ABANDONED. YA SciFi, episodic, immersive VR wearing suits, a 'web cop' helping children who get tangled up in a female criminal who wants to stay young/online forever

[Yuri]

This was a paperback I read about 2002, it might have been called "The Web 20xx" (where xx is a number, possibly 20) and googling for that has worn out my browser ;-)

Five episodes with different protagonists in different countries across the world. The main characters are always teenagers wearing VR hoods or even full suits. They usually brush up against a female cyber criminal who wants to use them or other children to stay forever young, or forever in the VR world.

There is a web police and their main protagonist is called Ariane or Ariadne. She helps the kids occasionally.

One episode took place with the main kid being in a wheelchair, another eposide was around street kids in India.

Thank you!
Yuri

[Leonie]

This sounds eerily like City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams but some of your info doesn't match up.

It does have people all over the world, and a disabled character, and people who want to live forever. The main protagonist is Renie, who is from South Africa.

[Yuri]

It's not that, but thank you for the suggestion, that looks perhaps even better than what I was requesting :-) I will put it on my reading list!

[Leonie]

Yuri wrote: "It's not that, but thank you for the suggestion, that looks perhaps even better than what I was requesting :-) I will put it on my reading list!"

Glad to be of help :) I really enjoyed that series!

[Ayshe]

Maybe this series: https://www.goodreads.com/series/4978... ? The sixth book's - Sorceress description:

Two Greek girls come across an aging woman who, via the Web, is attempting to steal experiences and consciousness to form a virtual conscisouness which will live on after her death. Can they stop her and save the young English boy who is unwittingly helping her?

And the third Untouchable may be the Indian episode.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Yuri, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[Kris]

No response, moving to Abandoned folder.

Yuri (OP) was last active on the site in July 2016.