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From: frdish@aecom.UUCP (Larry Freund)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Here's another book that needs identification:
Message-ID: <1168@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 20-Feb-85 14:29:50 EST
Article-I.D.: aecom.1168
Posted: Wed Feb 20 14:29:50 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Feb-85 01:50:36 EST
References: <578@topaz.ARPA> <776@ukma.UUCP>
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 52

> This book starts out about a professor whose wife has left him. He gets
> depressed one night, and tries to commit suicide. He's saved by his hat.
> His wife is a nurse, I think. 
> 


> At this point, the story shift to another person. This guy officially doesn't
> exist -- he doesn't have the equivalent of a SS number. He's a burglar by 
> profession (and a good one, too). Then he breaks into this apartment, and 
> discovers that the tenant (a woman about 24-26) is trying to commit suicide.
> 
> [Note: This society has something very similar to the "tasp" from Ringworld,
> except that anyone can buy one. They call it "wire-heading" in this book]
> 
> The woman had plugged herself into the wire, and was starving herself to 
> death. The guy unplugs her, and saves her life (she breaks his nose in the
> process). He performs a little rough psychology on her, and gets her unaddicted
> to wire-heading. Then she decides that she wants to "get back" at the 
> companies that make the wires. She wants him to help her, and he declines.
> His reasoning is that a man who doesn't officially exist would be worth a lot
> of money to those companies. He could do dirty work for them, and no one would
> every know. Or words to that effect. 
> 
> To make a long story short, he discovers a good bit of his past, and yes, he's
> the professor. Then he goes on a rampage to rescue his sister. End of story.
> I don't remember anything about how he did (or didn't) succeed.
> 
> 
> ***** Any ideas? It's annoying to recall so much of the plot, but not
>       the title or author. Someone suggested "The Steel Rat" (or something
>       like that). I haven't read that, but it doesn't sound familiar.
> 
> 				Thanx,
> 					Red

*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***

The story is "Mindkiller" by Spider Robinson.
I seem to remember that the chapter where the burglar
finds the girl in the chair with the wire on, the chapter 
that ends with his saying "I came to rob your house." was
originally a short story by Larry Niven which Robinson decided
to build into a novel

-- 

		"It's either believe that, or else believe we're 
		 only characters in a series of stories being 
		 written by a couple of hacks who need the money."

Larry Freund
UUCP: {cucard,philabs,pegasus,esquire,rocky2,ihnp4}!aecom!frdish