Trading Reality - Hardcover

Ridpath, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060176296 ISBN 13: 9780060176297

Publisher: Harpercollins, 1997

Synopsis

When his brother Richard, the head of a virtual reality company, is murdered, Mark Fairfax tries to further his brilliant brother's discoveries before the killer succeeds in destroying the company

About this title

From the Author:

Writing a second novel
What should I write for my second novel, after the success of my first, Free To Trade?

My first idea was simply to write Free To Trade again, changing the plot and characters slightly. But my German editor gave me some wise advice: write about something else that you are interested in. And so I decided to write about virtual reality.

I worked for three years for a venture capital company called Apax Partners. We invested in a small virtual reality company - Virtuality. It was one of the world leaders in the field, and dominated the market for VR entertainment systems. It had a bright future, but very little cash. Apax gave it some, and two years later the company floated on the stock exchange, giving Apax a profit of ten times its initial investment.

The whole process had been very exciting, and fraught with risk. The company seemed to be constantly lurching from boom to bust month by month. Personalities were important, and the stakes were high. From this, Trading Reality was born.

A sad postscript is that in early 1997 Virtuality did in fact go bust, The VR market took too long to take off, some management mistakes were made, and, inevitably, there wasn't enough cash.

If you would like to find out more about me or my books, please visit my website.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harpercollins
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0060176296
• ISBN 13: 9780060176297
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 390