires him into a computerized polling system, how can he possibly lose? Whatever the electorate wants, Cozzano offers--instantly. He's more than the perfect candidate: he's a political peripheral. In The Cobweb we shift our focus to the first Gulf War, with truly chilling results. During the lead-up to Desert Storm, the murder of an Arab exchange student at a local university puts Iowa deputy sheriff Clyde Banks on a collision course with both the CIA and Saddam Hussein. With Banks' wife's Army Reserve unit off in the Middle East, it seems those students are Iraqis sent to conduct agricultural research on biological weapons, right here in his midwestern town.

Neal Stephenson is the author of The System Of The World, The Confusion, Quicksilver, Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and other books and articles.

J. Frederick George is a historian and writer living in Paris.