Amazon.com
Two-time Arthur C. Clarke Award winner for Best Novel, Pat Cadigan isthe Queen of Cyberpunk for the brilliance of her ideas, the genius of her near-future extrapolations, and the beauty of her writing. No one else has explored and illuminated the mind-machine interface with the keen and relentless intelligence she demonstrates in her novels Mindplayers, Synners, Fools, and the long-awaited Tea from an Empty Cup. Her fourth novel is a perceptive, fascinating, witty SF mystery of artificial reality, whose paradoxical name perfectly defines its nature: an immaterial world of pure sensation, where, by legal mandate, everything is permitted and nothing is forbidden.

The hazards of Artificial Reality are spilling into the real world--people vanish and solitary gamers are found slain in sealed AR booths.The young woman Yuki, child of a Japan destroyed before her birth, enters AR as the new assistant to the mysterious celebrity Joy Flower, but with her own agenda:to find Tom Iguchi, her missing beloved, who never was her lover but had been one of Joy's Boyz.The hard-boiled homicide detective Dore Konstantin stalks the virtual streets of post-Apocalyptic Noo Yawk Sitty seeking a serial killer who may have murdered eight gamers from inside AR itself.But how do you find missing or hidden persons in a world where nothing is as it seems? The two plot lines subtly converge as fact and fantasy, murderer and victim, as well as understanding and identity invert in a virtual universe where the dangers are real and ever-present, and you can be anything or anyone but yourself. --Cynthia WardBook Description
"How can you drink tea from an empty cup?"That ancient Zen riddle holds the key to a baffling mystery: a young man found with his throat slashed while locked alone in a virtual reality parlor.The secret of this enigmatic death lies in an apocalyptic cyberspace shadow-world where nothing is certain, and even one's own identity can change in an instant. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (34)

Good, Just Not Great
I thoroughly enjoy reading Cyberpunk / Sci-Fi, as well as Modern and Classic Literature, and Mysteries - and with that said, I liked "Tea From An Empty Cup".I received it as a requested gift for Xmas.It was certainly not as great to me as "Snow Crash" or "Neuromancer", but nonetheless, good.If you're a Cyberpunk purist, you may dislike this novel because it mixes a somewhat-noir mystery into a cyberpunk world, but I enjoyed that.However, the soliloquies / inner dialogues of the protagonists in each story were ackward and not believable.

Virtual murder mystery that is more accessible than her earlier books
The speculative fiction of the 1980s and the early 1990s by and large treated Japan as an economic powerhouse that threatened to subsume the United States and Europe -- mirroring, unsurprisingly, the view that prevailed in the culture at large. Japanese companies outperformed their American counterparts in the marketplace, at times even buying up their flailing and failing rivals. Cultural icons such as Rockefeller Center became Japanese property. The Japanese economy was booming, while Europe and the United States struggled in the aftermath of funding the defense systems of the Cold War. From William Gibson's Neuromancer to Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, the clear assumption was that the future belonged to Japan.

In the latter part of the 1990s, things have changed: the United States is riding an unprecedented wave of prosperity while Japan is caught in a financial crisis that covers the whole Pacific Rim. Speculative fiction has responded (as it should) to these altered circumstances, nowhere more clearly than in Pat Cadigan's new novel, Tea from an Empty Cup, an expansion and grafting-together of two earlier stories about the future of Japan which were originally published on OMNI Online. Instead of the Rising Sun, Cadigan shows us a Japan where the sun has set on its glory days.

The plot of Tea from an Empty Cup centers on the murder of an anonymous Artificial Reality (AR) junky and its investigation by policewoman Dore Konstantin. The victim, whose throat has been cut from ear to ear, was accessing the AR at the time of his death -- and was being murdered there as well. Everyone knows, of course, that what occurs in AR cannot affect the real world, but Konstantin is starting to wonder: Rumors of similar AR deaths have been circulating that indicate something unusual is going on. Intermixed with Konstantin's investigation (which occurs in numbered chapters under the title of "Death in the Promised Land") is a second storyline, a search for the missing Tomoyuki Iguchi by his friend (and would-be lover) Yuki, told in chapters under the heading of "Empty Cup." Yuki fears that Tom has become one of the many lost Joyz Boyz, young men who exchange their bodies for high-speed AR access.

The hunt for friend and murderer by Yuki and Konstantin spiral around each other as they each pursue their searches into post-apocalyptic Noo Yawk Sitty, an AR that promises fun for all, as long as you have the resources to pay for it. Survival in AR requires a mental dexterity that can easily drive someone insane, and neither woman is particularly adept at navigating the make-believe world. Both must learn how to survive in this new setting before they can make progress on their quests. It is in the heady rush to the end, as the stories spiral around each other faster and faster, like water down the drain, that the novel is at its weakest, for Cadigan's prose becomes more and more concise and we lose some of the depth of the setting and characters that has been established earlier.

Tea from an Empty Cup is less densely layered than Cadigan's previous novels Fools and Synners, but it is filled with the same streetwise characters who know that, when it comes to technology, "the street finds its own uses." Cadigan's characters are the ultimate cynics and pessimists, who are nevertheless still surprised when their dim worldview is validated. In this way, Cadigan's cyberpunk (for this is the subgenre of which she is queen) is different from that of her male counterparts, most of whose visions of the future are equally bleak but whose characters lack this quality of surprisability. Yuki and Konstantin are hardened to their world, but they are still human enough to hope for better. While the flash of Tea comes from the same elements as other cyberpunk novels, what makes the story resonate with the reader long after the last page is this vestigial morality in its characters, who are trying to maintain some dignity in a world that is being made before them.

Zen Meets Cyberpunk
If you can wrap your mind around Zen concepts you might want to check out TEA FROM AN EMPTY CUP by Pat Cadigan, a short, but good, novel that takes a slightly Zen approach to the idea of virtual reality.

Virtual reality is here and it is cheap enough so that much of the population works just to live their lives in some of the virtual scenarios.One young man is found dead in a locked room where he was logged in.His throat was cut and there are no sharp objects in the room.A detective notices that a number of other similar deaths have occurred recently.Thus two quests are taken up as two women log in disguised as the young man and try to find out what he was doing and who he may have met.It is a strange world where things are more real than real.Sensations are heightened and rumors exist of a way out the other side.It is this world that the two women must navigate to find out what happened.

The switching viewpoints are a little more confusing that is usual but the future world is quite interesting.I like the melding of cyberpunk, virtual reality and Japanese philosophy.It blends well and offers a good backdrop for that rare commodity, the science-fiction mystery.I picked up the book to look at it and found myself hooked right away.A very entertaining read if you don't mind having your mind bent and limbered up a bit.Check it out.

Utter Tripe
Cyberspace is addictive, expensive and ultimately boring.Thanks for the newsflash.

With numerous typographical errors, undifferentiated cardboard characters, a murderously tedious whodunit and the most uninteresting rendition of cyberpunk in a decade, Cadigan has achieved a new low in modern science fiction.

Would have been more appropriately titled, Words from an Empty Book (and even that sounds more interesting than this book ends up being).

Good fun book for cyberpunk fans
This the first book of Pat Cadigan's I've read.I can't remember who or where I heard about it, but a good book.

The novel is set in a near future cyberpunk world where artifcial reality (AR) is commonplace and people regularly fall into lives in AR that are more compelling that lives in the real world.The technology is believeable with enough details to satisfy hard sci-fi readers without delving into textbookese.

Having enjoyed the proto-ARs that are online games, I was interested in seeing what Ms. Cadigan had to say about the future.

Similiar to Gibson's Pattern Recognition, all the characters in the book are looking for something.The focus is on the role of artifical reality in these hunts.The vision is interesting, but in the end it is difficult to relate to reality.

The book is fun and enjoyable as a quick read, but for more heady cyberpunk, turn to Bruce Sterling. ... Read more

Book Description
For Allie, putting on the madcap that Jerry borrowed was a very big mistake. The psychosis itself was quite conventional, but it didn't go away when she took the madcap off, so the Brain Police took over leaving her with a choice - go to jail as a mind criminal or become a mindplayer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

An intelligent, resonant Head-Trip.....
This medium-sized 'sci-fi implosion' novel could give you a bit of a head-ache. But it will be a good one; a worthwhile one. It comments on our present, shared reality, through the wary portrayal of a different one. I had read 'Tea from an Empty Cup' and was expecting another wry Cadigan 'glimpse with insights' into a more credible VR future, where young kids and cyberpunks mess around with technology and come up gasping....and where negative aspects of technology (abuse?) are encountered and (if somewhat slightly) dramatised....I was aware of her weaknesses with this other book; that she sacrfices truly involving/unsettling story-telling with a reliance on a cynical observational style which also thins her other characters....Although, this she counters with some great ideas and unexpected surprises (two more vital ingredients for sci-fi?)....plus clever humour, weaned from the exclusive use of such a style.

Well, I was right and wrong with Mindplayers. It is her usual tone; a smartass narrator that enables her to be world-weary towards advanced technology that is threatening our precious ideas about personal identity and humanity, and is full of addictive undertones and dependencies (proper, relevant sci-fiction and 'Cyberpunk'). For 1987, this automatically makes it interesting and ensures it an important, accessible (and more realistic than others) position in the canon....But what wasreally impressive was the way, in Mindplayers, she actually side-steps technology by using the conceit of hooking up mind to mind, and presenting a new future where this form of telepathy (albeit machine-enabled) is changing things. She is thus free in the book, to focus her attentions on the freedom of being perfectly lucid in other people's mental lives, and showing off her clearly knowledgable understanding of psychology.....Cadigan then achieves this thoroughly, convincingly and entertainingly.... She therefore explores virtual reality but in an intimate and psychological way, with warnings and suggestions about our identities and realities, and the way they are influenced and shaped. Her character is someone who is attempting to directly heal other people's internal lives or psychoses, although carrying the weight of her own, and this produces interesting results with relevance for how actual psychologists attempt this. Her well-honed use of a 'deadpan', emotionless tone becomes highly suited, but can still occasionally do little justice to some of the ideas, that become revelations more to herself as a writer than to us as readers. Much less so however in this work.

Ultimately, we are shown the dangers of influence, of identities altered for survival, of too much dependence on others eroding our own identity...and this is the strength of the book, along with other sci-fi assets, such as good background features and settings such as the Park and the concept of 'reality affixing', and such as mindplaying with a dead mind. This latter case is one of the more scary warnings of the imagined technology allowing for such a strong level of intrusion.

Revelations come through experiences, and those shown to us in this book, and in the rather quick crescendo at the end, which leaves us strongly reminded about the difference between reality and our 'state of existence'. The book resonates as its own mental experience, and is highly stimulating and great for meditation, for assisting us in imagining the reality - or future - it portrays. And it's a very possible future, although perhaps more indirectly.

Pat Cadigan is Awesome
Mindplayers is one of the best books I have ever read, sci-fi or otherwise. Pat Cadigan has a brilliant imagination. She tries her best to keep up with it. Her writing is a bit haphazard, but very good overall. Mindplayers is set in the future, where Mindplay has changed society for better or worse. Differing degrees of Mindplay require professionals to assist those engaging in it. One of these professionals is Deadpan Allie (love that play on words). Allie is a former layabout who has been recruited to become a professional Mindplayer. The strange characters she meets and weird situations she is in mesmerize the reader. There is also a lot of philosophy for the reader to chew on.

Recommended for sci-fi/fantasy fans. No graphic sex or violence.I also recommend Dervish is Digital, another sci-fi treasure by Cadigan.

Good, but lacking
Pat Cadigan definately has some great ideas for cyberpunk - mindplayers, custom personalities, all sorts of neat stuff - but she doesn't make a cohesive novel out of them. Each chapter or part of the book is its own little story; there's never any real tension or suspense, or plot.There was no real climax to the story, just a rather weak and contrived personal realization by the protagonist.
This would be okay if there was more depth to the setting. Beyond some nifty ideas, there is almost no detail. I don't really know what the characters look like, or what their surroundings are. It was like being blind.More detail and depth all around would have helped immensely. During the mindplaying sequences (which are very frequent) I could barely understand what was going on. It relies heavily on mental symbolism which isn't adequately explained.Her character's voice in the 1st person narrative is a good one, she just needs some more imagery to gloss over the weak plotting.
Greg Bear's Queen of Angels is a better book covering similar ideas.
If I could I'd give another half a star for all the gizmos, but the flaws count for a lot. Still, recommended as light reading!

Excellent reading!
Pat Cadigan's MindPlayers was one of the first "sci-fi" books I read, and I fell in love with it.All the characters have their own unique quirks and personality traits, but my favorite two characters were the twins, Dolby and Dolan.Each time I read Mindplayers, I find something that I missed the last time I read the book. The creative aspects of the characters is the best part of the story.It is noteworthy that almost every character within the book has an altered appearance; no one seems to be as they were at birth. Onionheads are especially interesting, although they get only a mention.Pat Cadigan has had to endure television and movie ripoffs of some of the details within Mindplayers, but this book remains a classic and the first of its kind.

One Of The Great Works Of Cyberpunk Science Fiction
Pat Cadigan made her mark in the 1980's as one of the finest writers of science fiction with her legendary short fiction and excellent novels such as "Mindplayers". Long out of print, this slender tome is one of the finest works of cyberpunk fiction; happily it is now back in print. Cadigan writes edgy, streetwise prose as carefully crafted as any by William Gibson; however, she does a better job in creating vivid, fascinating characters such as Deadpan Allie, the protagonist of "Mindplayers". Without a doubt, this could be a great psychological science fiction thriller akin to "Dark City" if anyone in Hollywood was clever enough to acquire the film rights to Cadigan's superb first novel. ... Read more

Amazon.com
This collection of precyberpunk short stories was originally published in 1989, with some of the selections dating back to 1983. As a result, some of the stories may seem outdated, but they brilliantly illuminate how quickly technology has advanced in one short decade.

In Pat Cadigan's tales, social issues morph into monstrous fantasy--like the what happens to Milo, the kid who's always left out, in the chilling "Eenie, Meenie, Ipsateenie." The story "Heal" will keep the likes of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker awake at night, pale and unblinking in their beds. Particularly harrowing is the tale "My Brother's Keeper," in which a girl's struggle to rescue her brother from heroin addiction uncovers something far uglier going on in the dark recesses of the inner city.

Patterns is reminiscent of Ray Bradbury's short stories, but with malevolent twists and psychotic turns that leave the reader waiting on tenterhooks for the final punch line. Fans of Cadigan's work will particularly enjoy the introductions she has written for each story. Those wanting to read her for the first time may find her novels a better introduction. --Jhana Bach Book Description
Featuring an introduction by Bruce Sterling, this collection of short fiction by Pat Cadigan won the Locus Award for best collection in 1990. The final story, "The Power and the Passion", was original to this collection. The previously published stories included here are:* Eenie, Meenie, Ipsateenie * Vengeance is Yours * The Day the Martels Got the Cable * Roadside Rescue * Rock On * Heal * Another One Hits the Road * My Brother's Keeper * Pretty Boy Crossover * Two * Angel * It Was the Heat * The Power and the Passion ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The best in mid-80s short science fiction
Another first collection, Patterns collects almost half of Pat Cadigan's short fiction from the last ten years. Cadigan writes from the dark underbelly of society, and she usually works in the impact of technology on her characters. It was this style that placed her within the Cyberpunk movement at the time. But Patterns shows that Cadigan's fiction centers more on people--it is the characters you remember from these stories, their problems, their horrors, their hopes--not ideas.

My favorite story here is "Rock On," a tale of music and ownership, the trap of job and ability. Gina, a synner (synthesizer), is on the run from her normal band, Man O'War. But Gina's problem is that she only knows how to syn, and that she loves it, even if she views it as a trap. Another author would have gone on to great detail about living synthesizers, yet Cadigan's focus is on Gina and her addiction/loathe for the job that she does so well. "Rock On" goes beyond any future punk posturings; instead, it is a metaphor for the last decades--caught in our good intentions, we are slaves to our livelihoods. (Cadigan's novel Synners is an expansion of this story.)

Then there's Martha, a businesswoman on her first trip to New Orleans in "It Was the Heat." Caught between being just one of the guys and herself, Martha's carefully created working mother persona melts under the hot sun, and she discovers that control is a delicate thing. And China in "My Brother's Keeper," the big sister from college who receives a goodbye postcard from younger brother Joe, the heroin user. She rushes back to save him, but finds that she needs to save herself.

As indicated above, Cadigan gives us the much needed female perspective in science fiction, and her style is such that it doesn't alienate male readers. If only more male writers could do the same for their female readers, science fiction could become the exciting prospect that was the hope of the cyberpunks. Until then, we should thank god that Cadigan is around to show what life, and literature, could be like. This collection is only recently available as a paperback (before it could only be had in an expensive small press edition); buy it now before it is out of print again.

excellent
You can't describe this collection of stories. They are all
magnificent. Buy this book.

Fun to read
I don't mean fun in the normal sense of fun, of course.Theses are not what anyone would call fun stories by any stretch of the imagination.

They resemble the works of Bradbury or Dan Simmons.Normal everyday events, somehow out of kilter a bit, or taking that half step behind the everyday to show... something else.

Not quite as brooding as Simmons, and not quite as adjective happy as Bradbury.Somewhere in the middle.

Overall, well worth reading, but they don't seem to fit in any particular genre.A little like this, a little like that.Horror maybe.But they're much too subtle to be horror.At least the conventional kind of everyday horror.

It hurts so good!
With the stories in this collection, Ms.Cadigan calmly and methodically rips your beating heart from your chest and shows it to you.She puts it back, but it doesn't feel quite the same any more.My initial reaction to most of these stories was "Oh god - we should warn somebody!" butthen I remembered - it's only a story.Or is it?Pat Cadigan just keepsgetting better and better!

Pat Cadigan the Queen of Cyberpunk
In this collection are some of the best cyberpunk stories around. It is good to see this book finally back in print. All will see why Pat Cadigan is a well respected writer of science fiction and in the sub genrecyberpunk. If you want to read good short stories with a bite, thenPatterns is the book for you. ... Read more

Book Description
In Synners, the line between technology and humanity is hopelessly slim. A constant stream of new technology spawns crime before it hits the streets; the human mind and the external landscape have fused to the point where any encounter with reality is incidental. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Free SF Reader
It is interesting to see the language Cadigan was using in this book, circa 1990 : war porn, food porn, etc., being used in exactly the same way now.

A cyberpunk ahead of her time, for sure.Apart from that, an interesting tale of what happens when things go bad in a network sense, especially if you are too closely connected, particularly organically.

While her books never blow you away, it seems, she is consistently good, and real.

[...]

Like hot molten cliches oozing down a low-jack interface
Yeah and if you thought the review's title was ridiculous...

It's not so much that the book is confusing or that the characters could use a bit more depth, it's that from the get-go, the writing is cliche.Pat Cadigan, who hit a home run with Mind Players, tries way too hard to be -- captial "C" -- Cyberpunk in this book.It's possible that because I've only just read Synners while I read my first 'cyberpunk' book in the early 90s I've lost the ability to be impressed by attempts at 'hard edged' writing that tries to use slang like 'stone home' and 'hot-wire' to indicate a machine or drug centric society on the edge of destruction; but there's just so many sentences that seem oh so dutifully crafted to fit into what cyberpunk is Supposed To Be.

I give it two stars because underneath the cliche there are interesting ideas; it's just too bad one has to wade through so much over-eager writing to see them through.

If you really want to read an engaging book of speculative fiction by Pat Cadigan that bucks the cliches of cyberpunk and strikes out on its own read Mind Players.

excellent, highly complex, cyberpunk sci-fi
Pat Cadigan's "Synners" - excellent, highly complex, cyberpunk sci-fi by an author I now very much want to read more of. Perspective switches between different characters in different narratives and I'm sure I missed a lot by only reading this in bits interspersed with a lot of other things. Synners are those who take imagery from the brains of others and turn them into a consumable form through a new form of surgical cuber modules. The idea is similar to that I first saw in one of William Gibson's "Kings of Sleep", one of the short stories in the Burning chrome collection, or the performers with cybered creative skills in Joan D. Vinge's "Cat's Paw", but "Synners"takes the idea further, developing it into a complex plot with a sideline of studies in Self and Consciousness.

Very, very confusing!
To tell you the truth, I couldn't make heads nor tails out of this book.The language is too far away from even modern, and the characters are confusing.I love sci-fi, even the new computer-oriented (some call it cyberpunk) stuff like "Snow Crash", but "Synners" is just strange.Ala the Emperor's New Clothes..."Oh my, how strange!It must be good!"No, sorry, it's just strange.I actually came here (to Amazon reviews) to see if anybody else had made sense of it.I thought I might read farther if I understood it better.I'm only to page 18, and I doubt I'll finish it.
Doug

Universal themes in a sci-fi disguise
This was only the second cyberpunk novel I've ever read and I rather enjoyed it.Cadigan created truly believable characters.She showed that whether a person is "good" or "bad," that person is still human and has flaws.It was nice to see fictional, genius computer hackers with flaws.Today's culture seems to have a too high percentage of fictional computer hackers that are god-like perfect.

Cadigan also created a story that, while not impossible to put down, compels the reader to continue.She draws the reader in, shows them the pros and cons to a new technology, and leaves the rest to the reader, allowing the reader to decide its worth.

Even though the book has universal themes, I wouldn't recommend this to others that didn't read sci-fi.If you like sci-fi I would recommend giving this book a try.Keep in mind though that Cadigan doesn't give a thoroughly convincing argument to the technology's validity; I'm not sure that was her main focus. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Confusing in Three Acts...
You start off with the main character.But she isn't the main character.She is one of the personalities within the main character.Or is she?
In a world of Brain Police, memory junkies, struggling actors and mind pirates a plot can get pretty twisted without help from the author.The story comes to us in three acts, three parts, which seem to be linked by the same main character.But with the switching of memories and, at one point, of bodies it makes it hard to truly understand what is going on.Maybe it is because this is a book set in a setting developed by an earlier book?Maybe if I read the earlier books or book, I will most likely understand what is going on?But in the end all I can say is I won't be reading anything else set in this world.

The cyberpunk equivalent of Sybil
The ending is what makes this book so satisfying. Fools is a novel about personality, how much is your own and how much is grafted on to you without your knowledge. Like Pat's other work, Fools is gritty and witty, pumped up on technology (high) and grifters (low). What she doesn't explore here--things like the actual workings of a mindplaying theatre group or the morality of being a Brain Police (shades of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly?)--just goes to show how much work and thought went into this book. It's a confusing book, kind of like reading Sybil except all the characters are multiple personalities. And it's the ending--the tying up of what (might have) went before into a coherent statement--that pushes this puppy to the top.

unreadable
The plot was so contorted I couldn't follow it. I want to be entertained by a book, not have a faceoff with it (and lose).

A wonderful challenge
Tired of books that insult your intelligence?This book is a challenge which matches the best fiction (not just Si-Fi) in creative thinking.Once you think you've got it figured out, there isn't just a plot twist - the whole world view shifts.I think its one of the best books written recently. ... Read more

Amazon.com
In Artificial Reality, everything is permitted and nothing is forbidden--or so they say. Run a con game in AR, and the law does not prosecute; have sex with a virtual child persona, and the police do not interfere. But infringe on a powerful corporation's copyright and the law rushes in. And so Detective Lieutenant Doré Konstantin unhappily finds herself appointed Chief Officer of the TechnoCrime AR Division. Virtual crimes are almost impossible to solve, her two-person staff is usually assigned elsewhere, and she spends so much of her life pursuing software pirates in AR that her sanity may be in danger. Things can't get any worse.

Then she is assigned to track a cyberstalker known as "Dervish," whose virtual persona is capable of manipulating AR in unprecedented ways. Konstantin reluctantly acknowledges Dervish's victim may be right: Dervish may have done the impossible. He may have traded places with an Artificial Intelligence, letting the AI take possession of his body as his mind escapes into the cyberverse of Artificial Reality, which he can manipulate as no software, even AI, ever could--impossible manipulations that include deleting all the exits from AR, and perhaps even killing the trapped investigator, Doré Konstantin.

Dervish Is Digital is the witty, sharp-edged, hardboiled sequel to the equally exciting and stylish SF mystery Tea from an Empty Cup. --Cynthia Ward Book Description
Detective Lieutenant Dore Konstantin pursues criminals and identity crime in Artificial Reality. And shes come to realize: in Artificial Reality, its time to get real. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Not Free SF Reader
Not bad, but not as good as the first novel, Tea From an Empty Cup.This is pretty much a stretched novella, I presume.The book is more of the same theme, exploring the problems of policing virtual worlds, especially when they can be in any country at any time.Then those doing the policing have to work out what is a crime, to start with.

Best Cadigan novel I've read since Mindplayers. 4.6 stars
______________________________________________
Picked this one up at the libe, after seeing a favorable comment somewhere. This will be an unusually disorganized "review", since I took some notes, browsed around online (finding nothing worthwhile), then witlessly returned the book before writing it up. So you'll be getting what was truly memorable...

Anyway, this is a sequel to Tea from an Empty Cup (which I haven't read), and is further hijinx in VR (here AR), which to my great relief doesn't include the (to me) odious Post-apocalyptic Noo Yawk Sitty (sic, and sicker). This one involves one Hastings Dervish, who is stalking his ex in cyberspace, and running Lt. Konstantin of the AR Police around in circles in the bowels of the casinos of digital Hong Kong. It's an sfnal police procedural, and a nice one.

Very crisp writing. Lots of lovely one-line zingers -- I'd quote you some, if I still had the book..."He morphs, he torques, he crawls on his belly like a reptile..." -- his ex, re the elusive Dervish, from a scribbled note to myself.

The ending is one of those where the book just stops, which actually works pretty well here. And the book is blessedly short. Recommended.

Incidentally, my fave Cadigan of all time is the wonderfully creepy short, "Roadside Rescue". Wham, bam, SLAM. Reprinted often, and worth looking for.

Happy reading--
Pete Tillman

Don't bother!
Bah!What an uninteresting piece of garbage.I have not failed to finish a book in about four years.This tripe will now reset the timer.The characters are flat, the plot absurd, the action stilted.I made it to page eighty-four, and that is that!Actually the best part of the book, up to where I gave up, concerned an arms deal gone bad.Even there, the writing was poor.

Well-written, but...
Cadigan is a writer of enormous talent. In this book she shows her talent for realistic characters, vivid description, and out-of-this-world settings. On top of all that, I'd have to rate her dialogue as some of the best out there - she's funny, and will engage you at every turn.

Unfortunately, this book came off as being rather convoluted. The ending was especially difficult to follow. It was wonderful to read, mind you, but plot-wise I have absolutely no idea what happened. There also seems to be an overall lack of action, which isn't always a bad thing, but here it leaves a distinct sense that something is missing.

Dervish is Amazing
Dervish is Digital is one of my favorite sci fi books.Itis classified by some as "cyberpunk."I don't really know what that genre means, but I recommend Dervish for anyone who enjoys a fast-paced, technology-heavy, mystery story.Konstantin, the main character, is a woman all women can relate to.Tough yet sensitive, aware of her flaws, she is human and engaging.

The world Cadigan created is mesmerizing.Nothing is what it seems.Her imagination is so fertile, her descriptive writing skills so honed, that you squirm with delight at each new incantation.This book is a puzzle, and not a breeze-through read, but it is immensely intriguing and has a smashing, powerful ending. ... Read more

Product Description
"Has a bite like a silk piranha." - Bruce Sterling ... Read more

Book Description
What would happen if the vastness of cyberspace was replaced by things surprising and strange?

Includes masters of speculative fiction:

Stephen Baxter, David Brin, Pat Cadigan, Paul Di Filippo, John Grant, David Hutchinson, Alex C. Irvine, Terry McGarry, John Meaney, Paul Melko, Mike Resnick & Kay Kenyon, Chris Roberson, Adam Roberts, Rudy Rucker, S.M. Stirling, Del Stone, Jr., Charles Stross, Matthew Sturges, and Michael SwanwickDownload Description
"Imagine a future without cyberspace...without virtual reality...without AIs and simulations...and without the Web. What would you do? What would you fear? What wouldn't you know? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

does not compute
This is a spotty collection. The premise -- a world without computers -- is certainly interesting. The antho, sadly, did not live up to its potential.

Some of the stories are excellent, thought-provoking, and moving: Alex Irvine's "Reformation," Del Stone Jr.'s "I Feed the Machine," and John Meaney's "The Swastika Bomb." A few were truly dreadful -- loosely related at best and/or more style than substance -- including a couple I couln't even make it through. Most were solid, but still dissapointing, on topic, but not credible as to how or why computers weren't in this world. One, John Grant's "No Solace for the Soul in Digitopia," was simply porn with (at its end) a veneer of alternate-universe's clothing.

The closest thing to a common thread was biotech of one sort or another replacing some functions of silicon computing, and the inherent differences of the two computing approaches. When done well (about half the time), that made for something to think about.

18 short stories diverge from the popular futuristic visions
Lou Anders edits Live Without A Net, a fine anthology of stories from masters of speculative fiction. 18 short stories diverge from the popular futuristic visions of a cyber-controlled future to consider alternative futures where cyberspace does NOT rule. Here you'll find winners by Brin, DiFilippo, and others who present startlingly different worlds.

A snapshot of the future of Science Fiction
This is an excellent compilation of stories.If you are interested in understanding how science fiction and fantasy are morphing into a new and facinating genre, then I highly recomend this book.It is a snapshot of the medium as it reaches a tipping point and shoots into the future.I have bought 4 books from authors whose short stories I read in this anthology.I highly recommend this book not only for the content, but also for the reading lists it will help you build.

A few gems, but very inconsistent.
Edited by Lou Anders, the sci-fi anthology Live Without a Net (all never-before-published stories, save one) imagines a variety of sci-fi-tinged worlds, future, past, and, present, in which IT, the Internet, and AI as we conceive of it do not exist. Introducing this limitation is an intriguing concept, and the end result is five or six very good stories, a bit of remarkable crap, and some filler.

The best stories are Adam Roberts' "New Model Computer," which puts an O. Henry twist on post-Singularity fiction; Michael Swanwick's "Smoke and Mirrors," an amusing set of short-shorts featuring the author's retro-Victorian rogues, Darger and Surplus; Charlie Stross' "Rogue Farm," David Brin's "Reality Check;" S. M. Stirling's PKD-style head-scrambler "The Crystal Method;" John Meaney's "The Swastika Bomb," a WWII spy epic in an alternate history of advanced biowarfare; and my pick for the best story of the book, Del Stone Jr's frightening doomsday cult scenario, "I Feed The Machine."

Unfortunately, most of the rest is unengaging filler or just plain awful. John Grant's "No Solace For The Soul In Digitopia" consists largely of painfully detailed descriptions of the narrator depositing his seed into his various parallel-Earth wives, and Grant is no better than most sci-fi writers when it comes to sexual matter. The most inexplicable inclusion of the anthology is Alex Irvine's "Reformation," which infuses some Islamic mysticism into a straightforward cyberpunk yarn about a hacker/Internet-revolutionary. Irvine's story completely breaks the "no Net" theme of the book and is terribly out of place. Best left undescribed are "Frek and the Grulloo Woods," Paul di Filippo's "Clouds and Cold Fires," and Dave Hutchinson's "All The News, All Time, From Everywhere."

I'd check this book out at a library for the good stories, but hold off on buying it.

Excellent thought out anthology
The underlying premise to this eighteen story collection is based on no Internet communicating between the many to the many.This reviewer not only read the book, but also asked her college IT major son do so too (that in of itself is a miracle that he left the hyper realm for the printing realm).Based on this unscientific sample of two (still 67% of the household population), the reaction to the tales will differ depending on the age (and experiences) of the reader.Those ancient baby boomers and fountain of youth older generations know first hand an unwired world of dial phones in which the consumer could choose any color as long as it was black.To that group, the stories will seem like alternate history as it is not much of a stretch to believe that the alternatives might have been viable at one time.To those whose braces are wireless cell phones from the birthing room, the book will still find reading it fun, but it will feel more like a fantasy or science fiction anthology.

The tales are cleverly written so that the much of the audience, regardless of age or experiences, will find LIVE WITHOUT A NET as an entertaining short story medley that is worth the time away from hyperspace HTML to enter the world of printing text.

Harriet Klausner ... Read more

Book Description
Pat Cadigan takes the reader behind the scenes and looks at the production team's meticulous research into the mysteries of ancient Egypt, then travels to the desert of North Africa to see how a film of this immense scale is created.The Mummy, a remake of the 1932 horror classic, is set to be one of the biggest films of 1999.Published to coincide with the opening of the film, Resurrecting The Mummy takes the reader behind the scenes in the making of this cinematic spectacle.Includes details of incredible special effects, interviews with the cast, crew, designers, and directors at Cardigan takes the reader behind the scenes and looks at the production team's meticulous research into the mysteries of ancient Egypt, then travels to the desert of North Africa to see how a film of this immense scale is created. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Fun background book
Like so many others, I got hooked on the new Mummy movie.For one thing I found the "bad guy" very appealing.I bought this book to find out further information on the characters and on the making of the movie, and found it very informative and a lot of fun.The information on the special effects was interesting and expanded the information of the subject found in the additional features of the DVD version of the film.

Love the movie? You'll love the book.
This book is a have to have for anyone who loved the movie "The Mummy". It is very informative not only on the storyline and characters but also on the behind the scenes and the special effects. Thephotographs are great. Great movie, great book!

Great info and pictures on the movie
The info and pictures on the movie is very abundant.And the pictures are very good.This is a good book.The movie is good too.Buy it.You won't regret it.

Great Info on 'The Mummy"
I've seen the movie "The Mummy" 3 times already and was very curious how they did the incredible special effects.This book really gives a good overview of not just the special effects but also all the castand characters and the people behind the camera.Great movie!Great book! ... Read more

Book Description
Jason Voorhees isresurrected and captured by the army who skin graft parts of his body onto another human, thereby creating a "super soldier". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Jason X #2 - Good story, but . . . .
Well, to start off, I thought this was a good sequel to Jason X, with the rebuilt Uberjason being captured by scientists in the future and experimented on by a government wanting a supersoldier, until Jason gets loose and all hell starts breaking loose again.The potential for a good old-fashioned slasher was quite present, though the sci-fi angle was interesting too, as the scientists tried to understand the merging of machine and flesh now present in Jason, which is apparently supposed to be impossible. But then, Jason's always had a knack for pulling off the impossible, hasn't he?

Unfortunately, the part that made it hard for me to make it through this book was the rather excessive amount of detail of each and every character and object in the background, which is why I'm only giving it four stars, because the sheer amount of detail sometimes made it hard to continue.

This is something I've come to expect with certain authors, but when the action finally begins, and the blood-bath begins, I found myself making the same surprised noises as when I watch Jason's movies, so while slow at times, I did enjoy the book.If you're a Jason fan, and you enjoyed Jason X, as I did, then by all means, read this sequel.

Stick to the subject at hand
Being a bit of a fanboy when it comes to Friday the 13th and Jason Voorhees, I pick up this book along with the novelization of "Jason X". I liked Jason X as it stuck to the movie and then added plausible backgrounds to the characters. "Jason X: The Experiment" falls far short of being a good addition to the franchise.

The author spends the majority of the book introducing characters with backgrounds and lagging on and on with nothing very interesting happening. Sure there's a nutjob that is trying to clone Jason for a super-soldier program in the future setting on Earth II, but the characters are more annoying than anything. Now I will admit that there stands to be no chance of a plot in a series about Jason Voorhees, I'll also admit that I picked these up because every once in a while I need to read a mindless brain jelly book. I did expect more than this though.

I feel the biggest problem in the book is that it's part of the new Jason X series but Jason is barely even in the book. His regeneration is dealt with in the beginning, he whacks a couple eco-terrorists, and then he's a statue for the majority of the book, barely getting any mention throughout the body of the book. He then finally gets some action in the last 75 pages, if that. Here we have a case of someone wanting to write a sci-fi story and is authorized to use an established copyrighted character and then the franchise player is barely used in the book.

Plain and simple, if you're going to write a book about Jason Voorhees, you need to use him throughout the book, not as an intro piece and a poor conclusion wrap up. It's not a bad story, mind you, just a bad use of the character. To be honest, people will buy this book because we want to see Jason in slaughter mode, high body count, and inventive ways he offs his victims. I appreciate the effort, but if writing about Jason, then write about Jason not a pile of characters that serve little purpose.

JASON X: THE EXPERIMENT: Good concept, okay novel
When I first found this novel in a local bookstore, I was pretty excited. I'm a fan of horror movies, and I took a particular shine to the movie Jason X (being a sci-fi fan as well). I knew that Jason X was a critical failure, however, and had little hope of the story going any farther than the one movie. Needless to say, the discovery of the book was a pleasent suprise; I bought it immediately and read it within two weeks.

I think it only fair to point out that "The Experiment" is almost nothing like the movie it continues off of. Whereas Jason X was filled with plenty of interesting science fiction bits, "The Experiment" features almost nothing until the end, and at times I felt that it could just as easily taken place in the present. Though this isn't a major gripe, it still took something away from the book.

My bigger complaint, however, is the excessiveness of the book. "The Experiment" is over 400 pages, and yet the majority of this is focussed on introducing characters that were either inconsequential or, at worst, extremely booring, and then forcing us to wade through their personal stories until, at the end, they are either killed (which I was immensly glad about, at times) or left dangling, their fates left up in the air. Sure, another book is forthcoming, but the ending still seems too sudden, and the epilogue makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER.

All in all, I'd say that "The Experiment" is a decent book, but too little Jason and too many other people puts a damper on a good concept. 4 out of 5.

Good new Uber-Jason story
I loved this new adventure about Uber-jason (the new jason Voorhees from Jason X movie). It's very well written and the story is interesting. I liked the cooperation between Jason and the nano-ants. If u loved the movie u'll love this one too, if not it's a good opportunity to re-considering the Jason x Franchise ( at least on novel).

Nothing more than a simple "good read"
A Jason X book series.That sounded a little edgy at first, but I guess New Line Cinema will do just about anything they can to make money.Despite myself and the fact that I thought turning the concept into a book series was completely stupid, I bought the book at it took me about five days to read all the way through.I was mildly surprised, but I came to find that the whole thing was just like reading a long, weird science fiction soap opera, with a little military action, some gunfire, and guest starring our own anti-life anti-hero, Jason Voorhees.I won't ruin anything about the book for you, but I will tell you that way too much time is spent describing some characters that are completely ignored throughout throughout the rest of the novel, which was an example of either bad story construction or just bad editing.All in all, "Jason X: The Experiment" was a good read, but nothing to get excited about, and it made the author look a little bit like a Stephen King wannabe.Thanks for reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Highly Recommended
This collection is an unusually fine collection of stories, all by Pat Cadigan. The element that makes it exceptional is the synergy between the stories, the additional insights and connections that you make because you are reading the stories together.Several of these were stories I had read before, in magazines or other anthologies; in every case, I found new depths, new meanings, new illuminations of the weirdness of the human condition when I re-read them in the 'Cadigan context.' ... Read more

Book Description
The historic film remake of the TV classic Lost in Space  is a star-studded, spectacular, featuring Gary Oldman, William Hurt, Matt LeBlanc, Mimi Rogers and Heather Graham.But the undisputed star of the movie is the gigantic interstellar shipt itself--the Jupiter 2.A publishing first, this unique, authorized Lost in Space Blueprint  brings you the ultimate insider's look at the Robinsons' magnificent warp-drive starship.

• See the Jupiter 2 as the director, the writers and the artists conceived it!
• See the ship as the animators, the digital enhancers, the VR wizards and the model makers created it!
• See the ship as the actors and the crew experienced it!

Boot up your imagination, fold these richly designed full-length blueprints and come aboard the Jupiter 2! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Awesome, Cool, Sweet...
But a little less then I was expecting.. No mistake, I love this blueprint, because I am a HUGE techno-stuff fan and I love all sci-fi technology books, but the descriptions on the book do not really describe it. Here is a straightforeward descrption to help anyone who might want to buy it!
It is: 2 big blueprints, actutally 1 that has been seperated into 2 sheets, with about half being taken up by a HUGE side view of the Jupiter 2. It also has a smaller cross section, a plan of the bridge, lots of details of the hyperdirve, and a pront view. It also includes a paragraph of specfications. This is all awesome and cool, and thats why I give it 4 stars. However I take off a star for false advertising! No 360 degree views, or 3-D rotations! At least in my copy! However, it does have CAD Detail and X-Ray Cutaways (or at least 1)!
If you are a fan, I would buy this!
Thanks,
Nick M ... Read more