Coils

Saberhagen, Fred, and Roger Zelazny. Coils. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1982. Illus. [S. F.] Book Club Edition. Also: New York: Doherty, 1982.

A hero's quest for his true name and for his kidnapped lover, in a near-future world. The hero can "coil," descending into the data-net of computer programs; his former lover ends up as a computer program. The hero eventually meets "the sentience" that had evolved inside of the data-net: a literal deus ex machina in terms of the plot and an Adam/Eve figure in an electronic Eden, to whom the hero will play serpent (cf. Hal and his neurosis in A. C. Clarke's 2001, q.v. this Category). See entries for W. Gibson's Neuromancer series, F. Pohl's "Day Million," J. Sladek's Müller-Fokker Effect, and B. Daley's Tron, this Category. See also TRON, under Drama.