Less Than Human

Winner of the 2005 Aurealis Award for SF Novel.

Winner of the George Turner Prize, Maxine McArthur has gained worldwide critical and popular acclaim for her novels of far-flung galactic intrigue. Now the author of Time Future and Time Past presents a gripping thriller of identity, artificial intelligence, and murder in a near-future Japan...

When a factory worker is mysteriously killed by a robot, cybernetics engineer Eleanor McGuire is unwilling to call the incident "human error." In a different part of Osaka, four teenagers are electrocuted in an apparent group suicide, and Police Inspector Ishihara isn't convinced it was self-inflicted. When their investigations cross paths, the foreign scientist and the aging cop to find a trail that will lead them to more murders, corporate crime, and a strange online cult led by a secretive guru who promises immortality to his followers if they help him destroy civilization. But how can McGuire and Ishihara stop this psychopath if he doesn't seem to exist?