Pricey terror

A pretty scary read, War of the Worlds by Mark Slouka (Little, Brown, £9.99, ISBN 0 349 10785 8) can make your hair stand on end. It is nothing less than an alarm call that there is a danger of whole societies, computer-drunk, swapping living in the uncomfortable real world for that of life in virtual reality or cyberspace. The latter, of course, is controllable, full of pleasure and free from moral constraints. Already there is a term for those who find such an idea horrifying. It is PONA, a Person Of No Account. The thesis is plausible. The price, for a slim paperback, is not.