The Bookian » Virtual Worlds

Bad Dream

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:29:17 +0000

An awesome book, one of John Christophers latest from 2003, in which Britain and the European Union are dealing with the strange threats that new technology brings to age old notions of freedom, humanity, et al. Once again Samuel Youd displays his craft at psychology: the characters are incredibly well written. He has a penchant for the real life versions of inner narrative that are amazing. In part this book is interesting because, in comparison with some of his much earlier books such as the Guardian, it shows how, even buried amongst all the technobabble and rapid changes in our tool-making landscape, similar, older, biological stories still seem to be running the show behind the show. A definate library addition. – reviewed by virtual being

Tales from Inside the Boerarrium, Science Fiction Vol. I

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:17:17 +0000

Clearly a New Weird bias. Similar writing to Jonathan Lethem, kinda stoney, memory and feelings and sci-fi stuff, artistic. But a few shorts in this book are demented and hilarious. Ok, like Plantaddict. Or The Klotho Trigger. Like old Amazing Science Fiction pulp magazine writing. A couple hard-sf stories, mostly republished from early 1990s magazines Otterness wrote for. Like Rudy Rucker in the sense of pulp writing, but more Philip K. Dick-ian characters, not really new weird at all but kinda. Cant talk about em without giving away much cause theyre short stories. PlantAddict was probably my favorite. The soft apocalypse arrives from the plant kingdom? Ill take a dime bag. Havent been able to find out about Volume II, this is supposedly Volume I. Crazy scholar-type intro by A.J. Specktowsky about the current debate over technocracy in science fiction in which “Early 20th Century Socialist Nudist Cult Utopias” are somehow tied into science fictions origins. Recursive sculptural plot machinations. Five Sirius Cybernetics Corporation gold stars.
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From the Publisher…
Tales from Inside The Boerarrium collects for the first time, in two volumes, the strange and disparate worlds of A.K. Otterness. In a Universe where alternate realities exist in mad profusion, and mankind has spread his terms of engagement beyond the boundaries of the known and virtual worlds are physical, Otterness has tracked down these pixelated stories of future inhabitants and transcribed them backward in time to the disturbingly technocratic present. Volume I includes a new foreward by Aegon Specktowsky and 10 riveting short stories by Otterness, including: Plantaddict, The Blue, Integrand, FogFascists, Boerarrium, EggCreetor, and The Klotho Trigger. Vol. IX in the Machine-Humanist Library.

“Awesome… puts the pure Pulp back in Pulp Science Fiction!”
- Robert A. Stirling

“A hypercube of Ruckerian, Strugatsky-ite dimensions.”
- Jim Widderly, Eldritchs Sci-Fi Review

“I had to regress my age to sixteen years old, reading Ray Bradburys The Martian Chronicles late at night. Then I blinked out of existence.”
- Kiro Shenzhen, Manga-T Books

– reviewed by Sirius Cybernetics Corp

Frek and the Elixir

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:44:17 +0000

An adventure story of the boy and his dog type, although distorted through the lens of Rucker. Not as exciting as some of his more theoretical based books, but still quite a good read. The ecology angle is good and contemporary. Item: Aside from Treasure Island, not that into the formula. However, my 16 year old son enjoyed it. Youth is master. – reviewed by wetware instead

Against the Day

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:34:17 +0000

Thomas Pynchon: Ultimate Space Junky. Back before we had the neutrino ultra-engine drive, we had dirigibles and zeppelins and rattlesnakes in the desert which no one visited except old prospecting mountain men. And then, we had Pynchon. Against the Day is like steampunked cyberpunk with old pieces of wood and dried twigs for broadband. Thats steam-Punkt cyberpunk. Another Bookian reviewer, un-named, has stated the book is “too long, too flowery, to arcane, and too long.”, but obviously is a Neanderthal living in a modern time-warp. This is one of the best Pynchons Ive read in a long time. I really enjoyed vineland, because of clear connection to the time and place… Pynchon has well proven that he is a master of the real. So when he writes something as intricate, surfacey, flat, and ultra-modern as Against The Day, even though its set back awhile, Its clear to me how cartoony our modern reality really is. hey! Its realism! If I want fiction Ill go watch the news. Yeah, thanks. – reviewed by mr. anarchy