5 comments about A Scanner Darkly.

1. The movie version of "A Scanner Darkly" was one of the most original films I saw last year. I loved it; the animation was innovative and fascinating, while the movie itself was hypnotic. Philip K. Dick has been responsible for writing the novel versions of several recent great films (including "Minority Report") and I was curious to read some of his work. After reading "A Scanner Darkly" I discovered why Richard Linklater made the film version the way he did. The subject matter of the film, its atmosphere could be caught in a live-action film; but I doubt it would have been as good. The book is great! Whether it's better than the movie or not, I really can't say...I barely paid attention to the plot of the movie, it was the animation that kept my eyes glued to the screen. The book is very close to the movie; Fred is an undercover narcotic agent trying to bust Bob Arctor, a man who's believed to be a big-time drug dealer of Substance D (as in death), a drug that causes split personalities in people. Scanners (hidden cameras) have been installed in Arctor's house so the police can have 24-hour surveillance; There's only one problem; Fred is Bob Arctor. He's doing surveillance on himself. His fellow workers don't know this because employees where a scramble suit (a suit which scrambles their facial features and vocal patterns, the movie couldn't have done a better job with it). Bob's life is relatively simple; He hangs out at his house all day dropping D with his two drug-addicted roommates James Barris (the most memorable character in both film and novel) and Ernie Luckman and hangs out with his drug-dealing girlfriend Donna. The only real BIG differences between novel and film are that in the movie, a character named Charles Freck (who plays a small but memorable role in the book) takes the place of a character named Jerry Fabin. And the ending of the book is more drawn out than it is in the film. Hopefully, I've made it clear that this is not a novel of science fiction but rather a novel about drugs. Science fiction does play a small role, but it doesn't deserve top billing. But drugs aren't 100% of it either. The book also captures the paranoia people felt after the Watergate scandal and it does all of it so well. This is a terrific book and is worthy of a read. I guarantee that if you see the movie you'll realize how good the translation to screen was.
   
   GRADE: A-



2. Fantastic book, a classic and a masterpiece in its genre. Dick is the author that, in my opinion, has most revolutionized science fiction. And this book proves it, with the very original ideas of the plot. But there is more to it. In this book Dick has surpassed himself in the geniality of the dialogues. The reader will find similarities in the dialogues to the Joseph Heller of the best novels. Everything is well balanced in this book, the funny ideas and the dramatic introspections, the way the plot develops, the crescendo of confusion in the mind of the main character, everything leads to the surprising end.
   Other reviewers have stressed the originality of the subject and the rythm of the story; I like to underline that in this book the reader will be delighted by narrative at its highest levels. Recommended to science fiction enthusiast as well as general fiction readers.



3. "A Scanner Darkly" is, at its heart, primarily a story about drug use and abuse, told by watching Bob Arctor/"Fred" the undercover narc as he descends further into the murky realm of use and abuse, falling more into the double role until even he doesn't know who he is. With many blackly comic scenes of mind-tripping conversations, the earlier parts of the story mostly focus on Arctor's interactions with his friends and roommates Barris, Luckman and Freck; as the story progresses, more of the story is told from the outside looking in as Fred watches the holoscans.
   
   Fred is undercover trying to track the source of Substance D, a highly addictive and deadly drug, which invariably burns out its users. When first Arctor's cephscope and then his car are sabotaged, he begins to think someone is onto him. Of course, Arctor himself inevitably burns out and is placed into a substance abuse clinic. Who is friend, who is foe and who is creating Substance D? These questions are answered as almost an afterthought, with the bulk of the story focused on Arctor/Fred's breakdown.
   
   An interesting piece of fiction, if a bit difficult to get through due to the often jarring switches in perspective and topic. Fans of Philip Dick will not be disappointed.



4. I did not see the movie, "A Scanner Darkly," but it appears to me (from a review on IMDB) that images from the movie were published more or less as is to form this product. As such, the book is faithful to the film. Perhaps too faithful, since the way of narritive development on the screen is not identical to that in book form.
   
   ASD is fairly interesting and easy to read. The USA of "seven years in the future" is suffering a devastating drug plague fomented by terrorists. The government has reponded with heavy surveillance and police tactics. Still, many citizens (and even police!) are drug users, and a sort of addle-brained resistance to the tyranny of the crackdown is emerging. Or not.
   
   The book is fairly innocuous but should be rated R for drug humor, for the occassional (and gratuitous) female topless nudity, for a panel or two of atop-the-sheets sex and for one gory scene. It may be all you need to know that the book does NOT make me long to see the film. Between Keanu Reeves playing his usual doltish character who repeats the last word of whatever is said to him, the long stretches where nothing much happens, and the "helpful" labels ("Back in so-and-so's house") that a true graphic novel would incorporate into the images, this "graphicization" of the movie falls far short of the satisfaction that comes from reading a quality book designed for the genre.



5. I feel there are certain books that are necessary for us to read (and I'm sure as I go on reading, I'll find others), and I've just added another to the list--Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly (I like this book so much that I actually consider it tied with Fitzgerald's Gatsby, Twain's Huck Finn, and Kerouac's On the Road as my favorite book). It's a twisted, surreal tale of paranoia and deception. That's the world of illegal drugs, and having done some of the same drugs, I recognize that world that Arctor inhabits (and that Dick once did). It's a touching story that, like Burrough's Junky, makes no judgements.

5 comments about Ghost In The Shell Volume 1 - 2nd Edition.

1. Well, what can I say... If you're a Ghost in the Shell fan, and you don't like getting your mangas censored (as in, entire pages removed), then get this edition of the Ghost in the Shell manga. It's much easier to follow when compared to the second manga (man machine interface) - which actually has very little to do with the first one. I'm not going to go over the story as I'm sure most of you who are looking at this item have seen either the movie or the TV series, and now wish to read the original work. So I thought I'd be a little more technical with my review, firstly, I would say that the paper is awesome quality, not the standard dull paper which is normally used for paperbacks, in terms of color pages, unfortunately, that's where the second manga kills the first, the second manga had so much in color (about half) it was almost hard to believe, this manga is for the most part just black and white with the occasional 3 color pages thrown in here and there. I've given this 4 stars because I think it is not as enjoyable as some of the other mangas I have read, but overall, not a bad purchase, do note that the drawing style is quite old, don't expect the same style as the second manga as that is much newer than this one.



2. This book excellent. The author uses great choice of words. Overall, this is a great read.



3. This is the ultimate Ghost in the Shell manga! The 2nd edition has 18+ rating and so it includes original adult content :-) Also it's printed on a really quality paper with A5 dimensions so it's quite handy and nice. For GitS fans who don't have the 1st edition this is a must buy. Go for it you won't be disappointed ^_^



4. a few color pages every chapter. i find it kinda hard to fallow in some places. the art is good. idk for about story wise how it compares to the orignal.



5. It's interesting to see where it all started. A classic by any standard in my book!

5 comments about Burning Chrome.

1. It can be stated that it is worthy for one to learn English only to be able to read NEW ROSE HOTEL in the original. No translation can do justice to Gibson's fresh prose. I realize that the cannon-setters might not agree, however, for me, these are the BEST 28 pages ever written in English. With Gibson SF entered its Golden Age.
   
   All of the short stories contained are excellent. However, my favorites are all of the three Sprawl ones: JOHNY MNEMONIC, NEW ROSE HOTEL and BURNING CHROME; at par is the Soviet retro (nowadays) HINTERLANDS.
   
   Never before or since have I came upon comparable poetic dreamscapes of futuristic noir dystopia. The images are so concentrated they just burst from the reader's mind to create a detailed alternative reality. And it is not that the Novels are diluted - they are just more of the good stuff!
   
   My advice: read BURNING CHROME *AFTER* the famous trilogy (NEUROMANCER, COUNT ZERO, MONA LISA OVERDRIVE). They will help you understand the precursor ideas for the rich atmospheric world that followed.
   [Do not watch the NEW ROSE HOTEL movie. Do so for JOHNY MNEMONIC neither. They do no justice to these literature gems].
   
   Highly Recommended!



2. This book, and the title story inside, pretty much defines Cyber-Punk. Yes, John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider (1975) and Ryan's The Adolescence of P-1 (1977) pre-dated the Cyberpunk movement by a decade but their views of a computer based world didn't take off the way Gibson's work did. The earlier novels also lacked a bit of the noir/pulp fiction flavor that Gibson's work has. The '70's novels had the protagonists fighting a machine/network set up by 'the man' and ultimately subverting it. In Gibson's stories, the characters are the rats in the walls, just trying to get ahead or around 'the man'. Yeah, I can't really describe the difference but it's there.
   
   One other factor that makes Gibson's work stand above others in the this genre is his descriptive powers. He paints a very realistic seeming world that is very visual but he doesn't bog down the narrative while doing so. When I start reading his stuff, I rarely find myself knocked out of the story by the text. Cool!



3. A definitely good collection of stories, basically set in and around the milieu and style of his famous novel of the time.
   
   
   Burning Chrome : Johnny Mnemonic - William Gibson
   Burning Chrome : The Gernsback Continuum - William Gibson
   Burning Chrome : Fragments of a Hologram Rose - William Gibson
   Burning Chrome : The Belonging Kind - William Gibson
   Burning Chrome : Hinterlands - William Gibson
   Burning Chrome : Red Star Winter Orbit - Bruce Sterling and William Gibson
   Burning Chrome : New Rose Hotel - William Gibson
   Burning Chrome : The Winter Market - William Gibson
   Burning Chrome : Dogfight - William Gibson and Michael Swanwick
   Burning Chrome : Burning Chrome - William Gibson
   
   
   Memory boy, samurai girl, cyborg dolphin hook up.
   
   4 out of 5
   
   
   Not a fan of retro sf design.
   
   4 out of 5
   
   
   Movies feel real.
   
   3 out of 5
   
   
   Blending search.
   
   3.5 out of 5
   
   
   Space spies for alien machines.
   
   3.5 out of 5
   
   
   Cosmonaut crapout space station hitchhikers.
   
   4 out of 5
   
   
   Biology sprint.
   
   3.5 out of 5
   
   
   Diseased girl disappearance upload.
   
   3 out of 5
   
   
   Gonna pay for the pilot enhancement.
   
   3.5 out of 5
   
   
   Cracking victim charity.
   
   4 out of 5



4. If you liked Neuromancer - you gonna love this collection of short stories by the master of cyber punk genre.
   Highly recommended!



5. Take this and the collection Mirrorshades (edited by Bruce Sterling and you will have the definitive "cyberpunk" short story collection.
   
   Burning Chrome is a solid representation of Gibson's early work ("the Sprawl period") and while its most often represented with references to Neuromancer, his finest, most poignant prose is in this collection of short stories.
   
   Perhaps most utterly fascinating is the late-stage Cold War mentality that we had ourselves a nuclear armageddon just around the corner but that after we got there, we would discover it just wasn't nearly as bad as we'd hoped. A few feeble bomb exchanges are overshadowed by black ops infiltration both physical and digital. Our wars are over in days rather than years and then we all go back to normal with re-drawn borders that mean anything only to cartographers anyway.
   
   Even in the shorts where a near-term memory of war is noticeably absent (e.g., "The Gernsback Continuum"), the emphasis still seems to lie on epoch-altering events that are so feeble in their moment but so far-reaching in their wake.
   
   All that said: "Hinterlands" is the most gut-wrenchingly emotional story in science fiction; if nothing else, it alone makes this collection a must-have.

2 comments about Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology.

1. I would recommend this book to anyone who was not an avid fan of the "cyberpunk" genre. Stories were okay, most were fairly depressing, no surprise there, but they covered a wide range of representative authors, and the book was good value for the money. Paper quality isn't great: smells funny and feels like newsprint, but maybe its made from recycled paper, so that's just an aside, not a complaint.
   
   Anyway, if you are an avid fan of this sort of science fiction, I'd pass on this one. I love anthologies, have read lots of short stories by these authors, and realize that the editors didn't make any promises about all first-time appearances for the collected stories. However, I was disappointed as I realized that I'd read almost all of them, despite the fact that I took a break from literacy for the past two years. Overall, between the media and the content.... well, you saw my review title.....



2. I found this an enjoyable collection, but the quality was a bit inconsistent. One story, in particular, was knock-your-socks-off fantastic: "The Wedding Album" by Marusek. Wow!
   
   Charles Stross' "Lobsters" is also here, but so far I've found it in two anthologies, published online, and of course, as part of Accelerando. I'm getting a bit tired of seeing it reproduced everywhere, despite it being very good.

5 comments about Interface.

1. ...was Richard Condon. And he was ~very~ good! He wrote novels that had nearly impossibly complex plots become hysterically funny. One of those novels posited what many of us have long believed: that Prohibition was merely a plot by Joe Kennedy to increase the street price of liquor, and that he was able to pull it off by persuading Congress to enact the legislation. When it became so painfully obvious that Prohibition was more of an evil than not, it got repealed, but not before old Joe had made enough money to get at least one son into the White House, with others to (hopefully) follow. That novel was Mile High.
   
   And then along came Michael Crichton, and from time to time he, too, was good, but only rarely very good. Had Crichton bothered to talk with Condon before writing The Terminal Man, he might have written Interface. I think that, at some time in Stephenson's life, he had a Condon biochip implanted, and that chip has enabled him to continue to RC's reincarnation.
   
   Bottom line is that Stephenson writes dense, convoluted, hilarious prose that seems to be able to interweave itself with my neurons. Condon was for many years my favorite author. I'm confident that he would be flattered to share that distinction with Stephenson. I have to wonder whether he met Condon. Hopefully Stephenson will write another novel or three.



2. From what I understand, this is a re-release of some early Stephenson work. Its not typical Stephenson as we know, its probably his worst book on that relative scale - which, as folks have pointed out, makes it a much better book than most out there. Yah, the characters don't develop out as much as his recent stuff. But man, his predictions are uncanny - $10 trillion national debt sure sounds plausible now, but it didn't in 1994. They are now indeed implanting chips in the brains of folks to overcome neurologic disability, too. And of course, the body politic is timeless.
   
   I would say that Interface is more relavant now than it ever was in the past. This book needs to be turned into a screenplay between now and the '08 election if you ask me.



3. This is not Stephenson's best work but it is engaging. There are a few loose ends and a couple of continuity problems but all in all a very topical read. Heading into the '08 elections it's interesting to gauge ones reaction to the idea of a candidate who can get real time response data from a carefully selected focus group directly into his brain. It really puts candidate pandering into perspective. As with all Speculative Fiction this is not about the future but an author's (or two authors') take on his/her own time.



4. If you're like me, once you read Snow Crash in the mid-late 90s you ran right out and found EVERYTHING Stephenson ever wrote, which at the time was Zodiac and The Big U. (BTW, if you're from Cornell, _The_Big_U_ is a must read.) Maybe you did a little more research, which at the time was a bit harder to do, and found that Stephenson had written under another name - "Stephen Bury" - and tried to find those books too. But that was before eBay and Amazon, so they were difficult to find. Maybe you had a friend with them, or they were in the library, and you read borrowed copies.
   
   Interface is one of those. When I got an Amazon mail about a couple of "new" Neal Stephenson books, I ordered them. I start reading _Interface_ and I vaguely knew I had read it before.
   
   As some have already said, it's not one of Stephenson's best. But it's a plenty good read, even the second time around.



5. I must say that I love Neal Stephenson, and I have read every single one of his major novels, including the Baroque Trilogy, however this novel was decidedly sub-bar for a writer of his caliber. Ultimately, it is a decent airplane read but formulaic and predictable throughout. If you are new to the author, start out with Snow Crash or Cryptonomicon.
   
   The primary failure of this book, for me, was the inescapable improbability of the basic premises. Prime Example: I almost stopped reading when the President vowed to forgive the national debt within the first few pages. This is a major plot point but it simply presented as something a rational president might do. This just comes out of nowhere and is so mind-boggling implausible that it is just silly. And the whole "Network" concept of shadowy corporations who control most of the world's money has been done to death, and done much, much better. For some unfathomable reason, the all-powerful, omnipresent "Network" lets the management of said funds be handled by some random old guy holed up in an Arkansas bunker. It really is ludicrous.
   
   There are some bright spots in the handling of the technology involved, interesting musings on consciousness and neural science, and the middle of the book is handled quite well. The beginning and the end are where it all just falls apart, which is unfortunate.

5 comments about Gridlinked (Tor Science Fiction).

1. GRIDLINKED(2001) is Asher's first Novel, and the 1st book from the POLITY UNIVERSE series. It is 2nd book I've read from the Polity Universe (400 years in the future, mankind has spread out among 100's of worlds, and an Earth-based AI leads the "civilized world's" governments, with less civilized worlds at the edges of the human-colonized worlds in the galaxy).
   
   The story reminds me of stories produced by Peter F. Hamilton... there is an almost military bend to them, and there is a lot of action, intrigue, and killing, plus some sex and a few different alien worlds. Asher's aliens are somewhat better, and Hamilton's tech and characters are usually more believable and/or interesting than Asher's.
   
   I found the ending to GRIDLINKED to be haphazard, and that fact combined with the fairly common editing and grammatical errors led me to down grade my rating - otherwise this was an enjoyable story that I recommend to aficionados of semi-far future action-adventure SciFi.



2. "It's not only humans who know how to hate." A tantalizing hook for this Gridlinked novel... yet not much was hammered out regarding the difference between how a human hates or an AI hates. AI characters weren't fully explored as being human or even being sentient. However, the concepts in tech and originality were big pluses, always providing a highlight in between the battles, gore and destruction (three more big pluses!). The only character development seemed to be orbiting around Ian, while the rest of the cast were left merely to interact with him.



3. This story has a ton of interesting and fun stuff going on. The technology is pretty good, the future government and culture is plausible enough. And the bad guys are great! Asher has created some very good characters that mesh together well. Mr. Crane, the "broken" android is excellent. Arian Pelter is perfectly despicable and Asher even succeeds in creating a bad guy I was rooting for. A few scenes were rather predictable but not terribly distracting from the overall story.
   Now for the not so good. I can't give this book 5 stars for two major reasons. The protagonist is about as interesting as my front lawn and the last 50 pages were dull and convoluted. Asher attempts to pull together his half dozen plot lines and fails. I was less than 10 pages from the end when I got interrupted and didn't even care. That's how ho-hum it gets.
   But I don't want to make too much of the bad, I still give it high marks for a first effort and I'm going to read another one.



4. 
   Neal Asher is one of those authors who manages to deliver something that is fast-paced and engaging without feeling like something you wish you'd borrowed from the library instead of buying. To be honest he borders on pulp at time, but in this case it's not a bad thing - "Gridlinked" is a great example of how he counterbalances the pulp factor with comprehensible science and surprising clarity at times, forgoing the fancy narrative and pseudo-poetry that a lot of science-fiction authors go for.
   
   He is concise and compelling for the most part - the downside is that the characters feel like film characters rather than real people, but when you're after this kind of action sci-fi, that is weird and wonderful stories filled with awesome gadgets and creatures, it doesn't matter too much. "Gridlinked" is one of the Agent Cormac novels to feature the brilliant Mr Crane, a bronze android with fearsome strength and almost tangibly intimidating personality. One of the most original characters I've read in sci-fi, he's the character who causes you to tut when his scene ends and grin when his next one begins. Cormac is almost as engaging, a man dehumanised by his integration with technology and his intellectual proximity to the many AIs that govern Earth and other colonised worlds.
   
   It's a fine novel and well worth a read, especially if you haven't read Asher before and want to branch out into new authors.



5. I enjoyed this book. It's fast paced and complex with some very interesting characters. It is often reviewed as a hybrid of 007 and sci-fi world building; but the focus on the book is particularly on the villains.
   
   Deep, interesting villains that have justified motivations is something really lacking in most books. And I applaud Asher for this. If anything the bad guys were more fleshed out than the protagonist.
   
   There were a few plot elements that I disliked.. but I've already ordered more Asher books. I would recommend Iain M. Banks The Player of Games more; but Banks only writes so many books.

3 comments about Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human-Error Processor.

1. Ghost In The Shell, Human-Error Processor, are the stories between Ghost In The Shell 1 and Ghost In The Shell 2. Five stories, stand alones, which deal more with police procedures and the daily work that Section 9 does to fight crime, both on and off the web. The plots are not as complex as found in Gits 2 but the action is still fast and technology is still cool. The only reason I removed one point was because the Major is only in one of the stories and I think of her as the character that makes the series so hot. Robotic wasps, snipers and cyborgs, oh my!



2. Having read Dark Horse's GitS and GitS MMI (GitS 1&2) I found this an enjoyable analog to Stand Alone Complex. It features a sampler of stories from the full Section 9 of SAC anime fame (Well, Azuma instead of Bohma - Boomer?), giving it a big cast. This is good. On the down side it is half the size of either of volumes 1 or 2 and feels a bit clipped.
   
   I still liked it better than the Kusanagi(Major)-centric book 2 and even the first book in some ways. It hints at grittier events, but is too short and frantic to be throughly enjoyable. It left me wanting more, because *this* is the Section 9 I want to read about.
   
   It is interesting to note the book flips and scans right to left. The content is less westernized than 1&2. I get a feeling the book is a fan concession. Fortunately for the story the softcore fan appeal is less prevalent than in MMI.
   
   Anyway. I love Ghost in the Shell. This book in particular is what I want from the series in terms of characters (SAC cast, mostly), and tone (investigations). It gets a four because it fell short of inspiring, and I feel the tales contained could have been more serious. It's still worth the price. More, please.



3. Some stories from the 90s, apparently set between 1 and 2, so the numbering makes sense.
   
   The Major isn't in these, apart from a brief cameo.
   
   The stories are itled
   
   Fat Cat
   Drive Slave
   Mines of Mind
   and Lost Past
   
   The Section 9 boys in this case investigating zombie businessmen, rogue cyborgs, military bad boys and out of control ministers, among others.
   
   The author has put the quirkiest footnotes I think I have ever seen in
   
   Political comments, explanations of why he drew something (or didn't), weaponry explanations, jokes, or whatever.
   
   Some interesting work.
   
   
   3.5 out of 5

5 comments about Jennifer Government.

1. This is a great piece of work. Well done. Like all good sci fi it is plausible and some would say prophetic. People with names based on the company they work for. I recommend it highly.
   
   The only slight, slight criticism is the very last exchange in the book. I do not feel it is true to the characters or the rest of the story. When you get to that you may see what I mean.



2. Satire on consumerism and the Americanization of the world. Being a person disgusted by both of those things I had no trouble imagining the world that Barry created.
   
   It is set in a future where most of the planet is part of America and corporations run the world. It was a quick read and while some of the content was violent and bleak, it remained kooky and upbeat enough that I didn't think the story was dark.
   
   It didn't quiet feel like a dystopian society, since very few people seemed unhappy with their lives and the fact that they were so owned by corporations that their own last name was whatever company they worked for.
   
   Jennifer works for the government, thus Jennifer Government is her name; some of the other characters are John Nike, Hayley McDonald's, and Claire Sears(creepy, huh?). Everything is corporate owned and operated, even the schools.
   
   This is one of those stories that I thought was just "okay" while I read it, but liked it more afterward. There are things in this story that will stay with me always, and that I will be reminded of when I see over-the-top consumerism.



3. If asked to write the foreword to some 20th anniversary commemorative edition, I would say that Max Barry's Jennifer Government is like a bottle of Diet Neal Stephenson served with a twist of Christopher Moore (or perhaps a dash of Tom Robbins?) There is something uncannily similar between Snow Crash and Jennifer Government: in the comic book pacing; in the hyperbolic and impossible but chillingly familiar geo-political climate that he illustrates; in the characters that reek of auto-erotic caricature and yet are so well-drawn, so believable and sympathetic and damn plausible. You can see Y.T. dropping out of school because of girls like Haley McDonald's. You can see NRA franchises competing against La Cosa Nostra in the burbclaves. You can imagine Hiro Protagonist sub-contracted by Jennifer Government to fend off Violet ExxonMobil. You wonder how the milieus of these novels aren't linked.
   
   But even if you haven't read Snow Crash, even if you aren't making those comparisons, you will find this one wholly enjoyable. It has an immediate start, thrusts you headlong into the story-already-in-progress but makes sure to catch you up just as quickly. And it never loses this momentum. The chapters coming at you fast (each about 3-5 pages) and are fairly dialogue-driven. Before you know it, you'll find you've burned through 100 pages. THIS IS NOT A BAD THING. The narrative draws you in, the prose gets out of the way, and the characters encourage you to get invested.
   
   Borderline 5 star review. There is a whimsy to this tale that draws on a lot of familiar dystopian capitalist tropes (e.g., the libertarian anarchy of free market capitalism run amok); it borders on cliche but doesn't quite cross the frontier into hackneyed territory. That it gets that close, that the prose taps its toes on cliche's fences is where we lose the fifth star in the rating. But that the narrative goes there so unabashedly, in all of its over-the-top banality -- that is a beautiful thing.



4. It's very easy to read about outsiders and their beliefs and ideals messing up, and only become more infantile and blind. This great novel and the Space Merchants series by Cyril Kornbluth and Fred Pohl actually challenge the real dogma of our new Dark Ages directly.



5. Many modern day dystopian novels place the blame for many of the world's ills on technology run amok. Max Barry does not do that, whether for lack of desire or ability, but instead he places the blame for the messed up world on the takeover of everything by the profit motive. Without money crimes are not investigated and two corporate behemoths fight it out on the world stage with everything from ads to guns. Some of the book is slightly dated in a technology way, but this does not seem to really bother the story. The characters are well outlined even fleshed out fairly well.
   
   I recommend this one for a good read; though I think he may take a few things beyond the scary to the absurd. I gave it a 4 because of that.

5 comments about Mona Lisa Overdrive.

1. I have read this masterpiece (together with the other two of the Sprawl series: NEUROMANCER and COUNT ZERO) during my university years, about a decade ago. Since then I have re-read it countless times.
   
   Many a times the third book of a trilogy is published only to fulfill contractual obligations: this is definitely NOT the case here. Every one of those three is a standalone masterpiece.
   Sure, the Sprawl trilogy defined cyberspace, wireheads, zaibatsu-controlled society and futuristic discontent. But this is not the reason why one enjoys these novels so much. It is the beautiful poetic language. The syncopated phrases. The direct effect of verbalized brand names. The noir feeling, rare at the time in a SF novel.
   
   Wlliam Gibson had already reaped the fame and fortune from his first two novels. In this one you will find his images more bold, his phrases more relaxed and his writing more tight. Absolutely Beautiful!
   
   Even reading only some pages brings up powerful imagery, unforgettable prose...
   
   Start with NEUROMANCER. Then COUNT ZERO. And finally this one.
   A Masterpiece Trilogy!!! Own them all!!!



2. This novel along with neuromancer allows sally shears aka molly to shine. In this novel she plays a more supporting role than in neuromancer but still manages to grab you every time she appears. This novel adds much needed background to the sprawl. A read well worth any Gibson fans time. Think of that..Gideon's Fall: When You Dont Have a Prayer, Only a Miracle Will Do



3. This is probably my favorite Gibson. I feel it to have his strongest character development, which is something that has never been his strong point. This is was his peak before he did the awful Virtual Light.



4. Second girl cyberpunk mystery.
   
   
   Count Zero, or Bobby Newmark appears in this book, as does Molly, the Street Samurai, and the odd other bit player, as the Neuromancer 'trilogy' continues.
   
   A young girl that doesn't seem to quite belong in this society is of interest to many people, and Molly is a protector. She also happens to look somewhat like a famous actress, who becomes another important character, and has connections to the strange online voodoo world
   
   Some more of the same from Gibson, but another good novel.



5. This is one of Gibson's most complete novels. Almost seamless from start to finish it flows i a almost organic fashion from one plot point to another. The background on the net star is priceless. Best sprawl narrative of the trilogy.

5 comments about Zodiac.

1. Zodiac is a good read, but more importantly, altered my views on corporate ethics and responsibility.



2. Sangamon Taylor (ST) never has to worry about his job getting boring. He spends his life going after the companies that are dumping toxic chemicals into the water supply around Boston--and companies have been using Boston's harbor for waste disposal for centuries. Things get weird, though, when he discovers a huge concentration of an especially dangerous chemical, only to find that the entire seabed floor has been cleaned of it a couple of days later. There's no way an army of deep-sea scrubbers went down and cleaned things up, so what is going on.
   
   ST might have had a chance to find the truth, but he's set up by executives from one of the dumping companies, framed as a terrorist, and sent on the run. That he happens to injest some of the poisons from the water he was investigating makes him that much slower to react. Still, when he finally learns the truth, he realizes that the potential for real disaster is even more dramatic than he had imagined.
   
   ZODIAC is an early work by author Neal Stephenson and it lacks some of the richness of say, THE DIAMOND AGE. Still, Stephenson does an excellent job combining the adventure, science, and weird characters that are trademarks of his work. ST is an engaging protagonist. With a moral code that is more flexible than most, but that keeps the focus on the big things, ST keeps going no matter what the corporations throw at him.
   
   We've come a long way in our ecological awareness since 1988 when this book was first published. Unfortunately, the corporate denial machines, the public's unwillingness to listen until they can no longer ignore the obvious, and the economic disaster that results from allowing public airways and waterways to be used for waste disposal without cost, linger on two decades after this novel was written.



3. Gideon's Fall: When You Dont Have a Prayer, Only a Miracle Will Do This novel was a light fun read. Much different than snow crash or diamond age. It will resonant any who came to age in the early eighties. In fact, it made me go out and purchase a zodiac....think of that.



4. My take: this was early in NS's development as a writer. It shows. The writer that he has developed into would do a much better job.
   
   But the premise is very interesting. An 'analytical chemist(?!?!)' as the hero (okay, I'm an analytical chemist, one of the few, the proud, and this may be the first fiction book I've ever read with one as the hero...) sets it apart a bit. Obviously the science in parts is a bit sophomoric. But in places it shines. In cases the characterization of different people are good. And the setting of Boston makes it interesting. The twists and turns will keep you turning the pages.
   It's just at times the writing is way too earnest, way too explicative. Not to complain too much. My writing is often earnest and explicative as well. But then again, I am not much of a writer, except for science journal reports (and I am sure those aren't generally page-turners for the general public). It's just not to the level of his later stuff, Cryptomonicon, and the Baroque Cycle. I'd like to see a rewrite in his hands, actually. Of course it would turn into an 800 pager, probably, if not a 3000 page trilogy.
   
   At any rate, its in my wife's stack of to-be-read now, and she is neither as critical as me generally, nor taking an analytical chemists view of the analytical chemist hero, so perhaps she'll give it a better review.



5. "Zodiac" by Neal Stephenson, © 1988
   
   The best part of this story is the travel through Boston. It is a pretty good story of how the Earth is being polluted and those who want to save it. The name is the name of the boat the eco-nuts use. The story is not so much a story of whodunit as it is an adventure. Sangamon Taylor runs the group who stumbles onto a scheme to use bacteria to consume Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). This would not be so bad except the opposite happens as well, and that is bad. They have to expose the bad guys and still not be illegal about it. That is their mantra, "Do what you can to expose the evil, but do it so no one goes to jail or has to pay for the action."