Author Archives: Enoc

Batter up! – Next Cyber Punk Book started…

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Well I took a little vacation from Cyberpunk to read Michael Stackpoles 3rd installment in the “Secret Atlas” series but I am back on track and have started Ian McDonald’s book River of Gods. Short background on this book – takes place in India in 2047 and takes a look at what future life would be like there.. Premise is cool and the writing is unusual. More as it happens.

Rudy Rucker – What a FLURB

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For those of you not familiar with him, Rudy Rucker, is one amazing writer… He is a professor at San Jose State University in the Math and Computer science department as well a writer. I would not consider his books cyberpunk though I have seen him lumped into that genre and I believe that is how I started reading him. In any case check out FLURB his ezine and you can get a sample of his work (and others). If you want to read a very trippy series check out his FREK series. They are quick reads and definitely they are unique to the world of science fiction.

Spook Country: The Review

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I started reading Spook Country shortly after Ling and I had the pleasure of hearing William Gibson speak at Cody’s Books in Berkeley. The strange part about going to a book reading is that the author chooses a chapter at random with the hopes that whatever he is reading will interest the listener to read the book. What always happens for me is that I feel like I “dropped” in on a conversation in midstream and it always take me a while to catch up.This “dropped in” feeling was definitely true for Spook Country. The nice thing is that Gibson is kind enough to fill in the holes as you go but sometimes you are asking yourself now how the heck did that guy get into this situation and it takes Gibson a while to fill you in and I believe that by the end of the story the “whole” of it is revealed and explored.Here is a quick synopsis of the story. 3 story lines happening at once that all are interrelated.

  1. Storyline 1 – Ex Singer for the band Curfew – Hollis Henry is trying to get into journalism is contracted by the super weird Blue Ant agency
  2. Storyline 2 – Tito ( no last name ) – cuban teenager who speaks russian and has an interesting relationship with a religion ( I dont think it is ever named though it has ties in Christianity – a pagan religion that has transformed ) that imbues him with supernatural powers who is a part of a “spy” family and whose current mission is to aid the “Old Man”. The whole family follows something called the Systema which is a methodology for covering your tracks and basically appearing invisible.
  3. Storyline 3 – Milgrim an expert in Russian Translation (and related languages like a Russian computer language) and a drug addict is kidnapped and forced into helping a “Spook” named Brown (who he works for it is never that clear) track Tito and his family and try to discover what they are up to.

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World of Warcraft

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Ok so this is not so cyberpunk but I love this game! It looks like a new expansion pack is coming out at some point in the future (no release date). Good news – level cap moved to 80, new quests, hero class, new instances, siege weapons, destructible buildings – good fun!

Read About Wrath of the Lich King

Spook Country – half way mark….

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Well I have hit the 50% mark for Spook Country and I wanted to give you all a quick update on the book.

  • Chapters are really short – under 5 pages or so on average – great for reading while doing your dirty business
  • Blue Ant is back!
  • New technological concept is a kind of virtual reality/wifi/internet concept. The basics idea is that people tag real space (a real location) with 3D images and you see those 3D image via a VR headset (when at the location) that connects up to the internet via wifi. Some interesting ideas not yet explored would be to go to some place like Omaha Beach in France – strap on the VR headset and either see the beach filled with bodies or maybe an actual war going on before your eyes. Powerful concept and I definitely see it happening in the future.

More as it happens! I might be able to finish the book over the holiday weekend.

Enoc

Shadowrun the series Part 3

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I mentioned previously that the shadowrun books are my romance novels and perhaps I should explain myself a little here. First of all the plots are all some what similar. There is a “Johnson” – an anonymous individual usually from the corporate runner – who goes to a “Fixer” – who is the middle man – about a job that he or she wants done – usually against another corporation…

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