The "Bits and Bytes" universe was introduced by Asa Strong with his "Bits, Bytes and Life" (BB&L) story, and much of this story takes place at the same government agency in the same time frame. There is more emphasis on computer hardware design. It is also the story of two young engineers. Steve works for the agency, and Sandy works for IBM. Most of the story takes place in Washington (at the agency) or Poughkeepsie N. Y. (at IBM).
Size: 886 KB (170,333 words)
Genre: Romantic
Sex Contents: Some Sex
Tags: Ma/Fa, Consensual, Romantic, Heterosexual, First, Slow, School
Review by The Black Knight [other reviews by The Black Knight]
Reviewed:
I really wanted to like this story, and I expected I would. In the end, I did enjoy it, but not nearly as much as I had expected. Technically, I found the editing inadequate, as there were numerous errors. The writing was otherwise fairly good, although I found the dialog to be another major weakness; at times it was bad enough to pull my attention out of the story.
Even so, the characterization was great, if a little over the top. Some additional development of some of the secondary characters would have been appreciated, though. The characters who were developed were all quite sympathetic, so maybe a little more development of at least one 'bad guy' would have been appropriate as well. I also thought at least one technical issue in the plot was glossed over, although I did not allow that to effect my determination of the story's merits, as I could've missed it somewhere.
All told, this story is interesting most for the look it gives at some old time computer hardware development. It admittedly occurs over a much shorter time span than is normal, but that is just artistic license. It's also an interesting look at a long distance relationship that actually works. Anyone looking for either should probably add this to their list of stories to read, but should keep their expectations down, so as to not be disappointed.
