4 comments about GURPS Cyberpunk: High-Tech Low-Life Roleplaying (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System).

1. When I first saw this book I thought, oh great, GURPS translated Cyberpunk 2020 into it's own system. Well I must admit it is better than that. This book is so hot it was seized by the US secret service, they raided SJ games, trashed the place and took it. That shows they know what's going on. Of course when you read it you will know it was a misunderstanding but it's quite amazing. The book has information on everything that was ever written in the cyberpunk genre and great ways to fit into a campagain. There a lot of role-playing possibilities in such a campaign, and "life is cheap" is one of several. Though characters are suggested to start off powerful (150-250 points) it still balances off. The fact that you can buy cyberwear with points is a neat thing to toy with. One of the major things I really like about it is it has a humongous bibliography of practically every book, periodical, comic book, movie and just about everything that has to do with cyberpunk from Neuromancer and 1984 to Akira and 2600. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to play cyberpunk, it has everything



2. I have to say that this is one of the most complete game supplements I have had the pleasure to work with. It makes me wonder how much more complete it would have been with the material they did not get back from the Feds. Freedom of speech indeed. This contains everything you need to play in a dirty, gritty, backstabbing, government conpsiracy laden, mega-corp power game riddled, techno-hacking, assasin filled game....buy it...you won't regret it



3. This one has it all... Cyberware, campaign notes, plot hooks and an entire culture between the covers. This book SINGLEY has everything needed for a GURPS Cyberpunk campaign and so much more. It is obvious that the writers and team have a great love for the Genre and it shows through in these pages.

   Great plot and campaign ideas...

   *Fantasy Cyberpunk (ala Shadow Run) *Fantasy Punk (with Golem-like body mods where magic replaces tech) *CyberSpace (bringing and edge to the tech in your space campaign) *Super-Punk (New cyber for your supers... OR Supers as a new subset of humanity in your Cyperpunk campaign) *Cyber-Horror (Call of Cthulhu meets Count Zero)

   All this.. and a Marvelous bibliography (and discography) that will prepare you for any campaign idea.




4. It's a useful book, pretty stripped down (as GURPS books seem to be), but there's definitely enough in there to get a good campaign going. (They recommend trying Cyber Punk as a one-off, since the mortality rate can be so high.) The weakness of cyberpunk in general is, being set in the near-future, the "gee-whiz" tech of yesterday becomes the everyday stuff of today. It would be nice to make this book a bit more truly "universal" - in other words, to build in more flexibility for evolving tech.
   
   Other than that, strongly recommended if you're looking to play in this genre.

4 comments about Storming the Reality Studio: A Casebook of Cyberpunk & Postmodern Science Fiction.

1. Ian Davis's Review of: Storming the reality studio
   How to explain this book... The young persons guide to modern Sf,
   Nahhhh...
   Cyberpunk sampler....no that's not it...
   Ah ha! Got it!!!
   The cyberpunk catalouge! That's good...
   

   This book is, and i'm quoting from the cover, "A casebook of post-modern and cyberpunk fiction"...

   Eeeep!

   Whenever I hear the words "post modern" and "fiction", in the same sentence it makes my ears sweat. I don't like the term..not one bit...

   But this book over came part of that fear...and take note when I say part..because it still needs something...like better content.

   Don't get me wrong..I liked the book. It has some very good art and stories..including some rare art from J. O'Barr.

   But a high proportion is shit, pure pseudo SF shit at it's most dismal. It has excerpts from many a book...that's why it's like a catalouge.On how the editor Larry McCaffrey, has compiled this tome I have a theory.

   McCaffery sits in his office. One man, a well dressed excec from a large publisher sits across from him in one chair, and a semi-serious Sf reader in another. They take turns choosing stories. the reader picks stories that best represent authors with a grasp of the field, and the exec looks at a list of books that sit unsold in one of his wharehouses.

   I say this because that is how the book feels. some excerpts from novels have all the right in the world to be there. A "cyberpunk" book WITHOUT Neuromancer would be ludicrous. But to include bizzre poems and little picture assembled by a first year art student, is not at all good, espescially when you include books like "Empire of the senseless". The book lacks any coherent structure, except for the flimsy Fiction, non Fiction division.

   The last thing that makes me cringe is whenever McCaffery writes. He seems to think Cyberpunk is this incredible Post-MTV and MuchMusic art form, but in reality it's still Sf, just with better stories, and no talking fur covered aliens.

   But you might think a hate it. Nay! I liked about 65% of it very much and another 10% quite a bit, but that last %25 wretch! Lets say what's good...

   Some of the stories are quite good, printing exerpts from hard to find and little known books, like IMP plus and MetroPhage. these are really good examples of the "cyberpunk" genre. And the short stories are pretty well done. The best parts however lie in the rarest.
   

   J. O'barrs graphics short storie is easily one of the best examples of the comic as fiction I have ever seen.

   The inteview with Cyberpunk-papa William Gibson is quite interesting, and available here and here alone, as far as I've looked. Some of the essays are very nice, if you have read the books they refer to. The non-fiction peice on Japan's love of Cyberpunk is impressive, especially about the earliest stories from that country in the vein of "cyberpunk".

   Two last good notes.

   One part, the comaparison between the text in Kathy Ackers "Empire of the sensless" and Gibsons "Neuromancer", is quite effective in showing Acker as the low grade writer she is, demonstrating how she lifts whole sections right out of Gibsons book, only changing the name of the characters.

   And finally the explanations of what several authors think is "Cyber", are interesting in their different viewpoints.

   So should you get it? If you are a purist for everything Cyber, Yes If you want rare fiction, also yes If you jack-all about Cyberpunk Sf, maybe If you hate bad poetry, No! If you want to read 5 page snippets from books, Yes

   All in all, a new revised edition removing crap like Acker and the poety would be very good, and instead of cramming it with commercials for other books, more whole short fiction would be great.

   All in all, an average book, you might like it, you might hate it. I, on a whole, semmed to like it, despite it's many problems.

   Try it for a taste of the best (and very worst) of "Cyberpunk" Sf




2. I enjoyed this collection of cyberpunk writing immensely. McCaffery chose a fine collection of cyberpunk examples, ranging from the well known to the less known, from fiction to non-fiction ssay. The ordering is near perfection--the arrangement allows the pieces to speak to each other, and of each other (a very cyberpunkean move). Given the above reviewer's apparent distress concerning certain aspects of the book, and some misguided reductions of cyberpunk (basically just SF without hairy aliens; and his basic misunderstanding of the interpolation that occurs within the genre--i.e. his rantings re: Acker and hackdom), I hope this doesn't dissuade you from purchasing this very worthwhile book--it's wonderful. Especially exciting is the "Cyberpunk 101" section where various books and films are listed and shortly (and bitingly witty--see the one for Ballard's _Crash_) are recommended and briefly summarized.



3. It's a shame that this book had to be so big, and its excerpts so brief. McCaffery has chosen a good selection of postmodern SF, but the excerpts are too often just a couple pages long. The result is a book a mile wide and an inch deep: it touches on every aspect of postmodern SF without really explaining or clearing up anything at all.

   A good way to use this book might be to read through it, choose what strikes your fancy, then buy the complete books attached to those. But I'm afraid if you just read this book, your glimpses of this very exciting genre will be too fleeting for you to get a good picture of it as a whole.

   To his credit, McCaffery has chosen an excellent array of writers and subgenres, including many who I did not know were SF or who dealt with SF in ways I hadn't expected. I should also mention that the design of the book is fantastic.




4. This book is a must-have if you're a fan of anything cyberpunk. There are more than 40 contributors, so not every piece is brilliant, but the book still deserves a five star rating. Highlights: fiction from almost everyone who was important in the cyberpunk movement (Gibson, Rucker, Shiner, Shirley, Sterling, etc.) and some other excellent writers not usually included in the group (Ballard, W. S. Burroughs, Pynchon), along with insightful essays by a diverse selection of writers including Timothy Leary and several important figures in the world of postmodern theory (Baudrillard, Derrida, Jameson, Kroker). Storming the Reality Studio is one book that I am proud to own, and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.

5 comments about Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology.

1. This book is a collection of cyberpunk stories assembled by Bruce Sterling. It is supposedly the definitive cyberpunk fiction collection. There are some really good stories in the book such as the Gernsback Continuum, Solstice, Freezone, Till Human Voices Wake Us, Stone Lives, and Mozart with Mirrorshades. These tales had advanced technological concepts and more importantly, good stories. The stories touched on gene engineering, time travel, cybernetics, and other popular cyberpunk themes. Some of the other stories were pretty interesting, but some just didn't seem to fit. For example, Tales of Houdini and Petra seemed out of place in this collection. Though they were both sci-fi tales, they didn't seem to be cyberpunk.



2. This is simply a fantastic collection of the best stories of my favorite literary subgenre, the Cyberpunk Movement in the 1980s and early 1990s. While I may not like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, I am not ignorant when it comes to their importance in popularizing and shaping the genre. Also here are Rudy Rucker, the acting grandfather of the genre; and Pat Cadigan, the Queen of Cyberpunk (even though she had very little, if any, real competition).

   While there are a couple newer Cyberpunk collections, The Ultimate Cyberpunk coming to mind, the first is still the best. Not only are the stories fantastic, but the anthology didn't have to rely on a nostalgia effect, like those that are being published now.

   A good introduction to the genre, as well as an essential item for one's collection.




3. Bruce Sterling's anthology Mirrorshades announced the existence of cyberpunk. A more modern type of street level, urban science fiction in a lot of cases. While the authors here have done better work elsewhere this is still a very interesting and influential collection, and certainly of use to people with an interest in that sort of science fiction.
   
   Cadigan, Gibson and Shirley are all here, for example.
   
   Mirrorshades : The Gernsback Continuum - William Gibson
   Mirrorshades : Snake-Eyes - Tom Maddox
   Mirrorshades : Rock On - Pat Cadigan
   Mirrorshades : Tales of Houdini - Rudy Rucker
   Mirrorshades : 400 Boys - Marc Laidlaw
   Mirrorshades : Solstice - James Patrick Kelly
   Mirrorshades : Petra - Greg Bear
   Mirrorshades : Till Human Voices Wake Us - Lewis Shiner
   Mirrorshades : Freezone - John Shirley
   Mirrorshades : Stone Lives - Paul Di Filippo
   Mirrorshades : Red Star Winter Orbits - William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
   Mirrorshades : Mozart in Mirrorshades - Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner
   
   
   
   Not a fan of retro sf design.
   
   4 out of 5
   
   
   Serpent brain wartech is problematic.
   
   4 out of 5
   
   
   Direct mental music.
   
   3.5 out of 5
   
   
   Escape master movie.
   
   2 out of 5
   
   
   Team survival is tricky.
   
   4 out of 5
   
   
   Bioguru woman's Stonehenge drug binge unhinges into cryogenic desperation.
   
   4.5 out of 5
   
   
   Gargoyle boys and girls.
   
   3.5 out of 5
   
   
   Mermaid clone affair ends quite fishily.
   
   4 out of 5
   
   
   America losing, rock is dead, gay bar's an escape.
   
   3.5 out of 5
   
   
   Corporate anarchy watching brief blackout provides relative promotion.
   
   4.5 out of 5
   
   
   Cosmonaut crapout space station hitchhikers.
   
   4 out of 5
   
   
   Let them wear leather bikinis and crave recording deals.
   
   4 out of 5



4. A battered copy lives in my nightstand at all times. Between novels, I always come back to this, flipping through the pages until a word catches my eye. Such a diversity of talent, mixed together quite well here.



5. Either I do not believe the book has a good selection of Cyberpunk stories collection, or there are not that many good Cyberpunk stories?? Being a classical Sci-fi fan reading all those Asimov and classical stuff, this sort of new blood stories doesn't live up to it. May be I haven't seen the real good Cyberpunk story yet. But certainly not this collection.

5 comments about Snow Crash.

1. Loved the story and all the geek that is involved. Didn't care so much for all of the language though. Would recommend to other geeks looking for a fun read.



2. Superficial development and banal, stereotypical portrayal of all major characters. If the book didn't have a somewhat interesting plotline, it would have nothing to recommend it to the mature reader (i.e. any reader who is not a teenage boy or a man with a teenager's mentality).



3. This book will always be paired and compared with William Gibson's Neuromancer. However, it can stand by itself as a great novel. The anonymity that the Internet offers is clear in the names of the characters. Hiro Protagonist and Y.T. are the kind of quirky names used by people all over cyberspace. The quick pacing of the storytelling and the piecemeal revelations about characters' backgrounds, motivations and beliefs gave the novel layers as if I were slowly penetrating the author's conscience. It's a fun novel written by a man that has also written code in his past life. It's much better than Pride and Prejudice.



4. It was like the book version of a video game. I couldn't put it down, was late for work. More do you want... no, I don't give "5"s.



5. Snow Crash was my first cyberpunk read and probably will not be my last - it certainly won't be my last Neal Stephenson book!
   
   The main character in Snow Crash, Hiro Protagonist, is an ex-pizza delivery driver for the mafia. He collects information, uploads it and makes money off of it if customers find the information he uploads useful. While Hiro is in the metaverse, a virtual reality 'Second Life' of sorts, he discovers a virus called Snow Crash. Snow Crash is no ordinary virus however; it affects people in real life - outside of the metaverse. It's Hiros mission to figure out more about the virus.
   
   Snow Crash moves at a break-neck pace. Stephenson has a very creative prose which makes this book almost impossible to put down at times. I found myself late to work more than once because I would attempt to read just a few passages before rolling out of bed only to find that I just couldn't peel myself away! This is one of those books that will put you in a time machine - you think you've only been reading for 20 minutes when in fact it has been an hour!
   
   One of the more common complaints I see in other reviews is how he tends to digress, especially when he talks about topics like ancient Sumerian culture. I didn't find this annoying at all, I actually found it really interesting how he tied everything together.
   
   This is an addicting read that I highly recommend! I can't wait to read more of Stephenson's work!

5 comments about Cyberpunk 2020: The Roleplaying Game of the Dark Future.

1. I was stationed in Vilseck Germany with the 2nd of the 63rd Armor when I friend told me about Cyber Punk. It was almost a year before we found someone with the books, and immediatly set up a game. It was a game that I have never forgoten. It sits in my mind like the begining of Secret of Mana, forever a defining factor in my oppinions.

   This game does tend to drag with its role to hit/role to dodge rules, but it is more believable then any other game I have seen or played. The setting for Cyber Punk is OURT world, with OUR history. It is science fiction. We can look at our own lives, make few changes to the timeline, and see that it IS possible. In reality, these things would never happen, but in the game, it is easier for us to adapt to this new world because it is so close to our own. Realy, what has changed? The world has met a sort of anarchy, like in Mad Max. The government is now run by Corporations. Bionics are common enough that you see people with mettle limbs on a regular basis. This world is more real then any other I have seen, and this makes more believable. Since it is more believable it becomes easier to enter your charactor and enjoy the game.

   If I had to rate all the games I have played, I would put this on tope, even with its long combat and ineffectiveness with machine guns.




2. CP 2020 is by far the best pencil and paper RPG, this is all you need to get started. Playing CyberPunk will open your eyes to the world and the direction it is heading in and also opens your creativity and imagination. Everything from the weapons, the armor and the stat system whips AD&D. Anyone who doesn't like the whole fantasy ideals and/or combat system of AD&D needs to give CP a serious look-see.

   If you like CP:2020 check out the CyberSphere MOO, well coded and reasonably closely based on CP.

   Telnet on over to:

   cs.vv.com:6969
   or
   cs.vv.com:7777




3. Out of the whole cyberpunk movement and craze, it would seem that a role playing game was a natural. This had an interesting setting and information, and was appropriately brutal. This would lead to characters having the life expectancy of at least a little more than a paranoia clone, so you had to do something about that if you wanted to feature violence in your games.



4. In the short-run, it's like Shadowrun only without anything in the way of mysticism or magic. It's all metal or nothing in this game.
   
   Plenty here have praised the games mechanics, so I won't dive into that... ditto the excellent storyline (I haven't actually GMed a CP game in almost 10 years, and haven't played in five, yet I'll still flip through the rulebook every so often just to read about the local color and stories provided)
   
   If the game has a downfall it is only in that the story lineage is a little dated by modern standards (although strangely prophetic). As 2020 is fast approaching us (being 12 years away as of this writing) much of what was theorized as being "part of the future" has actually come to pass: The internet (ok, not QUITE as they have invisioned it, but can it be far off?), cellphones, corperations wielding vast political power, even modern stem-cell research is a harbinger to the body limb-regrowth capabilities tauted in the game, ditto with cyberlimbs/prosthetics.
   
   The game itself is still very much worth playing. Only now instead of a "dark future", the game has instead become more of a "grim alternate reality"... or alternately, you could just move the game's story ahead 20-30 years and adjust accordingly :)
   
   I highly reccomend it. If I could find another regular crew to play with locally, I'd be all over it!



5. First started playing this game years ago. It is still a very fun game of Cyber-Future where life is cheap and Corporations rule. If you have never tried it, you should. If you have ever watched Bladerunner or the Bubblegum Crisis anime and enjoyed, you will like this game.

5 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.



3. I only occasionally dip into science-fiction and when I do I'm looking for things that stretch my head, that challenge my world-view and that open realms of possibility. This anthology met those needs and more.
   
   Every story was well worth reading (no duds) and several were excellent.
   
   Admittedly the anthology has a rather dark cast (as expected, given the cyberpunk focus) and some of the auxiliary material has a bit of an attitude (again, a cp staple), but the stories were wholly engrossing.
   
   This is one of the best anthologies I've read in years



4. I was suckered into buying this by the 'Top' writers in this anthology, Paul di Filippo, Sterling, Gibson, Cadigan.., but I already own all these stories in other collections.
   Even the work of most of the lesser known writer I already knew.
   The remaining stories were good and enjoyable, but I would not label them cyberpunk or even 'post' cyberpunk in any way.
   
   I should have known from the title (REwired...)that it's trying to ride the long-broken remains of the cyberpunk wave.
   Some excellent writing in there, but still flogging a dead horse, IMHO.



5. So the editors of this SF anothology seem to believe that cyberpunk became, after more than twenty years, too much of a popular cliche, or brand, to continue as a useful SF subgenre, and present these stories as stories that move beyond it to a new paradigm. They feel pretty much like cyberpunk to me, but perhaps a bit off-beat. There are some very memorable stories by famous and less-noted authors, I especially enjoyed Swanwick's "The Dog Said Bow-Wow", Bagigalupi's "The Calorie Man", and Doctorow's "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth". Even the stories that started out slowly and were hard to relate to for a while ended up being very interesting by their ends. I'll definitely hope for a second anthology from these editors.

5 comments about Infoquake (Jump 225 Trilogy).

1. I finished Infoquake last night. It was fantastic. It's an action-packed book, but the action isn't the sort one typically sees. Which I loved. Kudos to Edelman for writing a gripping page-turner without many of the elements that often get relied on to turn pages. Also, rare is the book where I immediately turn to read the appendices when the story is over. The worldbuilding is amazing. I'm very much looking forward to Multireal.



2. This book takes place many years after the collapse of civilization. A group of sentient computers called the Autonomous Minds rebelled against mankind in the Autonomous Revolt. Now, Earth is dominated by bio/logics, the science of programming the human body.
   
   The programs have names like Eyemorph 1.0, DeMirage 24.5, Poker Face 83.4b and AntiSleepStim 124.7. The average person has thousands of such programs in their bodies, courtesy of microscopic robots placed at or before birth. Natch is a master of bio/logic programming, who has risen to the top with little more than brains and sheer determination.
   
   For many years, Margaret Surina, ancestor of Sheldon Surina, the inventor of bio/logics, has hinted about this new technology called MultiReal. She enters into a partnership with Natch and his fiefcorp to bring it to market immediately. It can take months to understand and develop a new technology, get it approved by Dr. Plugenpatch (a set of databases that constitute the quality control system), keep it away from the competitors, and then bring it to market. Natch and his colleagues have to do it in three days. The reason for the very short time frame is to also keep MultiReal away from the Defense and Wellness Council. It's a secret and unaccountable government organization that handles all military and intelligence affairs.
   
   This is an excellent piece of writing. Cyberpunk fans will love it. Is there such a thing as "business cyberpunk?" This is also a really good book about the mixing of business and technology. The "cyber-" part is not too technical, and this is very highly recommended.



3. When a book is proceeded by pages of gushing reviews, you think it has to be good, right? Not necessarily, and upon finishing this book, I came away with the feeling the authors friends patted him on the back with undeserved praise. Because of this, and although I don't normally write reviews, I felt I needed to get a more balanced opinion of this book on Amazon.
   
   While I'm sure the author's friends like it and praised this book to be nice and to help out a friend, this is a disservice to readers who go on expecting something mindblowing. It's not mindblowing at all.
   
   It's not that the writing in the book is bad, the writing is adequate. It's more that the characters and plot are uninteresting.
   
   Large swaths of the book are so boring, so mundane that the characters might as well be wandering about in nothingness. Mostly it's as if the author is trying too hard, he's trying to be artsy when he should just be writing.
   
   For world construction it's as if Edelmen took cliff notes from other (better) books but then tried to twist these in non-obvious ways. The result is bizarre, boring. I wish there was a zero star option, this is a book that doesn't deserve a star rating. It's artsy for the sake of being artsy. It has no heart, no soul, no character, no plot. For this kind of book done right, read Neal Stephenson or anyone else.



4. This is the first time I'd heard of or read Edelman's work. This particular book combines high tech with high finance. The story is well written, the characters are believable and fairly well sketched out.
   
   I particularly enjoyed the "future reality" ideas this book presents. It's firmly rooted in things we would understand in the 21st century but that have changed quite dramatically in the years between now and when the story takes place. You feel comfortable reading about computing, programming and finance even though the setting in which these ideas take place is far different from our own.
   
   Society has changed an awful lot between then and now, but not so much that it becomes unbelievable to the reader. It really doesn't seem that far fetched and in some ways it is almost hope-inspiring.
   
   The simple fact is that Edelman has created a future world unlike many others.
   
   If you are a fan of Snow Crash or Neuromancer, you'll enjoy this work. I certainly did. I'm currently reading the 2nd book in the trilogy "MultiReal" MultiReal (Book Two of the Jump 225 Trilogy) (v. 2). I've found it just as intriguing and honestly can't wait to see how the series concludes.
   
   A firm 4 stars, but only because I reserve 5 stars for absolute "can't live without reading this book" reviews. Read it with confidence if you have any interest in future tech, cyberpunk, techno-finance thrillers, etc.



5. And that's all this book is about, a businessman trying to sell some programs. Will Natch make money? Will his company's stocks rise? If that's the sort of thing you want to read about (more e-commerce-punk than cyberpunk), then go ahead.
   
   But be aware that you'll be doing it in the company of cartoonish characters who deliver their stilted lines while gesticulating like silent-movie actors; that you'll be doing it in a world that feels about as big and socially complex as your thumb; that in the background, you'll see the gods in the machine that keep the hackneyed plot creaking slowly along barely covered with ratty dropcloths; that the author's often clumsy writing will seem intended more to impress you with his intellectual superiority than to tell you a story.
   
   In short, if you can get past the mediocrity (at best) of Infoquake's writing, plot, world, and characters, then read it, by all means. I think I'm done with Mr. Edelman, myself.

2 comments about Black Glass: The Lost Cyberpunk Novel.

1. In 2033, former cop Rick Candle is being released from the California State Centenary once he is ReMinded. He spent four years of being UnMinded for taking the software piracy rap for his younger brother musician and V-Rat addict Danny.
   
   Slaken CEO Terrence Grist is unhappy with Rick's freedom as the cop came close to destroying his empire. However the Fortune 33 member has a hitman Halido poised to kill Candle.
   
   Rick visits Danny's former girlfriend Zilia, who he is attracted to, but she has no idea where his sibling is. Meanwhile Shortstack hires Rick to protect his underground illegal web. At the same time Grist orders his leading technocrat Sykes to create the Multisemblant, a merging of the personalities of five of the top Fortune 33 members. Soon that new creation will be out of control and after Rick who stands in the way of its personal agenda.
   
   This is an engaging somewhat cautionary cyber future thriller in which Big Business runs the United States any way they want. The story line is action-packed from the moment Rick regains his mind and never slows down as he searches for his brother, deals with his attraction to Zilia and tries to protect Shortstack and his cronies from Grist's killers. However it is the unique Multisemblant that steals the show as the copied conscience of five of the top of the Fortune 33 personalities seems almost God-like with the ability to go almost anywhere in cyberspace. BLACK GLASS is a terrific science fiction tale.
   
   Harriet Klausner



2. I couldn't put this book down and I'm not a big fan of this genre. Now I have to read more works by Mr. Shirley. He's has a twisted mind and an amazing imagination!

5 comments about How to Draw Fantasy Females: Create Sexy Cyberpunks, Seductive Supergirls, and Raunchy All-Action Heroines.

1. This book isn't worth the paper it's written on. There's next to nothing useful in it, any other drawing book on the market is far better. I'm amazed a publisher released it.



2. this book talks about the type of characters there are in stories and what not. And if you plan on drawing fantasy stuff, chances are you already know about these character types. Theres plenty left out and this doesnt teah you much if you know how to draw and if you dont know how to draw, this doesnt teach you how.
   
   I got this thinking it'd show me how to draw suits and armor and stuff for females, not tell me that i could draw a girl with a gun or a female alien shaped like a uterus (im dead serious), whats up with that?
   
   If i knew what i know now about this book, I wouldnt buy it. I can't really say who this book would be useful for. I guess its for those who want to draw fantasy style, but have no idea what kind of fantasy settings exsist. And with all the movies, cartoons, videogames, and comic books out there, i dont thing such a person walks this earth.
   
   I wouldnt call it a waste, it does have some nice artwork in it, but overall its useless for me. I'm not an expert or draw for a living or anything like that and im not new at it. This would have been useful if it tought you how to draw stuff or at least had more/unheard of archetypes. Another thing is that this book does is assumes you want to make a comic book which gets annoying because it gives story ideas instead telling me what i wanted to learn.



3. I tend to buy a lot of "How to Draw" books, art books, etc. and, over the years, I've developeda pretty good sense of what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately, "How to Draw Fantasy Females" just doesn't work.
   
   This book is basically a look into different kinds of female sci-fi/comic book/fantasy characters. It gives information on archetypes (actually, there is a little character sheet-type list at the beginning of the book that will help you design different character "types") and provides a couple of pseudo-helpful tutorials on Photoshop and other programs, but is mostly a showcase of different kinds of femals genre characters. I was underwhelmed, to tell the truth - there is very little "how to" to this book at all. Unless you are a collector or a completionist, I recommend just staying away from this one and looking elsewhere.



4. I've been doodling on and off for years, and have just recently started to get more serious with my drawing. I was looking for a book that would give me guidance on drawing female figures because my attempts to capture the female form on paper have been quite horrible. This book does not do that. It tells you what they should look like, but doesn't tell you how to get there. There are some black and white sketches of characters already drawn with the colorized final work next to them, but NO notes on how to actually start drawing such characters.
   
   The author touches on using Photoshop, 3D modeling programs, and writing character background stories. No offense, but I'd rather have some suggestions on how to draw the characters; not how to scan and color or spin yarns around them. I mean, the book IS titled "How To Draw...". Granted though, like every other topic in the book, the author doesn't spend much time on these topics.
   
   Seriously, I didn't see hardly anything on how to start drawing, and building these characters up. No stick figures, and very little in the way of rough sketches.
   
   I really feel like I wasted my money on this.
   
   There just isn't enough "how to" in this "how to".



5. This book was not what I expected, its not a bad book, but not what I was looking for. Glad I only paid three bucks for it

5 comments about Spook Country.

1. I had high hopes for this novel. Like others, I'm a huge fan of William Gibson. I think he's done a great deal to change the face of the science fiction genre, in fact I think "Neuromancer" turned it on its head. I've read all his novels and short story collections. I wanted to enjoy this book. Unfortunately I came away unmoved and just shrugged my shoulders. As always there are interesting characters and plot points, but the overall story just doesn't go anywhere. Ultimately there is no point. One thing I enjoy about Gibson's novels is that they have wider implications than just what happens to the characters. There's a bigger picture and this picture has something to say about our society now and in the future. I didn't find that here--maybe others did. What I saw was a near future world with three stories running through it that barely connect and don't say anything. So if you like Gibson's writing, enjoy his vision of the future, and don't need a compelling plot line to keep you interested, by all means give this a try. I do believe if you are a hard-core fan you should read this book and prepare to be underwhelmed. But at the end of the day you'll probably enjoy it if your expectations aren't very high. If you're new to Gibson and want to try him out, read his earlier novels or short stories (which I highly recommend). Thanks.



2. I'm surprised by the luke-warm and negative reviews. This is one of my favorite Gibson books. Made so much more interesting because it is so close to the world we actually live in.



3. Reading this book is like having a really talented tour guide lead you through the suburbs of Houston - the excellent delivery and style are incapable of covering up the fact that you're not really going anywhere interesting. Easily my least favorite by Gibson.



4. There are few authors whose entire literary output I've read, but William Gibson falls firmly inside that camp. From the ground-breaking Neuromancer, which I originally read when I was a teenager in the early 1990's, through Spook Country, the second Gibson novel set in the "real" world, he has explored the cultural shifts created by technology and has proven more accurate and relevant than almost every other author working in speculative fiction. Now that much of what he imagined has come to pass (either through the world mimicking his work, or merely catching up to it), he's now commenting on the impact of technology.
   
   Spook Country follows three characters -- Hollis, the former lead singer of a semi-successful indie rock band, Tito, the young member of a Cuban "boutique" crime family, and Milgrim, an addict who has somehow fallen in with a mysterious intelligence agent called Brown. All are swept up into the search for a cargo container that keeps shuffling around the GPS grid, a search that will eventually lead them to converge in a single place.
   
   McGuffins are nothing new to Gibson's novels, used primarily as a vehicle for exploring societal shifts, and the shipping container in Spook Country is no exception. In this case, however, he uses a McGuffin to examine the impact of computer-generated worlds on our own perception of reality, the atemporal nature of celebrity (including an interesting mediation on the trust that people are willing to invest in celebrities, who would otherwise be strangers to them), Iraq war profiteering, Bush-era paranoia and the infusion of pagan religion into contemporary Catholicism.
   
   There is a startling array of threads and ideas spun out of Gibson's mystery shipping container, and although the ending is not as satisfying as his past works, the ideas he brings up are definite worth exploring.
   
   This may not be Gibson's best book (I'm still partial to Virtual Light), but it's certainly an entertaining and thought-provoking of life in the mid-oughties. Definitely recommended to both old fans and novices alike.



5. A slick casing of ultra-modern style hold a wafer-thin plot in William Gibson's "Spook Country". Mr Gibson returns to the augmented-reality world of 2003's "Pattern Recognition" and uploads us into the minds of Hollis Henry, a freelance journalist working for a magazine that may not even exist, Tito, a Russian-trained Chinese-Cuban smuggler delivering iPods to a mysterious client, and Milgrim, a benzo-addicted Russian translator kidnapped by a pseudo-military team shadowing Tito.
   
   Mr Gibson's writing is ceramic-smooth minimalism, slick and stylish as an iPod, and easily its match in self-conscious hipness. Sentences are subject, verb, object, although two of these may be optional. "She'd Google him later" sums up the style--five words or less, including brand name. There is much guff talk about "preubiquitous media" and cyberspace "everting", but the prose is rescued from pretentious silliness by eye-catching imagery, like calling a sidewalk an "abstract in blackened chewing gum". It shouldn't work, but it so often does. It's a powerfully immediate and electrifying style. Sadly, there are some distractions. Mr Gibson outfits his text with more name brands than a Tokyo teenager, and sometimes the triple-lacquer layer of coolness is as numbing as it is hypnotic, like watching computer-generated fractals on endless loop.
   
   The real letdown is the plot. There's some silliness involving superman criminals using Russian martial arts and voodoo to outwit Blackwell government types, and the subtext of the novel reads like an unsubtle small-l liberal bible, name-checking such cause celebre as disaffection with the war in Iraq and anguish over the growing divide between haves and have-nots. What's worse, the patently silly denouement in Mr Gibson's hometown of Vancouver robs the story of any gravitas it may have had.
   
   It's a pity. Such silken skill with words should be put to use with a more engaging story. That said, Mr Gibson's invigorating Hunter S Thompson-does-sociology approach remains one of the most interesting, original voices in fiction. Let's hope he downloads something meatier for his next oeuvre.