Fast paced and thoroughly entertaining.
This is a real SF classic from 1977 - it anticipates a lot of concepts of the internet, and the perils, only a few years after the start. Set in the near future (which in the book is now our past) Michaelmas, a world famous journalist, has created an artificial intelligence named Domino. Domino has total access to anything "on the grid", and Michaelmas has used him for years to squash the bad guys and promote world peace. And he's succeeded. But suddenly an astronaut thought killed in an accident is pronounced alive in a remote Swiss clinic, and the political ramifications threaten the world Michaelmas built. Michaelmas leaps to the immediate conclusion that someone - or something - is experimenting with the world, and must be stopped. By today's standards you might not call it fast-paced even though it takes place in a single day, but it's exciting nonetheless. In less than 300 pages it tells a great story with well-rounded characters. Lots of classical allusions and philosophical concepts, how we deal with change and loss...it's all here.
