Just started reading “Dreams of Flesh and Sand” because it was recommended as being a must read for cyberpunk lovers… Well I concur… written in 1988 – 4 years after Neuromancer – it still has some originality to it and I think it adds a dimension to the concept of the matrix.. I get the feeling that Quick is not really a technology guy so he doesn’t really even pretend to explain how the tech might work but to be honest I am ok with that.. I looked to see what else Quick has written and it seems like he is most known for writing for other people (like William Shatner)… unfortunately there does not seem to be any other book in the cyberpunk genre.. what a shame..

In my never ending quest to find new books in the Cyberpunk Genre I have stumbled upon the book WWW: Wake by Robert J. Sawyer. I have not read anything from this offer before so I will let you know what I think. Interestingly there seems to be a string of books that are in the same vein as this book – and I am not sure that they fall directly in the Cyberpunk Genre. The other book was “This is Not a Game” by Walter Jon Williams. Both books happen in the present to near future and make use of current technology  – in fact you see veterans of Cyberpunk doing similiar things with their latest book ( ie Spook Country by William Gibson ). The concept is that the “future” is now…

Haven’t had the opportunity to post in a while but I hope to do so more regulary as things in Real Life calm down.

Wanted to give some quick insight into Neal Stephenson’s new book Anathem which I have been reading since it came out in September. Neal Stephenson is one my favorite authors but I would not say that any of his books since Cryptnomicon would be considered “easy reads”. Neal  is either tackling complex storylines based on historical events, juggling multiple characters and or discussing “heady” topics that require some real thinking.

In Anathem we are focused for the most part on one character, named Fraa Erasmus ( Fraa = Father) and his life and experiences in what can only be called a monastery for scientists. The book so far has been heavily focused on the concept of Plural Worlds or World Tracks (Narratives) and takes quite sometime to digest. So far I am really enjoying it and I cannot tell you more without spoiling the book. I will give my final thoughts when I am done reading it but I would definitely encourage anyone to go out and pick up this book.

Enoc

Interview with fountain-pen wielding writer extraordinare, Neil Stephenson. Still haven’t read Snow Crash, keep starting and stopping that one — it’s some kind of extreme Gibson loyalty that if were, forefend, to enjoy another big cyberpunkist, I’d be dissin William. Hmm. Not like I don’t read Sterling and uh, a bunch of others. Oh well, i seemed to have gotten over it enough to read Cryptonomicon, which was absolutely one of my top 25 if not top 10 books I’ve ever read! But Snow Crash is just to self-imagined-to-me derivative of Gibson’s work that I … just … can’t … quite …. grok … it.