Cadigan, Pat

Average customer rating:

The best in mid-80s short science fiction
excellent
Fun to read
It hurts so good!
Pat Cadigan the Queen of Cyberpunk

Patterns
Pat Cadigan
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312868375

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 As a result, some of the stories may seem outdated, but they brilliantly illuminate how quickly technology has advanced in one short decade.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

Customer Reviews:

The best in mid-80s short science fiction.......2002-08-26

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.......2002-05-31

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

Fun to read.......2001-01-29

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!.......2000-05-03

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!" but then I remembered - it's only a story. Or is it? Pat Cadigan just keeps getting better and better!

Pat Cadigan the Queen of Cyberpunk.......1999-04-11

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 genre cyberpunk. If you want to read good short stories with a bite, then Patterns is the book for you.

Tea From An Empty Cup (Tea from an Empty Cup)

Average customer rating:

Virtual murder mystery that is more accessible than her earlier books
Zen Meets Cyberpunk
Not only the cup is empty
Utter Tripe
Good fun book for cyberpunk fans

Tea From An Empty Cup (Tea from an Empty Cup)
Pat Cadigan
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0312866658

Amazon.com

Two-time Arthur C. Clarke Award winner for Best Novel, Pat Cadigan is the 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 Ward

Book 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.

Customer Reviews:

Virtual murder mystery that is more accessible than her earlier books.......2005-10-15

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.......2004-06-28

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.

Not only the cup is empty.......2003-09-12

I bought this book based on a slew of hushed and awed reviews, and now issue fair warning. This is a shallow, pretentious, dull and silly book, which doesn't so much end as stagger to a halt. Word is that the 'story' picks up in a following book but, fool me once . . . Like Delmar, shackled in the flickering blue unreality of a picture show, I warn, "Do not seek the treasure." Unlike Delmar I know it is because there is no treasure to be found.

Utter Tripe.......2003-05-20

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.......2003-04-19

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.

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.

Customer Reviews:

Like hot molten cliches oozing down a low-jack interface.......2006-10-18

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.......2006-09-21

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!.......2005-11-02

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.......2005-04-26

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.

a 400+ page waste of time.......2003-01-18

This book is awful. The writing is bad, the plot is thin, the characters are underdeveloped. Synners had potential, but ruined it with pages and pages of dream-type sequences and unexplained ramblings. There were so many characters that it was ridiculous to keep track of them all. Important events were skipped over and not explained at all, substituted with phrases resembling "a few days later...everything was fine." I do not recommend this book.

Average customer rating:

Jason X #2 - Good story, but . . . .
Stick to the subject at hand
JASON X: THE EXPERIMENT: Good concept, okay novel
Good new Uber-Jason story
Nothing more than a simple "good read"

Jason X #2: The Experiment (Jason X)
Pat Cadigan
Manufacturer: Black Flame
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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Jason X #3: Planet of the Beast
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ASIN: 1844161692

Book Description

Jason Voorhees is resurrected and captured by the army who skin graft parts of his body onto another human, thereby creating a "super soldier".

Customer Reviews:

Jason X #2 - Good story, but . . . ........2005-11-28

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.......2005-07-17

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.......2005-03-13

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.......2005-03-06

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".......2005-03-05

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.

The Twilight Zone #2: Upgrade / Sensuous Cindy

Average customer rating:

Into the twilight
Good, but not the original

The Twilight Zone #2: Upgrade / Sensuous Cindy
Pat Cadigan
Manufacturer: Black Flame
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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The Twilight Zone #1: The Pool Guy / Memphis

ASIN: 1844161315

Book Description

Upgrade: Harassed mom Anna escapes from the mayhem of her all-too-real home life by fantasizing about an ideal family. But she didn't really expect to wake up one day and find they've been replaced by better versions of the people she once knew and loved... Sensuous Cindy: When a friend offers Ben a hot new kind of virtual reality program to check out, he finds himself enjoying the delights of Sensuous Cindy. But it isn't really cheating when you get it on with a computer program, is it?

Customer Reviews:

Into the twilight.......2006-11-14

In this two story return to the twilight zone we have Upgrade, a story about a mother who wishes secretly that her family were just a little more refined, well sure enough she gets it and realizes maybe she didnt want that after all. While this story has great potential it falls just a bit short. It gets really old listening to her whine thats not my dog for the millionth time.
The second story Sensuous Cindy takes it up a notch with a really creepy tale of virtual reality gone wrong. Ben who is getting married is going celibate for a few months so someone takes pity on him and gives him the virtual game Sensuous Cindy. Cindy doesnt quite know when to stop though.
Pat Cadigan's trip into the Twilight Zone is definitely worth a rainy day afternoon.

Good, but not the original.......2004-06-23

Having missed most all of the newest incarnation of the Twilight Zone on UPN, I've never seen these two episodes, so I can't comment on how true they are to the shows. I CAN say that they are two good stories, though obviously not the original TZ. For one thing, Rod Serling would never have talked on and on at the beginning of an episode to set it up. Yes, he spoke for about 30 seconds, but then it was over and into the show. The rambling introduction to "Upgrade" was unnecessary to me. Still, the story managed to pull you into it fairly well. "Sensuous Cindy" was ok. Neither story really had the punch of the original, and if this is any indication of the quality of the shows on the new series, it's easy to tell why it got cancelled so quickly.

Customer Reviews:

Highly Recommended.......1998-02-06

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.'

Average customer rating:

Wild Cards II - Aces High
George R.R. Martin , Lewis Shiner , Roger Zelazny , Walter Jon Williams , Melinda M. Snodgrass , Victor Milan , Pat Cadigan , John J. Miller , and Walton Simons
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000FBP1NK

Product Description

Book Club Edition

Average customer rating:

Well written but bland
Intersting and lots of fun
WAY COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
Interesting
An easy read.

Lost in Space: Promised Land
Pat Cadigan
Manufacturer: Thorndike Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Lost in Space: The Vault
The Passengers (Lost in Space Digest)

ASIN: 0783886756
Release Date: 2099-07-01

Book Description

Lost in Space

Hopelessly lost in the trackless depths of interstellar space, the Jupiter Two, piloted by John and Maureen Robinson, is suddenly beamed aboard a starship the size of a small planet. Inside is a place beyond imagination where secret dreams can seemingly come true. Is this the Eden the Robinsons longed for when they first blasted off from a polluted, dying Earth?Or is it something more sinister? Are they honored guests--or helpless prisoners? The answer soon becomes clear as John and Maureen Robinson, their children, Penny, Will, and Judy, and their crewmates, the murderous stowaway Dr. Zachary Smith and swaggering fighter jock Don West, face their biggest challenge yet.

One of today's most popular authors, award-winning "Queen of Cyberpunk" Pat Cadigan gives an exciting new spin to science fiction's most popular series in this authorized original novel that continues the adventures of the Robinsons begun in the hit film Lost in Space. This all-new Lost in Space combines the nonstop thrills of the classic serieswith an exciting contemporary edge

Promised Land

Customer Reviews:

Well written but bland.......2003-12-28

I am not a big fan of the 1998 "reimagining" of Lost In Space. However I was curious to read this book and see if it captured either the flavor of the original show or the movie. I must say that the dialog patterns and charaterizations meshed perfectly with the movie take on the Robinsons and Dr. Smith. As I read the dialog I could hear Matt Leblanc and the rest of the cast in my head delivering the lines. The author did a great job here. However, the plot of the book left me a bit cold. It is basically a first contact story. There are many misunderstanding as the Robinsons meet members of an alien culture. That's about all that happens. If you want action you will have to look for it elsewhere. If you are a strong fan of the movie, this book is worth a read. If you prefer the original series and like action as opposed to philisophical debates, you can safely skip this book.

Intersting and lots of fun.......1999-09-08

Fans of the old and new will like these new books from Harper. I liked both this book and the audio version read by Bill Mumy. Of particular interest to me in this book was the psychological study of Smiths addiction to a drug he calls the Kiss and his "kicking it" at the end. I wont tell you about what happens between him and Judy at the end, you'll have to find out for yourselves!

WAY COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!.......1999-08-29

I am so glad that they came out with a series of books on this epic tale of space explores with their REALLY handsome pilot. I hope that there are a lot more to come:) A 16 yr. old reader

Interesting.......1999-06-08

I thought it was interresting on how there was a differant piont of thinking. I never new the charitars from the old sieries , but I think I like how Penny never changes, from her laser eyes he,he, whell gotta go ,but this book was good anuff so that I would whant to know when the next one comes out so Ill see you there.

An easy read........1999-05-03

I thought this was a good book, and an easy read. It was a little confusing at first, what with the constantly change point of view. But after I quickly adjusted to that, it was quite enjoyable and very imaginative. The plot was good too. The only thing I found weird was as I was reading, I pictured the old Don West instead of the new one. Every other character was just like in the movie.

Blood Is Not Enough: 17 Stories of Vampirism

Average customer rating:

Cool stories, different styles

Blood Is Not Enough: 17 Stories of Vampirism
Fritz Leiber , Dan Simmons , Scott Baker , Sharon Farber , Gahan Wilson , Pat Cadigan , and Tanith Lee
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0688085261

Customer Reviews:

Cool stories, different styles.......2004-11-24

This anthology has something for everyone who likes vampire fiction and fantasy. From "The Silver Collar" which is a standard Gothic tale, to the horror of "The Sea Was Wet as Wet Can Be," to the satiric take on the cut-throat world of professional theatre called "...To Feel Another's Woe," there are so many kinds of vampires here and so many stories that are just good stories, that everyone should find something he or she likes.

Average customer rating:

Curious about CYBERPUNK?
Some great tales, but a bad collection
Excellent examples of cyberpunk
Nothing Useful Here
Good Stories, Bad Collection

The Ultimate Cyberpunk
Pat Cadigan
Manufacturer: I Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0743486528

Book Description

<BLOCKQUOTE><B>In The Ultimate Cyberpunk, editor Pat Cadigan takes readers through the evolution of this influential science fiction genre, from the groundbreaking forefathers of the field such as Alfred Bester and Philip K. Dick, to the founding members of the cyberpunk movement, such as William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, and forward through such innovators as Lewis Shiner and Rudy Rucker. </B></BLOCKQUOTE>

In this special collection, Cadigan presents the cyberpunk world, in which reality and virtual reality intersect. The growing impact of the Internet on our sense of community, the seduction of a world behind the screen, and the inherent dangers of a society in which any information can be hacked, stolen, and sold are some of the topics explored by our best cyberpunk writers.

Customer Reviews:

Curious about CYBERPUNK?.......2006-05-18

Yes, the cyberpunk movement indirectly spawned the pop culture phenomenon called THE MATRIX.

Yes, the cyberpunk movement indirectly spawned the glittering career of superstar novelist, Neal Stephenson (who, contrary to some reviews here, does NOT appear in this anthology. Regretable...)

And yes, cyberpunk is dead.

But no, this book is not the place to start (or finish) if you are interested in exploring this very influential - if over-inflated - sub-genre of science fiction.

Begin (and possibly finish) with William Gibson's classic NEUROMANCER, because in a way this one novel IS the complete cyberpunk movement in a nutshell. In fact, a perfect alternate title for the book would be CYBERPUNK. Gibson's debut novel - an absolute mind-bender - is to the cp movement what Kerouac's ON THE ROAD was to the Beat movement. Everything, in short. The fountainhead and holy text.

So begin with NEUROMANCER. If you like that, seek out MIRRORSHADES, the one true "ultimate cyberpunk" anthology. From there, be sure to check out Neal Stephenson's modern sci-fi classic SNOW CRASH, which is probably the most enjoyable book the movement ever produced. One comparatively lesser-known essential is Rudy Rucker's SOFTWARE. Enjoy.

But why skip ULTIMATE CP? Because it is not "ultimate," and it is only occassionaly "cyberpunk."

Long story short: Editor Pat Cadigan's story-selection is lazy-minded at best, completely random at worst. Some stories have literally nothing to do with cyberpunk, while others are already so well known to even neophyte sci-fi readers that there is no point whatsoever in reprinting them yet again. Alfred Bester's "Fondly Fahrenheit" is an example of both offenses. It also predates the movement by something like 30 years. Sadly, the rest of the stories were simply ripped off from the aforementioned original classic, MIRRORSHADES.

Also, Cadigan's irritating and insubstantial introduction is absolutely useless to any reader, be they sci-fi scholars or first-time readers. My impression is that this former Hallmark card writer (this is true) knows less about cyberpunk than the average reader picking up this book will. Couldn't the publishers have splurged and paid William Gibson to edit this book and offer at least a little genuine insight, interest, or intelligence?

Sorry, but ULTIMATE CYBERPUNK was a great idea that went completley wrong.

Some great tales, but a bad collection.......2005-04-30

I'm not sure why Pat Cadigan decided to edit yet another short story collection of cyberpunk and proto-cyberpunk. It certainly doesn't quite live up to the excellent literary quality found in the definitive collection "Mirrorshades" edited by Bruce Sterling or in William Gibson's "Burning Chrome" (Cadigan's collection reprints two stories from that volume, most notably the title story itself.). Nor does it try to explain exactly what the cyberpunk movement is or the origins behind it (For that, you should start with Larry McCaffrey's excellent edited volume of essays and short fiction, "Storming the Reality Studio".). But to her credit, she offers excellent fiction from the usual suspects, most notably Gibson, Sterling, Shirley and of course, herself. Notably absent is excellent short fiction from the likes of James Patrick Kelly, Neal Stephenson, Tom Maddox, or excerpts from the late George Alec Effinger's last notable body of work, a cyberpunk saga set in a politically resurgent Islamic Middle East. If you're interested in seeing some familiar examples of short cyberpunk fiction, then buy Cadigan's book. Otherwise, you're better off sticking with Sterling's anthologies and of course, Gibson's "Burning Chrome".

Excellent examples of cyberpunk.......2004-06-29

This book's cyberpunk stories from the masters to the newest makes one appreciate such complete books in this high tech genre of science fiction as: "Mona Lisa Overdrive", "Neuromancer", "Cryptonomicon", "Snow Crash", "Cyber Hunter", and many more.

Nothing Useful Here.......2004-06-15

I thought about titling this review "Nothing New Here," but soon realized that I'd spend too much time defending the word choice. Of course there's nothing new in the book, it's an anthology. What I mean is that there is nothing to be gained from this book that cannot be gained from mirrorshades or any other Cyberpunk fiction collections that were released during the height of the movement in the mid to late 1980s.

My original review of the book mysteriously vanished. Here it is, resubmitted in hopes that it will remain this time.
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Pat Cadigan has developed a respectably lengthy body of work in the science fiction genre. She gained fame through her association with the Cyberpunk literary Movement of the 1980s and early 1990s. Despite her obvious involvement, she writes in her introduction to The Ultimate Cyberpunk that she is simply an "end-user" of the genre. This statement does little other than to nullify her authoritative claim in regard to selecting pieces for the anthology. Another curious observation she makes is that she feels that those who were in the "tribe" of the Cyberpunk Movement (hereafter CM) were of the same generation. Alfred Bester and Cordwainer Smith, whose stories Cadigan selected to appear at the front of the anthology, wrote the vast majority of their work years before the CM was even a vision. In fact, Smith died in 1966, during the height of the "hard SF" era of Heinlein, Asimov and Niven. Cadigan even explains that Bester was a source of inspiration for the 1960s Science Fiction New Wave, which explicitly disables him from being a part of the CM, especially when he, like James Tiptree, Jr. (also included in the anthology) died in 1987, when the CM was at its zenith. I suppose it isn't so far fetched to include Philip K. Dick who was arguably the most important and best known science fiction author, outside of Frank Herbert and Arthur C. Clarke. He was responsible for Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982), after all. But Dick died in 1982, never knowing what was to come in his wake. Furthermore, if Rudy Rucker was truly a member of William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and John Shirley's generation, why, then has he been referred to as a Grandfather of Cyberpunk, not unlike Dick?

Cadigan perhaps anticipates remarks such as mine, creating an artificial group of defendants, who claim that "Cyberpunk itself is hardly anything new (Cadigan x)." It is here that she justifies her inclusion of Bester and Smith and the other previous era's authors. While this might satisfy some critics, it does not provide a strong enough reason for me. If she wanted to create an anthology of the stories leading up to and directly or indirectly causing the CM, then she should have done that. If she wanted to create a history of the CM, something which, 10 years removed from the end of the literary aspect, she could have done quite easily, she should have done so. She ought not to have tried to do both. She even makes mention of the fact that "there is no point in reprinting most of Mirrorshades," though she reprints both of John Shirley's and Lewis Shiner's pieces.

One selection she makes that I do agree with is Greg Bear's "Blood Music". I felt that the story showcased Bear's Cyberpunk leanings much better than "Petra" did, which was included in Mirrorshades. Sadly, none of the late George Alec Effinger's work makes it into the anthology. Of all the Cyberpunk and Cyberpunk era science fiction I have read, nothing speaks clearer to the aims of the movement as clearly and loudly as Effinger's Marid Audran trilogy. Sadly, Effinger never gained critical or peer acclaim, and some of the most well read science fiction fans wear a puzzled face at the mention of his name.

As with every CM anthology published to date, this book expectantly falls in line with the blatant fanaticism over the work of William Gibson. While Burning Chrome is a decent story, and one of the few actual pieces of Cyberpunk stuff in the collection, I was confused as to why only the second part of the Neuromancer graphic novel was published. The publisher, ibooks, could have probably secured the rights to publishing the other pieces. Instead, they leave those unfamiliar with Gibson's lackluster flagship title scratching their temples, and irritate the veteran fans of the genre by splintering the story.

The ibooks publishing house has made a living out of playing upon the nostalgia-storing areas of the brain, hiring second string authors to finish up manuscripts written by the masters, or to create stories based upon the universes of the science fiction grandmasters. The Ultimate Cyberpunk is no exception. It fails as both a documentation of a literary movement, and as a standard anthology, as the stories are too far apart in their publication dates to have any sense of unification.

There isn't any point in repackaging Mirrorshades, That's undeniably true. Unfortunately, that's exactly what Cadigan tried to do here tried to do, riding the coattails of the Internet and technology boom, while simultaneously creating one more outlet for her own stories and those of her pals, Sterling and Gibson.

Good Stories, Bad Collection.......2003-08-21

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