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Don Seer:
hehe in the same vein as the thread in the main forum...

Right now i'm reading....

Bruce Sterling - Schismatrix Plus

Was hard work getting into it, a bit stop/start/stop/start but its picked up now..

brief precis..

its actually a book and short stories, the book is called Schismatrix and there are more stories in the same universe hence the Plus...

this is more me catching up my cyberpunk.. some 'classic' books i cant find tho :(

a review..


--- Quote ---chismatrix Plus gathers Bruce Sterling's five "Shaper-Mechanist" short stories of the early 1980s with his 1985 Shaper-Mech novel Schismatrix. In these works Sterling launched a guerrilla raid on the comfortable conventions of science fiction. Sterling's future history is neither a bland techno-utopia nor a dreary post-apocalypse ruin. Schismatrix Plus portrays instead a future of constant upheaval, fueled by non-stop social and technological change, the hardships of life in space, and humanity's own restlessness.

In this future two factions vie for control of the solar system. The Shapers have "reshaped" themselves through genetic engineering, adopting such enhancements as superior intelligence, longevity and odor-free perspiration. In the other corner lurk the Mechanists, who prefer to gradually replace their mortal flesh with prosthetic limbs and artificial organs.

The hero of Schismatrix, Abelard Lindsay, is neither Shaper nor Mechanist but merely a rabble-rouser in exile from a backwater space habitat. His quick wits and Shaper schooling, however, make him a consummate con artist, politician and survivor. Making his way through a dense, ever-changing web of plots, conspiracies, feuds and occasional small-scale wars, Lindsay manages to outfox Shapers, Mechs and even the Investors, reptilian aliens so rapacious they make Star Trek's Ferengi look like the Sierra Club.

In his turbo-charged tour of the future, Sterling shows his genius for conjuring bizarre, unsettling yet plausible settings, from grubby spaceships infested with mutant cockroaches to incomprehensibly strange alien vistas. Humanity itself, however, becomes the ultimate fountainhead of strangeness as various self-made strains of "posthumanity" overshadow the squabbling Shapers and Mechs and the technologically stagnant Investors.

The short stories alone are worth the price of admission, though their relentlessly dark tone can be oppressive if read all at once. Schismatrix is more upbeat, leavened by humor, a likable main character and a sense of exhilaration over the unbounded possibilities of posthuman life. The novel suffers from a couple dull stretches in the first half, and while Abelard Lindsay makes for an appealing protagonist, readers seldom know what he truly thinks or feels. Such narrative distancing can lend a magisterial tone to a novel encompassing many characters, but Schismatrix frustrates at times by remaining tightly focused on Lindsay without ever getting inside his head. Still, Schismatrix packs a full load of wonder, entertainment and wild ideas.

Schismatrix Plus also includes an essay by Sterling in which he talks about his growth as a science fiction writer, how he attained a "hot and sticky ten-fingered grip on the genre" and "gnawed my way through the insulation and got my teeth set into the buzzing copper wire." As he often does, Sterling seems insufferably pleased with himself here. More than many writers, however, he has reason to be.

Much of Sterling's best work is collected here. A must-read for anyone interested in truly cutting-edge science fiction. -- Curt

--- End quote ---

seems fair.. slagged off the start like i did.. but in better words :)

Lord Funk:
Peter Ackroyd's London: The Biography. A fuck-off big tome covering practically the entire history of the city.

Just started it and am a couple of chapters in - already thinking it's the kind of thing I'm gonna have to just dip into here and there rather than trying to read cover-to-cover.

Oh, and not really the size of book you can take onto public transport and casually read... :)

[Stoned]Jesus H. Christ[Wheat]:
The sept. issue of FHM :D

T.J.:
right now im reading Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird (school novel)

The Big Bad Ass:
Star Wars book called Dark Saber. But I have no idea off hand who the author is.

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