5 comments about Idoru.

1. Gibson has a real talent for writing but this really paled in comparison to Neuromancer, the book that invented the word cyberspace. Nevertheless, a good quick read by a true talent in the genre - the tastes of nanotech and the world geopolitics are clever and, if not novel, at least believable.



2. Gibson's novel about a singer who decides to marry a computer-generated pop culture idol is a rather lightly-plotted science fiction tale with touches of sly humor. Chia Pet, one of the singer's young female fans, goes to Japan to see if the matrimonial rumors are true. His security chief hires a data investigator to find out who put the bizarre idea into the singer's head. Mixing virtual worlds ala Second Life, bizarre avatars, smuggling, and just a touch of nano technology, Gibson has turned out an amusing mix that fans of writers like Harry Harrison will love.



3. The music industry is a bit fake.
   
   
   Not that that is something that will surprise a lot of people. A fair helping of biting satire here as a bloke in a band looks set to marry a computer generated pop star.
   
   More media shenanigans as a bloke runs foul of his employer after uncovering dodgy goings on, and the fans of the band who has a member crazy enough to want to marry into the digerati sends someone to investigate.
   
   
   3 out of 5



4. Writing this review some 8 years after the book "Idoru" was written, you get the advantage of having some technologies catch up to a near-future novel. We don't have virtual meetings, yet, but, thanks to Second Life, we're close; all you need are the VR glasses, a Skype VoiP connection and you are there, man.
   Thus, we have Gibson's 2nd installment of his "Bridge" trilogy where fourteen-year-old Chia Pet McKenzie of Seattle (the where-it's-at city of the mid-late 90's) log onto a virtual forum (Second Life) with her Lo/Rez fan club members to discuss the impending marriage between Rez (think Bono) and a computer character (think one of Final Fantasy's beautiful characters). Chia is "volunteered" to fly to Tokyo to investigate.
   Ridiculous, no?
   And then, in Tokyo, Colin Laney, a very likable and intelligent character who is hired away from his job at Slitscan as an information researcher (or Google surfer extraordinaire) who can somehow separate signal from noise in the wilderness of the Net and collate that info into what will happen next - as we see in "All Tomorrow's Parties", Gibson's third installment.
   Lo/Rez's management hires Laney to suss out why Rez feels he has to "marry" Rei Toei, the "idoru" who is becoming Gibson's version of the holodeck doctor from Star Trek: Voyager and Data the android from "Star Trek, The Next Generation". Observing humanity, she grows smarter.
   Events in the book run back and forth between Chia and Colin, until the two are drawn face-to-face in the last act of the book. Neither of them have much to do with each other, and so the story's rather thin - but, it's the breath-taking accuracy of Gibson's vision that is astonishing. As for nano-technology (there's a nanotech assembler involved), that seems to have been a hot thing for the last ten years, but right now, it's not as sexy as yakking via VR.
   Most of the reviewers feel that to appreciate "All Tomorrow's Parties", you must first read "Idoru" (Japanese for "idol"). I won't disagree, but, it's not necessary. Gibson endlessly re-iterates the situation from "Idoru" in "ATP" enough so that you don't have to.



5. There is an odd surface tension here; some readers may approach Idoru from the wrong bias, through the lens of Neuromancer and the Sprawl trilogy. Those readers will expect the traditional cyberpunk romp of amphetamine-fueled Yakuza battles and twisted violent sex in coffin hotels; those readers will be disappointed and may not be able to penetrate the skin of this charged, deeply emotional book. Idoru is William Gibson's Through the Looking Glass.
   
   In typical Gibson style, the dueling narratives follow two distinctly melancholy characters: there is the starry-eyed teenaged angst of Chia Pet McKenzie and the existential, nearly Phildickian dread of Colin Laney. The novel opens on Laney, recently terminated under dubious circumstances from his "quantitative analyst" position for a tv program called Slitscan; Laney has a rare gift that enables him to tease patterns out of seemingly random data and he is recruited by a Japanese company to come to Tokyo and perform some research on their most valuable asset -- a rock star named Rez. Meanwhile, Chia is sent to Tokyo by her friends in Rez's Seattle-based fan club to discover the truth about The Rumor -- that Rez intends to marry a software construct, an idoru called Rei Toei.
   
   Without a close inspection of the text, the novel might appear energetic but thematically trite. The plot moves along at a brisk pace: trans-Pacific flights whisk our protagonists into a Japanese Wonderland, quick-cut flashbacks fill in their respective histories, malicious and unseen maneuvering keeps every last character on his or her toes. Gibson drops his customary tropes: seedy back-alley deals gone awry, a detailed but ultimately vague send-up of "cyberspace", a mischievous and emergent AI...
   
   But this book has nothing to do with AI or cyberspace or seedy back-alley deals.
   
   At its core, Idoru explores the proposition that intimacy is a function of immersion, of experience, of fully surrendering to the risks of engagement and that knowledge or facts or data by any name and in any quantity cannot bring affinity. The narrative contains a relatively early scene wherein Laney is subject to a monologue by Kathy Torrance (his boss at Slitscan); she goes on at length about "celebrity" as a natural resource, about how media and tabloids like Slitscan have corralled "celebrity" into a commodity that can be controlled and brokered. Taken out of context, the monologue appears to be a provocative and unambiguous statement about celebrity in and of itself. Examining the scene with the novel's thesis in mind, we begin to see what lies at the kernel of Kathy Torrance's soliloquy: how "celebrity" is a focal point for a broad knowledge about a person (or other object of affection/attention) that by definition cannot be fully experienced. "Celebrity" is data presented as intimacy -- the fine-grained details of some person's life presented to you in all their banal urgency, more fantasy than reality, ever out of reach, inevitably unable to satisfy your need to share and experience.
   
   Consider Kathy Torrance's rant about celebrity as a mirror to Alison Shires and Laney's own back-story. As Laney reflects on Alison Shires' suicide, we begin to see these themes take shape. In her original context, Alison is presented to Laney as "all data"; she is little more than some fulcrum of collapsed transactions that swing back onto some celebrity target of Slitscan's. But as her imminent suicide becomes obvious to Laney through his "nodal apprehension", he becomes concerned about, even attached to her; he breaks through his own Fourth Wall and allows himself to become involved, to experience her face-to-face. He is there in her apartment for the shot that kills her. We can hear echoes of his investment, how the experience created an instantly intimate moment which he capsulizes as: "...the whole thing would settle to the sea floor, silting over almost instantly with the world's steady accretion of data." The experience would be lost, buried under the steady stream of celebrity's telemetry, and he wonders how he can live with that outcome.
   
   The novel is peppered with examples to underscore this proposition about intimacy:
   * Consider that every bar, cafe, restaurant, etc. featured in the text is somehow themed and each theme is just data, each motif is hollow and empty -- the impression of something, its image, a copy or facsimile or interpretation but not the thing itself;
   * Consider how Chia's story about her Sandbenders computer resonates on this chord, how she descrives the disposable shells of modern electronics as insufficient for people to make a connection with them, and how a "tribe" in Oregon humanized each computer through their artisanal cases;
   * Consider Masahiko's tales of Walled City and how he continually asserts to Chia that it is "real" and not just a MUD, not just a website;
   * Consider Blackwell's final affirmation to Laney, that Kathy Torrance will no longer threaten him, how they will "carve out this deep and meaningful and bloody unforgettable episode of mutual face-time", how they will have reached "very personal terms" -- the data, the facts are discarded, meaningless -- only the experience matters.
   
   Throughout the narrative, there is a very keen sense that each character is desperately seeking something "real", something with which he or she can truly and intimately connect. Rez at one point blurts out: "Nothing like it [...] That physical thing." It is on those sentiments that the novel opens and again where it closes. We open on Laney in the aftershocks of just such a "physical thing" and Chia striking out to Tokyo in search of same. And we close on Rez and Rei Toei -- both symbolic of Kathy Torrance's "celebrity", different sides of that same coin -- discovering that their union cannot be completed without it, and daring to forge just such a path

5 comments about The Electric Church.

1. This was a greatly fun book which I quite litterally could not put down. As I was going to bed last night I swore ot myself "just one more chapter".. and did that four times! Then I woke up early and had to finish it. And t my delite I see the author is doing more... how cool it that.
   
   Now it may not win a Noble Prize for literature, but its just plain good and fun.
   
   Hats off to you Jeff- you've got a fan.



2. Avery Cates is a low-level assassin operating in a decaying Manhattan of the future where the rich are very rich and everybody else is just thieving to get by. Cates has come to the attention of the authorities because he has killed a member of the elite police force called the SSF.
   
   The assassin is on the run from the SSF when he is engaged by the director of the SSF's internal affairs to kill the leader of a fast-growing religion called The Electric Church.
   
   The most fascinating part of the book is the Electric Church which promises eternal life to those who consent to becoming monks. Being "monked" requires that a human be killed and having their brain harvested so that it can be installed into a humanoid machine called a monk.
   
   Monks all over the world look identical, are connected electronically, and share data while they go around their various cities trying to make converts of their former neighbors. There are whisperings that not all the "conversions" are voluntary.
   
   Cates has little choice but to accept the assassination contract on Dennis Squalor, the founder of the Electric Church. The contract will not be acknowledged by any government agency so Cates is still on the run from the SSF and soon comes to the attention of The Electric Church.
   
   What is the real agenda of The Electric Church? What is the real agenda of the director of internal affairs? Will Cates and his band of misfit criminals that he assembles be able to make the hit?
   
   The Electric Church is a very good action novel that uses some science fiction trappings to good effect. I look forward to reading more books by Mr.Somers.



3. Not a bad read, but not great. The initial idea is very clever, and had great potential, but was mostly wasted by the end. The book really needed the electric monks to be a little less ultimately trivial. Tries to mimic the style of Gibson etc. but just can't quite pull it off. Better luck next time.



4. The Electric Church is full of thrills and chills and unexpected plot twists and turns that keep you page-turning deep into the night. Avery Cates is a gunfire-happy Indiana Jones-type that you can't help but root like crazy for. I lovedlovedloved this novel.
   
   Somers is a master story-teller in full command of his powers here. Highly, highly recommended.
   
   Can't wait for The Digital Plague!



5. I, thoroughly, loved this book. Pure entertainment, and escapist fun. Don't expect me to delve into symbolism and metaphor, I don't know literary genius but, I know what I like. I liked this book and await "Digital Plague" with much anticipation. (I was going to use the phrase "baited breath but, that always makes me think of eating worms. I just don't get the term) The book is fast paced, gripping and unputdownable (yeah, I made up a word for this). I, first, saw the book in the bookstore, and didn't get it. I place a lot of stock in cover art and, for some reason, the art on the cover of this book, didn't do it for me. At first. As I read the book, and looked back again and again, at the cover, I began to appreciate the art.
   All in all, buy this book. Borrow this book. Read this book. I don't think you'll be sorry.
   If you are sorry, well.... nah, I'm not.

5 comments about City of Golden Shadow (Otherland, Volume 1).

1. I bought this book a few months back just for something to read. The first few chapters were turning me off of it, but somehow I was compelled to read more. When I got to the end of this book, I wound up craving the rest of the series and bought the other three quickly.
   I can't say this was the best out of the four in this series, but this is just an introduction into a vast and lovely world. The characters are actually real enough to care for, or hate.
   All in all, the plot is confusing after the first few chapters, but it all comes together soon enough if you keep reading on. Definitely one of my favorite series, if not my most favorite.



2. Tad Williams decided to try something epic, yet again. Four volumes of
   this time science fiction, but throwing in epic fantasy quest elements
   by way of virtual reality environments to keep the rest of his fanbase
   somewhat happy, at least.
   
   A disparate group of people set out to find out why a whole lot of
   children are getting sick and falling into comas. These people come
   from all over the globe, an African student, a native bushman, a young
   sick computer game geek, a French researcher, etc.
   
   In the real world, the police also begin to suspect something after an odd series of murders.



3. I do not understand the rave reviews this author gets for this series - I never even got through this first book, which says something because I love to read and I always give an author the 'space' they need to get the story going. What a snoozer! B-O-R-I-N-G. I can't believe this series is getting such high marks from other readers - do you have NOTHING else to do but sit and collect dust while reading this stuff? I've 'survived' other boring series beginners, such as The Hobbit (come on - its boring 'til you get about half way through!), but I couldn't bring myself to care at all about the main character, let alone anyone or anything else in the book. I wasted money buying all (3) books together - soon to be donated to the local library. Don't waste your time...



4. Tad has pieces of superb writing which have nothing to do with each other (Perhaps writing exercises) so he picks one of the dullest baselines and threads all the stories on to that (Virtual Reality). Some chapters were great, but unfortunately we always returned to the dusty main story and never got back to the superb bits again. Gave up halfway from disappointment.



5. A story that essentially could have been told in one book has been stretched out to FOUR!!! I thought book one was bad enough, but book two is even worse. I'm planning on putting all of them up for sale on Amazon. Truly dismal. Such a shame as his 'War of the Flowers' series is marvellous.

5 comments about Blade Runner(TM) (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?).

1. This anti-robot novel is oft misunderstood by those who come to it with expectations formed by the pro-robot movie. The novel is essentially a paranoid fantasy about machines which pretend to be people. The pretense is so horrifyingly effective that a bounty hunter engaged in the entirely necessary task of rooting out and destroying these monsters finds that his own humanity has become imperiled.
   
   Originally entitled "DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP," this novel was re-titled "BLADE RUNNER" to tie it to the Ridley Scott film loosely based on it. It remains available under either title (and with separate entries on AMAZON), but it is the same book. The film studio wanted to market a "novelization" of the film, but PKD adamantly refused to authorize this, forcing them to instead market his original novel under the film's title. Good move, Phil!
   
   This decision, however, has led to confusion and/or disappointment when readers approach the novel with expectations formed by the film. Many reviewers here (whether they like the book, the film, or both) have commented on how different they are. Few seem to realize, however, the extent that they are in direct and fundamental conflict. Some praise the book for tearing down the distinction between man and machine or promoting other nihilistic views and pro-robot messages that the author would have found abhorent. Others pan it for lack of focus in failing to promote the film's pro-robot agenda as effectively as the film did.
   
   That conflict may be summarized as follows: The book is anti-robot and pro-human, and seeks to uphold the distinction between robot and human, and between illusion and reality, in the face of a most-insidious challenge. The film was pro-robot and anti-human, promoting the idea that a compelling illusion is equivalent to reality, and that its ruthless robots were, if anything, better than humans.
   
   The book glorifies the common man for his basic decency -- specifically his capacity for basic empathy and compassion -- and deplores the robots for their complete lack of these qualities. In the book, even a "chickenhead" (a mentally retarded human mutant) is infinitely more valuable than the smartest robot. The film on the other hand, glorifies the robot as a sort of superman ("more human than human") -- stronger, faster, more beautiful, more intelligent, -- who seem poised to inherit the future on a dying Earth. The film even seems to admire the robots for their ruthlessness.
   
   The book makes Deckard (the protagonist) human, and loyal to humans. The film has Deckard switch sides and join the robots. Indeed, in the film (not the book) Deckard may himself be a robot (the latter is never made explicit, but director has made clear it is what he intended). This means that, in the FILM, there are virtually no sympathetic human characters -- those characters who suggest that a man is worth more than a computer program are portrayed as bigots.
   
   In PKD's view, the androids are unquestionably monsters who must be destroyed. The irony, and the central problem posed in the novel, is that their ability to SEEM human (which,, in the NOVEL, is never more than meticulously-programmed fakery), means that those who must destroy robots risk damage to their own humanity in the process. Thus, the author approves of Deckard's wife, whose sympathy for the "poor andys" is evidence of her humanity, while still approving of Deckard's assignment.
   
   In the novel, the robots' increased ability to fool the VK test is merely an advance in programmed mimicry of human test responses. The film, on the other hand, treats the improved performance on the VK test as evidence that the robots are truly "human". But the film's robots do not demonstrate compassion in any meaningful way. The agenda of the film is NOT so mcuh to show that robots are as compassionate as humans, but rather to show that humans are as ruthless as robots (as evidenced, mainly, by their willingness to kill robots). This agenda is eerily similar to that of the TV androids near the end of the novel, who set out to expose human empathy as a myth.
   
   In the novel, the title question must be answered in the negative. Androids DON'T care about other creatures. It is humans who have the capacity care about other creatures -- ironically, even about androids -- even electric sheep.
   
   So many, even among the author's admirers, have missed the novel's true focus that it may be best to defend my interpretation with a quote from the author himself, made shortly before his death (quoted in the book "Future Noir"):
   
   "To me, the replicants are deplorable. They are cruel, they are cold,
   they are heartless. They have no empathy, which is how the
   Voight-Kampff test catches them out, and don't care about what happens
   to other creatures. They are essentially less-than-human entities.
   
   "Ridley, on the other hand, said he regarded them as supermen who
   couldn't fly. He said they were smarter, stronger, and had faster
   reflexes than humans. 'Golly!' That's all I could think of to reply
   to that one. I mean, Ridley's attitude was quite a divergence from my
   original point of view, since the theme of my book is that Deckard is
   dehumanized through tracking down the androids. When I mentioned
   this, Ridley said that he considered it an intellectual idea, and that
   he was not interested in making an esoteric film."



2. Androids takes place in a not-so-distant future where a world war has spread a cloud of radioactive dust across the globe, many forms of animal species are extinct, many of the survivors have emigrated to colonies on Mars and the remaining humans are encouraged to emigrate, except for those who have been tested and classified as "specials" meaning the ones with diminished mental abilities because they have been affected severely from radiation. Emigrants are given androids, very sophisticated robots, as slaves. As the technology gets better, newly manufactured androids become more and more human-like, both in appearance and behavior, to the point that they are very hard to distinguish. Discontented androids sometimes kill their masters and find ways to smuggle themselves to earth, in hopes for a better life. In the post-world war earth, life is regarded so precious that owning and caring for an animal is both considered a highly moral life and a status symbol. Because real animals are so rare, many people have fake, very sophisticated and real-like electronic animals that they care for and hide from their neighbors the fact that their animal is fake. On the one hand there are bounty hunters who catch and kill androids, human robots which dreamt of a better life, evidently with some feelings. And on the other hand there is the value which people place upon animal robots. On the one hand there are intelligent, sophisticated androids like the one who made a successful carrier on earth as an opera singer; on the other hand there are hunters who emotionlessly kill her without regard to her artistic talent, or there are simple-minded specials. Throughout the plot, readers are given a lot to think about questions like what is life, what is empathy, where do you draw a line between the value of real and artificial life? It is a philosophical novel and the author puts all these questions before us with brilliant comparisons between characters. The only negative feeling that one might get is the unusual, somewhat simple prose style but overall, a very good, thought provoking novel.



3. When I saw Blade Runner for the first time I realized that I had just seen something that was original, smart and that related to me in many, many ways.
   
   I found out that it was loosely based on the book, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and decided that if the movie is as good as it is and it's a condensed version of the story in the book, than the book should be just as good, if not better.
   
   I ordered it from Amazon and started reading. I was only a few pages in when I realized just how "loosely" the movie was based on the book. The book was an entirely different experience.
   
   This book is filled with compelling drama, deception, sci-fi, and 1940's crime-noir style storytelling (complete with the classic femme-fatal) and it does not dissapoint.
   
   Sure, you already paid to see the movie, and you might be thinking, "Why would I pay to read the same story?" You aren't. You will be pleased with this book emensely - it's a completely different story.



4. I bought this book because I am planning on buying the completely massive and awesome collection of Blade Runner movies. I saw this at the bookstore for $5 (This exact edition) and so I bought it and read it in two days, finishing it yesterday.
   
   As an introduction to the world of the movie (Which I haven't seen yet) it is simply awesome and astounding. The world of the book is so expertly crafted with what really amoutns to a small amount of description and detail. The characters and story are well thought out, and it fits the form that I have come to expect from Philip K. Dick even though I've only read this and The Man in the High Castle-no real ending, just an odd one.
   
   The book is really just truly brilliant, and even after only one read-through I can honestly say that it is one of my favorite books ever. Also, it is much easier to read than some of his other books. I struggled through The Man in the High Castle for awhile until I got used to it and then I kind of got it and understood it and kept going, but this was one that I could just pick up and read an it's just awesome.
   
   I highly recommend it to anyone interested in science fiction at all, as it is a true classic as well as one of the few Philip K. Dick books still available fairly widely.



5. This is NOT the movie. It is bigger, deeper, more meaningful and philosophical -- one of Philip K. Dick's best books ever. (It has been explained to me that the primary significance of the movie "Blade Runner" was that it presented a fully imagined future.) I wish I could get this book with the original title, so much more revealing of the core -- "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (I owned it years ago, and wore it out -- wish I had bought extra copies then!)

5 comments about Ghost In The Shell Volume 2: Man-Machine Interface (Ghost in the Shell).

1. The art and graphics are wonderful but the story is difficult to stay into, if you like hot manga chicks with wild sci fi visuals get this but just expect the story to be very dense.



2. Well this book is set four years after the events in the original "Ghost in the Shell" but, it was created 10 years after the first one. So while Shirow discusses many of the themes present in the first work, the look is completely different. His style has become crisper and at times almost baroque in the density of details he can place into an image. For me it was visual overload a few times and took me awhile to process this book. Themes in this book are similar to the other works in the Ghost in the Shell franchise: identity, technology, privacy, society and so on. This would not be the best place to start with the Ghost in the Shell series but if you're already in their universe then this another excellent addition.



3. I might be the only one but my biggest turn off was not the convoluted story , but the art. His hand drawn back and white art in the middle was amazing as always, but the digital environments used in so much of the book just did not look good. It all looked like screenshots from a badly rendered CGI movie that had people drawn over top of it. It just looked bad. Now, I admit two things. One, the digital art looked EXCELLENT for the scenes that took place in the Net. It would have been incredible he had drawn more in the B&W style of the first GitS and then CG'ed the Net parts. Anyway the second thing is that I am definitely in the minority with my opinions on the art, and its very possible I am just missing something or being plain ignorant.
   
   Either way, I bought this volume based on everyone's ravings about how good the art was, and it was my a big let down. So this is my counter-point to the other reviews.



4. GiTS 2 is a great manga, with alot of full colour pages and very high quality drawings with amazing digital rendering. It's also a long, intelligent and complex story that takes a good few sessions to get through. When the first volume was released, it was ahead of its time, and concepts like 'the internet' and 'hackers' were not as well understood as they are now. This volume has gone a step further and introduced more original concepts in the advanced, networked world of ghost Ghost in The Shell. I'm sure it will all make sense in another 10 years time.
   
   I'm glad I bought this, it's a different style to the animated series as it focuses on Motoko rather than section 9. If you can't grip the hectic pace of the story, at least the artwork is awesome.



5. After reading many of the reviews about a convoluted story, I was interested to check it out myself. I really like the technological aspect of MMI. I thought GitS 1 and 1.5 were a little heavy on the detective work, and far too light on the technology. Artwork is amazing and the story keeps a good pace. Great addition to the GitS storyline.

5 comments about Otherland Vol. 4: Sea of Silver Light.

1. This whole series was brilliant as far as I'm concerned. Just to imagine the possiblities of the future of virtual reality gets any computer game nut like me wanting to cyrogenically freeze myself for the next 50 years or so in order to experience it. Williams' vision is immense and the picture he paints of the future is both exciting and frightening. While some people complain about the length of this series and claim that there is too much "filler", I have to strongly disagree. The amount of character development (and I liked Renie personally, unlike some of the neg reviewers) and world building needed for a story of this magnitude calls for some pretty meaty books. By the time you finish this series you'll feel like you've actually accomplished something and it makes the ending all that much more enjoyable.
   
   This last book of the series is my favorite. Some of the most dramatic scenes of the whole series are in this one and secrets are revealed throughout. As you'd expect from Williams, the climax in this one is intense and fulfilling, tying off loose ends to the reader's satisfaction. All is revealed and all is not as you thought it would be. I don't want to spoil the fun for those of you who havn't read this last book yet, but I do have to say, You gotta love a happy ending. "/



2. Well, darn. Like Peggy Lee, I just can't help asking, "Is that all there is?"
   
   Many other reviewers have noted the inventiveness and complexity of the ideas (particularly in the first book) and the mega-multiple plot lines. All of that creativity makes for a narrative vortex that pulls the reader along for about a foot-high pile of pages. (I wonder if anyone ever thought of selling these books by the inch--or the pound?). I cheered every new environment and exploration of old tales told anew, and the sheer scope made it easy to forgive some repetition and annoying character traits. In fact, I would give the first three books 4 1/2 stars and highly recommend them to anyone who likes big, complex, doorstop-weight SF or fantasy novels.
   
   And then there's this one. I must agree with every reader who felt that the ending came out of nowhere and had very little to do with, add to or say about the preceding 1,000+ pages. This was like going to New Year's Eve in Times Square and having all the lights go out at midnight. After all this buildup, all these travails, all the danger and loss, all the weirdness and funhouse mindbending---pfffft! A squib. A WET squib at that. I still can't figure out how Williams could have ended such a prodigious effort with this and-then-she-woke-up wet noodle of a resolution.
   
   It's hard to criticize such a heroic effort, especially when so much of it is so terrific, but new readers should be warned. Read the other books for pure enjoyment of the story, but only go here if you need to know what the author thinks happened to all these characters.



3. The hardest part of commenting on this series was figuring out which book to put my comments under. Mr. Williams is one of those writers, like Neal Stephenson, who expresses himself best at great length. Considering each book by itself strikes me as akin to trying to review a novel chapter by chapter, saying "This chapter was powerful," or "This chapter was weak." The division into separate books is a publishing decision, since 3500-plus-page works of popular fiction books are not practical to bind or sell profitably. I've read the series four or five times now, and I love getting lost in it. I find the range of subjects that Mr. Williams is audacious enough to cover in a single story astonishing. Is it perfect? Probably not, but I don't read it in order to visit literary criticism on it. It's thoughtful and engrossing.



4. Delivery was fast and even though I purchased a like new book, it was in perfect condition



5. The conclusion of this epic. In the real world, the intrepid police
   close in on the aboriginal assassin, as the quest in the virtual world
   comes to a final confrontation. The conclusion is what you might call
   bittersweet, but upbeat, as the relationship between the two young
   gameplayers has developed over the events of the story.

5 comments about Market Forces.

1. Market Forces is a nicely written, well balanced book. I am continually impressed with Morgan's writing style and his ability to show what the characters are thinking, and his ability to keep the storyline together from beginning to end. The storyline itself is a futuristic look at what, historically, our past was, which is incorporated into a seemingly unbelievable, by today's standards, way of doing business.
   
   Here is where I would like to address other reviewer's opinions that the plot is unbelievable. The main one being the use of violence to resolve issues and the second being the so called Challenge, or duel with cars in order to decide who gets what corporate contract, or as a means to move up in a company. Historically we have seen both sides. In Roman times warriors were pitted against each other in an arena. Granted, they are there, usually, against their will, but there were some who were there as "professional" gladiators, deriving their wealth and fame from the violent deaths of their foes at their hands. Move to Medieval times and you have several situations. One is to "throw down the gauntlet", or in other words issue a challenge to a king, queen or some other nobleman. The winner was redeemed and considered the true and correct person to whatever issue was at hand. Armies fought and it was thought that the winner was the chosen of god and thus the army that was in the "right". Criminals, or those accused, oftentimes went through Trial by Ordeal to see whether they were innocent or not. The most common ordeals were to take a red hot piece of metal and the accused wraps their hands around it. If they don't make a noise and can keep their hands on the flaming hot metal they were innocent. If they made a noise they were guilty and were executed. Or they would put them into a body of water and if they sank than they were innocent (with the downside being that they are now dead) and if they floated than they were considered guilty and thus executed. Move forward to Revolutionary times and you have duels, most notably that between Burr and Hamilton, which resulted in murder charges for Burr that were dropped eventually. All of these are examples of past societies that used violence or death as a means to resolve an issue. So why is it "unbelievable" to have car duels resulting in death as a means of a futuristic mechanism to further business?
   
   I, of course, say it doesn't. That this is an entirely believable plotline that could theoretically continue the progressive nature of death and duels into the future. More so because of how the storyline was written. Morgan's writing is the cohesive tape that helps keep everything together and if his writing wasn't so fluid and descriptive, graphic at times; if his writing hadn't injected character to the characters; if the story from beginning to end did not stick to the imagined business mechanism than of course the story would be a lot harder to suspend reality and become involved. Of course, Morgan does all this. In fact he does better than this and keeps you guessing. The ending is much more dark, yet hopeful, and doesn't happen as many of the other cookie cutter books out there typically do.
   
   My only qualm, and this happens with all his books, is that the sex scenes are so gratuitous and unnecessary. I am a fan of all things descriptive in a book, even sex, but Morgan always seems to take it one step further and sometimes makes some scenes as though you are reading porn.
   
   That being said, I would definitely recommend this book as well as Morgan. A definite recommend.
   
   4.5 stars.



2. After reading the back cover critics I bought it expecting some quality.
   I read it entirely looking for that little sample of quality and i'm still looking after it.
   really the story is ridiculous. maybe because I'm spanish and I don't get the philosophy behind it, i'm just kidding, this book could have been written by an adolescent (may be richard Morgan wrote it when he was 12)
   the story is about brokers that kill other executive on the road before they reach their office so they can get their job. can you think about something more stupid.



3. I think Richard K. Morgan is an exceptional writer, principally because of his high concept sci-fi that is often laced with a subtle moral vision. In Market Forces he doesn't disappoint in that regard, as he creates a near-future world that is both absurd in its extreme depictions of free-market capitalism and yet totally believable. That, of course, is the scary part.
   
   The hero, or more accurately the anti-hero, is Chris Faulkner who, along with all of the other top "zek-tivs" (executives) in this novel, must literally fight for his life every day in order to hold onto his privileged job and economic position in society. The proving ground is the highway, where the partners of prosperous financial firms try to fend off lower-level contenders by crashing their vehicles (called battle wagons) and ensuring their competitors' deaths. A kill is confirmed by bringing back the other person's "plastic," which are the black credit cards used in place of cash.
   
   Chris's world is highly fractured. There is the executive class, composed mostly of men (and a few women) who finance wars and other negative activities around the globe for profit, and the underclass, which is everyone else. The poor folks are, not surprisingly, a brutish bunch who have to struggle to survive their crime-ridden neighborhoods and who rely for justice on a marginalized political system that has evolved into an essential police state. (Sound familiar anyone?) The executives are every bit as brutish, if not more so, but they deny it to themselves and one another by glossing over what they do with expensive cars, clothes, food and other accessories available only to the rich.
   
   The materialism of this society is about as extreme as you can imagine and there are darkly funny lines throughout the novel that highlight this state of affairs. For instance, when Chris Faulkner is introduced to one of the oddballs in his new firm, the person says, "No relation to William, I presume." Chris is puzzled and, later, asks his pal Mike Bryant what the oddball meant, since his tone implied humor. Mike, of course, has no idea.
   
   The plot of Market Forces moves along briskly and, as one might expect, comes to a head in the road duel to end all duels, which changes the course of Chris's life. The great thing about this novel is that it is not too hard to envision something like Chris's world. Sure, some situations and characters are extreme, but given the trajectory of the global economy in 2007 and the almost sacred way in which the current administration reveres "lazier faire," it's a little too believable for comfort.
   
   Market Forces is a very good read that offers the pace of a page-turner with a bit more substance than those novels usually deliver. Highly recommended.



4. Wow, very dark, super bleak sci-fi from this promising author. This is globalization gone horribly wrong. The book was maybe 50-75 pages longer than it had to be, but I highly recommend it nonetheless.



5. especially to a Richard Morgan book, but I'm tired of fighting with it - I've tried half a dozen times to finish it, and each time I just put it down, wondering why I bothered to pick it up again. I'm a little more than 2/3s of the way through the book, and there is seriously no discernable plot - there were several places where a plot could have formed, but nothing ever materialized except foreshadowing, foreshadowing and yet more foreshadowing. Basically, it's like Morgan decided to have his protagonist do every wrong and stupid thing he could, and rub the reader's face in it. This isn't so much sci-fi as it is a story about a marriage failing in a most spectacularly boring and unbelievable fashion. One problem is certainly that I don't care - I don't care about the protagonist at all; I don't care about his wife, his friends or his job. I'm not even interested in them enough to *want* to care. Every single character in the novel is either a complete jerk, a simpering idealist, or stubborn/stupid and boring. I'm not really turned off by the "preachy" nature of the book that several others have cited - I usually turn off that part of my mind when reading a book - I *am* completely turned off by the utter lack of point to, well, any of it. I'd love to give specifics, but revealing *anything* could be considered spoilers, really, since *nothing happens* in this book besides one or two scenes of interest and lots and lots of one man being regretful and/or paranoid while hanging around in bad areas with a guy from the office and/or fighting with his wife. If I were a betting man, I'd bet that Morgan had written this well before his other novels (all of which I am very fond of, BTW) and dusted it off, spit shined it a bit, and turned it in as new work. It seriously reads every bit like a first novel, or perhaps something written in college that needed about 200 pages added to it to make it print-worthy. In a word: disappointing. If it were any other author besides Richard Morgan I would have given it a single star, but I just can't bring myself to do that to a book by the man who wrote Altered Carbon.

5 comments about Schismatrix Plus (Complete Shapers-Mechanists Universe).

1. Schismatrix (1985) by Bruce Sterling - 236 pages - rating: 2.5/10
   
   All the elements of a brilliant science fiction novel are here. Sadly, the author seems to have enormous problems in presenting them in a form the reader can enjoy.
   
   His thoughts, sentance and paragraph structure are frequently incomprehensible. His writing style is rambling and confused. Then suddenly, 40 pages will go by which are interesting, compelling and straightforward. It is as if the author wrote 80% of the novel while under the influence of a mind altering substance and the other 20% while sober.
   
   Its tragic. I can see the man has skill. Unfortunately, as a reader I am not willing to plow through the muck to get to the few moments of coherency.
   
   If you like weird mind altering experiences you might enjoy this. I can see from the other reviews here that some people did. I have my suspicions that some of the reviews are intentionally misleading perhaps to promote sales or a new publishing.
   
   If you enjoy interesting writing that flows with skill and allows the reader to enjoy the experience and the story without needing to decipher every second sentance then you should stick with authors like Orson Scott Card, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, or Fred Hoyle.
   
   Claus Kellermann
   2005 November 15
   Sci_Fi_Researcher@yahoo.com



2. I've read this novel 4 times, which beats Dune and The Silmarillion by one.
   
   This is easily one of the most richly imagined futures ever conceived. And it has aged better than just about anything else written in this era (early 80's).
   
   As far as it being "inacessible": Go read one of those awful Dune prequels if you want to be spoon-fed your predigested pap.
   
   Come back when you're ready.



3. I really wanted to like this novel. It had a clever name, an amalgamation of the Great Schism that separate Catholicism and Protestantism, and Matrix, like the movie with the same title. (Note: the novel is pronounced Shiz-mat-rix, with a short a, rhymes with schematics). A classic cyberpunk title. However, this novel is anything but user-friendly. I don't know if pharmaceuticals are needed for appreciating this novel, or if the author used them when frantically writing, in between vacuuming the roof of his house and such. The novel moves at such a frantic pace that within one sentence the entire setting can change and this happens more than a few times. It's difficult to know the point of the plot; perhaps that life is worth living. The novel is a cross between Heinlein's Time Enough For Love, Bester's The Stars My Destination, and petting a sea urchin.
   
   In a shocking act of consideration, the publishers have included all of Sterling stories related to the Shaper-Mechanist War. That would be the full length novel, plus five stories. The stories were written before the novel, which was the order I read them in, although after reading the novel last, I can't say whether or not to recommend reading in that order. The stories are interesting and enjoyable. In fact Sterling seems to excel with his short stories. His story "Flowers of Edo" is where I got interested in his style. I would recommend his short stories, but this novel is another matter.
   
   Humanity has balkanized into a number of factions, with the Shapers and Mechanists being the most powerful. The Shapers have reshaped their bodies genetically. This includes such drastic things as replacing all the E. Coli in their intestines with enzymes. The Mechanists are like the Borg of Star Trek, they use mechanical prosthetics to enhance themselves. If you think the Mechanists are the cleaner of the two, think again. Cockroaches and bacteria are prevalent in Mechanist environments. Every five years the Mechanists need to have the bacterial growth scraped and UV-burned off their skin. That's one thing prevalent throughout his writings, this sort of creepiness. Expect more of it.
   
   However, don't let the war make you think this is some majestic good vs. evil epic space war. Battles are mostly low key. There is lot's of narration and dialog. Sterling self-claims his crammed prose. No kidding. Adjectives rule supreme in this novel; as many as possible are crammed into each sentence. If one would do a histogram of adjectives, this novel would be on the far right tail of the bell curve. Here's an excerpt: " He always wore his spacesuit, [something something], and [multiple length modifiers] body odor came through its [multiple adjectives] collar with [multiple adjectives] pungency." Sentences like this go on and on and on and on and on and on and on throughout the novel. And there's no shortage of hyphenated words, like long-fermented, eye-watering. On one page, there were no less than 11 hyphenated words, plus one triple one.
   
   Similar to the prosthetics of the Borg, the sentences themselves seem interchangeable. Here's another excerpt of a dialogue:
   "What was your brigade?
   I'm no Cataclyst.
   I have your weapon here.
   Constantine pulled a ... vial from his ... jacket ..."
   You may as well interchange your own sentences: `The tree fell in the forest; it made no sound' or `the space ship went into orbit; it's boots were muddy.' Give it a try. It'll make as much sense.
   
   There are times when the novel seems profound. I would find myself backtracking at times to understand some point, and I would go back 5, then 10, then 20 pages to try to understand something and would just give up and go back to where I was. It's hard to say you read this novel, it's more like your eyes glance over the words, and on occasion you absorb some of it. Since the novel fluctuates from the profound to the mundane an average of 2-1/2 stars seemed appropriate.



4. I read a lot of science fiction, both the classics and newer ones. I am happy to say the this book has really got me back into Science Fiction when I was starting to think that I hadn't read anything truly groundbreaking since Arthur C. Clark'es "The Light of Other Days."
   
   Schimatrix Plus, despite its complexity (it can easily be labeled "hard" science fiction) details the life of our main character, whose age spans hundreds of years. It probably won't move you to cry, but it will give you plenty to think about.



5. Since "Neuromancer" and the accompanying cyberpunk explosion, Sterling (and many others) has been unfairly relegated to Williams Gibson's shadow. Too bad, because while "Neuromancer" has dated (most near future stories do), "Schismatrix" seems to be getting better and better.
   
   "Shaper revolutionaries struggle against arisocratic Mechanists" is the dust jacket blurb, but this is a gross simplification. Sterling covers a century in the life of Abelard Linsey, Shaper Rebel, compressing it into two-hundred-and-fifty hurtling pages. No words are wasted. The episodes fly: Linsey's exile; his theatrical program; the Red Consensus; the asteroid clave; the arrival of the Investors; and so on. Just when you think the story can't go any further, Sterling starts another unpredictable chapter. The pace is relentless, decades slashed from the narrative (if Sterling had written Dune it would be twenty pages long) as Lindsey's stock rises and falls.
   
   Sterling is a master of the short story: the ability to evoke time, place and character quickly and concisely. Here he evokes a civilisation in chaos -- using Linsey as our eyes and ears -- by giving us bare glimpses of fashion, technology, art, conflict. It's like taking every iconic moment of the twentieth century and watching it in fast forward.
   
   But if you're expecting Cyberpunk, forget it. While there might be some common elements, Sterling is working with a whole other set of textures. The closest thing to Cyberpunk is the "Spider Rose" short-story in the accompanying suppliments (all good, too). If anything, Schismatric might be the first "post-cyberpunk" novel.
   
   Whatever it is, I continue to reread it regulary.

5 comments about Virtual Light.

1. If you are a science fiction fan or a futurist of any sort or just like fiction, you need to read this book. I could write a pious review of the book or praise the author to the heavens, both would be justified. However it's very simple, you need to read this book and see how many people have lifted off Gibson or just been influenced by his work.
   Groundbreaking and still relevant 14 years after its initial publication. Truly an original work.



2. The first in the bridge series it introduces two central players, Berry Rydell a out of work cop and Chevette, a San Francisco bike messenger. Throughout the story the Golden gate bridge that was made unusable by a earthquake and now functions as a squatters paradise/no mans land looms in the background. This novel is Gibson's first tenative steps toward contemporary fiction. It works, just cutting edge enough to feed the tech heads with solid story and plot lines.
   Even though I still yearn for razor girls and console cowboys Vitural light was a great read. think of that..Gideon's Fall: When You Dont Have a Prayer, Only a Miracle Will Do



3. Your future may not be bright if you are wearing these shades.
   
   
   Gibson's technological level regresses from that of the Sprawl books. No cybernetic implants here, but old fashioned gear like googles and gloves for connections.
   
   A lowly courier gets into trouble when lifting the wrong pair of glasses - a super advanced gear prototype with some startling abilities.
   
   Through in a down on his luck investigator and another shady, seedy tale follows.
   
   
   3 out of 5



4. This book has almost nothing to do with virtual reality, and left me feeling somewhat ripped off. All dystopia, no VR. And he named it Virtual Light!
   
   If you're interested in a good VR read, check out Tad Williams's Otherland series instead. Much, much more entertaining. Gibson is sadly overrated.



5. .....peopled with interesting characters.
   
   Not as grim as the "Sprawl Trilogy" (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive), not light reading, necessarily, but with a little more hope involved.
   
   Berry Rydell seems like a loser at first, but he's actually a potential "hero" in the Gary Cooper sense....the problem is, that little extra luck he needs is never there....so far.
   
   He goes for what he feels is right, though, no matter the consequences.
   
   Chevette is a bike messenger who lives on the Oakland Bay Bridge (now closed to traffic and colonized along the lines of the Hakka "boat people" of Hong Kong harbor) and when she accidentally runs afoul of Evil Men, her future and Rydell's are soon to be intertwined.
   
   As always, Gibson's descriptive skill is the best part of the book, though I enjoyed his characterizations as well.
   
   This is a truly excellent trilogy, and it should be enjoyed in order
   
   
   
   1) Virtual Light
   
   2) Idoru
   
   3) All Tomorrow's Parties

5 comments about Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.

1. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said is one of Philip Dick's more accessible books to read. The plot is intriguing and pulls you along as Dick ponders the question of identity. If there is no record of you and no one knows you, who are you? Jason Taverner's mysterious loss of identity leads the reader on a suspenseful story that asks this question without boring the reader with a metaphysical lecture on identity. While not my favorite ending of Dick's it does tie up all the loose ends so the reader is not left dissatisfied. For people who like other Philip Dick novels as well as people who like Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night this book is highly recommended. For people who have yet to get into Philip Dick this is a good place to start.



2. I really liked this book.
   Written back in 1974, the plot is intriguing and still futurist, of course in an old-fashioned way, which makes it an unique book.
   I recommend this reading, especially to every sci-fi fan.



3. This book is so good that it's almost criminal to sit back and let it languish in a mere 4 star status. This book is a paranoid adventure from start to finish.
   
   Do yourself a favor; get this,"The Man Who Japed" and "Ubik".When you have finished, come back and help this book get the rating it deserves. Take it from a fellow six.



4. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said was published in 1974, the same year Philip K. Dick had his famous "revelation" that led to his extremely different later works such as VALIS. Presumably this book was completed before that revelation -- thus it stands as perhaps the last of what might be considered his "middle period." (If we call the early period the apprentice work in short fiction and the flood of uneven novels mostly for Ace, and start the "middle period" maybe with his Hugo winner, The Man in the High Castle (1962).) It seems to me quite characteristic of that body of work, though to my mind it ranks below the peak of his oeuvre.
   
   The plot and setting are something of a mess, though I think this is partly by design. Jason Taverner is a successful pop singer (more in the Frank Sinatra mode than in any plausible 70s mode), and also the host of a very successful TV variety show. He lives in the US in 1988, in a future where almost all black people have either been killed or sterilized. There are flying cars, but otherwise the milieu is somewhat seedy and not too different from our real 1974. He believes himself to be a "six," one of a group of genetically enhanced individuals.
   
   Then one day Jason Taverner is erased from existence. His records do not appear anywhere in the government's exhaustive databases. As such, he is vulnerable for arrest and assignment to a forced labor camp. His agent has never heard of him, and neither has his sometime mistress and costar and fellow "six", Heather Hart. He stumbles through a couple of difficult days, mostly marked by encounters with differently needy women: Kathy Nelson, who forges papers for him; Ruth Rae, another former mistress who doesn't remember him but is happy to take him in again; Mary Anne Dominic, a talented potter who helps him out of another fix; and perhaps most importantly Alys Buckman, the drug-addict sister of Police General Felix Buckman, with whom she carries on an incestuous relationship. Taverner is constantly under purview of the police, especially Buckman (the title "policeman")... confusingly arrested and released repeatedly, even as his identity is eventually restored.
   
   As I said, the plot doesn't really make much sense. And the setting is absurd if one attempts to see it as a plausible 1988: certainly it makes no sense today, but it was also impossible from the point of view of 1974. One almost wonders if the original notion for the novel was conceived in the 50s. (Especially given that Taverner is much more an early 50s pop star than a 70s or 80s pop star.) But I actually think that Dick had no interest whatsoever in displaying a plausible future. He just wanted a vehicle for his wild speculations. Which turn out to be rather interesting: Taverner's situation, his loss of identity is given a philosophically intriguing explanation. And the main characters -- Taverner and Buckman -- are well depicted though neither is very sympathetic.
   
   The novel is well worth reading, for reasons that are hard to explain. For all that it's an implausible mess, it is weirdly intriguing. Dick's ideas are always absorbing. That said, the ideas here are not as thought-provoking as in his best novels, the characters not as interesting, the plot not terribly strong. And of course Dick was never anything special as a stylist. In all ways, I must rank this novel as Dick at less than his best. But still somehow he held my interest.



5. The plot will have you guessing throughout, but always guessing wrong. The reader always guesses consistent with his own prejudiced conception of reality; he's over-matched by the mind-blowing stuff Dick throws at him. Seasoned readers of Dick are perhaps an exception. If you're new to Dick, I suggest re-reading the book a second time, especially if you have to fully "get it" it to be satisfied.
   
   Dick probes the profound mystery of personal identity and its particularly effective because it's set against the backdrop of a neo-Stasi, dystopian America. In this world, existence means a dossier, an ID card, a micro-transmitters, etc. It's inconceivable that existence remains undocumented. Nevertheless, as Jason Taverner proves, it is possible -- somehow! We ought to take note of the implications of this type of society considering the Real ID Act of 2005 will soon require us all to carry National ID cards.
   
   The finale of the story is very provocative and satisfying. I adored all the female characters in the book -- they were all so colorful.
   
   Altogether, and satisfying and trippy read!