Laura Miller surveys the role of the internet in recent contem­porary (English-language) fiction, especially its power to emphasise character (and character flaws).

It is what the internet lures out of us – hubris, daydreams, avarice, obses­sions – that makes it so potent and so volatile… the internet is at least partly us; we write it as well as read it, perform for it as well as watch it, create it as well as consume it.