cyber/apocalypse book reviews

Here is my listing of books and authors that fit into the cyber/post-apocolypse genres. Now, I haven't read all of these yet but I am planning on it. If you have an e-book or PDA version of any of these that you'd like to lend me please let me know. I'll asterisk the ones I haven't read yet and I'll be using the amazon.com blurbs for their explanations.

As I do read up on this list, I'll be posting more indepth reviews from time to time. I rate material on a scale of 1 - 5 robots, represented by these guys: If I haven't read it, then I can't rate it - obviously. :)

Anthony Burgess

Clockwork Orange ----------------
Ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence? Far more profound then the movie due to the age of the main character, this book is truly disturbing. I'd recommend getting the version with the glossary of terms. Near future with heavy drug use at the Karova Milk Bar.

The Wanting Seed ----------------
The world is overpopulated and breeding is frowned upon. All the officials and police are homosexual and they are militantly enforcing the breeding rules. It goes a tad too far and the population can't take it anymore. Throw in some opportune wars and you start to get scared about what the politicians will actually do when it happens. Heavy on privacy and personal freedom themes. This book is like literary birth control.

William Gibson

All Tomorrow's Parties ----------------
Berry Rydell is sent on a mission to save the world by his friend Colin who is living in a cardboard box city in Asia. He runs into Chevette, his chick from an earlier book, and together they try to save the world and the Idoru.

* Burning Chrome
"Ten brilliant, streetwise, high-resolution stories from the man who coined the word cyberspace. Gibson's vision has become a touchstone in the emerging order of the 21st Century, from the computer-enhanced hustlers of Johnny Mnemonic to the technofetishist blues of Burning Chrome . With their vividly human characters and their remorseless, hot-wired futures, these stories are simultaneously science fiction at its sharpest and instantly recognizable Polaroids of the postmodern condition." - amazon.com

* Count Zero
"Turner, corporate mercenary, wakes in a reconstructed body, a beautiful woman by his side. Then Hosaka Corporation reactivates him for a mission more dangerous than the one he's recovering from: Maas-Neotek's chief of R&D is defecting. Turner is the one assigned to get him out intact, along with the biochip he's perfected. But this proves to be of supreme interest to certain other parties--some of whom aren't remotely human.

Bobby Newmark is entirely human: a rustbelt data-hustler totally unprepared for what comes his way when the defection triggers war in cyberspace. With voodoo on the Net and a price on his head, Newmark thinks he's only trying to get out alive. A stylish, streetsmart, frighteningly probable parable of the future and sequel to Neuromancer." - amazon.com

* Idoru
"When Rez, the lead singer for the rock band Lo/Rez is rumored to be engaged to an "idoru" or "idol singer"--an artificial celebrity creation of information software agents--14-year-old Chia Pet McKenzie is sent by the band's fan club to Tokyo to uncover the facts. At the same time, Colin Laney, a data specialist for Slitscan television, uncovers and publicizes a network scandal. He flees to Tokyo to escape the network's wrath. As Chia struggles to find the truth, Colin struggles to preserve it, in a futuristic society so media-saturated that only computers hold the hope for imagination, hope and spirituality." - amazon.com

* Mona Lisa Overdrive
"Into the cyber-hip world of William Gibson comes Mona, a young girl with a murky past and an uncertain future whose life is on a collision course with internationally famous Sense/Net star Angie Mitchell. Since childhood, Angie has been able to tap into cyberspace without a computer. Now, from inside cyberspace, a kidnapping plot is masterminded by a phantom entity who has plans for Mona, Angie, and all humanity, plans that cannot be controlled...or even known. And behind the intrigue lurks the shadowy Yakuza, the powerful Japanese underworld, whose leaders ruthlessly manipulate people and events to suit their own purposes." -amazon.com

Neromancer ----------------
In my opinion, the height of William Gibson's wordiness, I found this a little difficult to get into. I'm a reader too, in the 'loves James Joyce' variety. Once in however, you're there for good. Neromancer is about Case, an internet cowboy of sorts who gets a little tied up in the more bad assed levels of society. He goes from supreme hacker for hire to drug ladden maggot type in a short amount of time. After pissing off a little too many society members (not to mention his liver), he is approached to do some hacking by an incredibly modified assassin woman (height of cyber fetish - this one) and her mostly psychotic boss. The details that ensue are quite enthralling and the end is fantastic. Gibson knows how to end a novel.

* Virtual Light
"The author of Neuromancer takes you to the vividly realized near future of 2005. Welcome to NoCal and SoCal, the uneasy sister-states of what used to be California. Here the millennium has come and gone, leaving in its wake only stunned survivors. In Los Angeles, Berry Rydell is a former armed-response rentacop now working for a bounty hunter. Chevette Washington is a bicycle messenger turned pick-pocket who impulsively snatches a pair of innocent-looking sunglasses. But these are no ordinary shades. What you can see through these high-tech specs can make you rich--or get you killed. Now Berry and Chevette are on the run, zeroing in on the digitalized heart of DatAmerica, where pure information is the greatest high. And a mind can be a terrible thing to crash." - amazon.com

Ira Levin

This Perfect Day ----------------
This book is amazing. I first read it when I was in early highschool and it scared the fuck out of me. It's a world of conformity by genetics and injections.

Rudy Rucker (submitted by melancholy art)

Slackware, Freeware, Wetware series
"Cobb Anderson created the "boppers," sentient robots that overthrew their human overlords.

But now Cobb is just an aging alcoholic waiting to die, and the big boppers are threatening to absorb all of the little boppers--and eventually every human--into a giant, melded consciousness. Some of the little boppers aren't too keen on the idea, and a full-scale robot revolt is underway on the moon (where the boppers live). Meanwhile, bopper Ralph Numbers wants to give Cobb immortality by letting a big bopper slice up his brain and tape his "software." It seems like a good idea to Cobb." - amazon.com

Orson Scott Card

Ender Game ----------------
Ender is the prodigal child, but for what he is not sure. This is one of my favourite books. Imagine a future where children were plucked from their families to train for the army. Imagine being one of those children, and the top of your class. What if the weight of two worlds were on your shoulders?

The Speaker for the Dead ----------------
If you could undo something horrid that you did, would you? This is the story of redemtion when you didn't have a choice in the first place. Ender's future is a little messed after having destroyed an entire race and he's desperately trying to make up for it.

* Xenocide
"Orson Scott Card's Xenocide is a space opera with verve. In this continuation of Ender Wiggin's story, the Starways Congress has sent a fleet to immolate the rebellious planet of Lusitania, home to the alien race of pequeninos, and home to Ender Wiggin and his family. Concealed on Lusitania is the only remaining Hive Queen, who holds a secret that may save or destroy humanity throughout the galaxy. Familiar characters from the previous novels continue to grapple with religious conflicts and family squabbles while inventing faster-than-light travel and miraculous virus treatments. Throw into the mix an entire planet of mad geniuses and a self-aware computer who wants to be a martyr, and it's hard to guess who will topple the first domino. Due to the densely woven and melodramatic nature of the story, newcomers to Ender's tale will want to start reading this series with the first books, Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead." - amazon.com

* Children of the Mind
"Children of the Mind, fourth in the Ender series, is the conclusion of the story begun in the third book, Xenocide . The author unravels Ender's life and reweaves the threads into unexpected new patterns, including an apparent reincarnation of his threatening older brother, Peter, not to mention another "sister" Valentine. Multiple storylines entwine, as the threat of the Lusitania-bound fleet looms ever nearer. The self-aware computer, Jane, who has always been more than she seemed, faces death at human hands even as she approaches godhood. At the same time, the characters hurry to investigate the origins of the descolada virus before they lose their ability to travel instantaneously between the stars. There is plenty of action and romance to season the text's analyses of Japanese culture and the flux and ebb of civilizations. But does the author really mean to imply that Ender's wife literally bores him to death?" - amazon.com

Ender's Shadow ----------------
Ender's Game from the perspective of Bean, one of the other children at the school. Although the same essential story, it's completely amazing. He's the unspoken hero and tragic child whose intense brain power comes with a nasty price. I liked this better than the original. Thanks to Jason for lending it to me.

Shadow of the Hegemon ----------------
Shadow of the Hegemon explores what happens when the kids are booted back to Earth after the war. Each country has it's own brilliant youth to exploit, and some are kidnapping the elite from Ender's crew. Ender was sent off world and now it's his brother's turn to freak out the political arena with his youthful brilliance. Bean again saves the day, but with the help of the other kids. Also an incredible read. Less cyber and more political future. Orson Sctott Card hasn't failed me yet.

Neal Stephenson

Cyptonomicon ----------------
I tried reading this and then got stuck in all the detailed encryption math that Neal decided was necessary for the story. I will eventually try again because people claim after those chapters it gets really good. Can't see it yet though.

Snow Crash ----------------
This was considered Neal Stephenson's breakthrough cyber punk novel. The height of futuristic and post-political-apocolypse, Hiro Protagonist, a hacker and sword fighter runs up against Snow Crash, a digital and biological virus from Sumarian times. Hiro is joined by YT, a 15 year old cyber Kourrier on his quest for information about this virus and all sorts of funky tech to sell online. The world is set in post conventional law future. There are countries throughout North America based on political/commerical franchises. For example, the Mafia has Nova Sicilia, a pizza delivery company and embassy and the United States has the Feds who contract out programming needs. It's a seriously cool book and I now want all the tech Neal wrote about. If you are even slightly a fan of anthropology or linguistics then you *must* read this book. Drew and I both bought it for each other for xmas, and read it at the same time. Even then, we would laugh out loud and read each other captions. Get this book, do it now.

The Diamond Age ----------------
I love Neal, but his endings make me want to seek him out and demand satisfaction. Better called 'A Young Ladies Illustrated Primer', the alternate name for the book, Diamond Age's story is delightful. Delighful if you're a girl who has ever had any issues growing up that you didn't feel you had adequate help with. No one wants to be Nell. She has the ultimate bad childhood and is innocent enough to not know that it's bad until her brother brings her home a book that eventually teaches her how miserable her situation is. Set in a further future then SnowCrash, Nell lives in a world of nanotechnology gone insane. Microscopic wars and matter generators all fueled by clan based politics. The primer, an interactive book tailored to bond with it's owner, is the star of the story and touches many compelling characters as they all try to use it for their own purposes. Unfortunately, Neal does not pull them all in well enough and I felt he left out some key outcomes. Still a great read though, and it has inspired me to start seeking minions for a girl army.

John Varley

Blue Champagne ----------------
A compilation of short stories, Varley attacks the issues of merging technology with humans and altering humans through technology. This book is great because you actually feel for the characters in such a short time.

Steel Beach ----------------
Hildy is confused about his thoughts of suicide in his computer controlled utopian world. Themes of gender identity, personal control and post-Earth issues make this a really good read.