The many cliches in Virtual Vandals could drive a reader nuts, with "Certain death!"

and the like around every corner. On the other hand the descriptions of the virtual experience are sometimes beautiful: Now Matt seemed to be flying through a vast city of light. Soaring skyscrapers in single blazing colors marked major corporate Web-nodes. Other virtual buildings were gray, with each window shining a different color—small business and individual e-mail sites. Yet other constructs floated in the coal-black sky.

This is good writing and is typical of most of the descriptions in Virtual Vandals.

The novel presents a future frontier besides that of outer space and the oceans—a frontier of the mind, created by thought and explored as if it were real.