Rating: 
Summary: Cheap thrills: drug cult and heavy conspiracy! Sounds good?
Review: No way, man. Baaad trip, dude. Bummer!In this book we're taken through this very ordinary drug rave cult world through the words of our skeptical borgeois guide. Unfortunately, for all the ideas of non-linear drug weirdness that are described, the book is 100% linear -- as in no character development at all. For all the vicarious wild rides, the book is a straight read, start to end, with lots of repitition and unbelievability. There are some well-written parts and character sketches, such as the description of Duncan (the cult leader) whose accent slips between the Queen's English and something more workingclass and the economics genius who savors being the party's cash collector. But there are too many characters and drugs to make any of them sympathetic. Instead we get some weak sex scenes and declarations of love. It's the too many characters and too many groups and types and ideas lumped together -- like a heroic dose of counter culture that makes Ecstasy Club a bad trip. And a disservice to every sub-culture, idea and drug the author describes. Not a page without drug abuse. And cameos by every imaginable lightly-cloaked drug celebrity. Add to that endless retelling of the cult's spooky mysical crap goals, rampant cybergeekiness (a computer virus infects people!), stupid conspiracy theory galore and in the last half of the book, totally unbelievable and unreadable bit involving the leader of Scientology. If the point of the book is to be satirical, if it is the "dark comedy" that the Gibson blurb promises, that would explain the excess. But it just isn't framed that way. You can't have a satire with Ecstasy Club's kind of dull protagonist. Instead the book is adolesent cliche-ridden. Bummer!
Rating: 
Summary: pure literary ecstasy
Review: Not since I first found Elizabeth Hand's Waking the Moon have I been so excited by a new novelist. Douglas Rushkoff's voice is so refreshing among all the utterly forgettable dreck that lines our shelves these days. If I had an address for him, I'd write a fan letter to express my appreciation for his ability and gratitude for his sharing this simply gorgeous story.
Rating:
Summary: Anguish!
Review: oh my lord, the anguish I endured, sitting through this drivel! I cant wait to tell the whole world about it, to share my pain! The beginning seemed promising for me, as I was eager to escape a world of office work, but things got awful. Everyone was so full of themselves and all this talk about creating time machines... I mean, I can appreciate diverse characters leading cutting-edge lives, but... three quarters of the way through I started skimming then just skipped to the end. They wanted to have rituals with this aborted baby and... somebody stop me!
Rating:
Summary: Had promise, but failed miserably
Review: Please DO NOT waste your time with this book. It is full of two dimensional characters who rarely act like a normal persons. Couple that with pure Sci Fi fantasy, and you basically have a book that tries to change the way the reader thinks about his world, but insteads ends up being an unbelievable book about a bunch of drug and sex-crazed wannbes. Maybe some of this stuff (though I doubt it) could happen in the future, but since the book clearly dates itself to have taken place in 1995, I'm not buying it, and I am VERY sorry that I bought this book. While enduring this book, I almost threw it out several times, but did not, hoping that soemthing redeeming might come toward the end. It never did. Stick with Jeff Noon for good writing of a similar nature that is more plausible.
Rating: 
Summary: Great satire
Review: Rushkoff gives us the story of a group of counter-culture obsessives, trying to expand the consciousness of the entire world through drugs, techno music, and the cyberworld. While the characters take themselves completely seriously, the novel itself is a wonderful satire on the lengths people will go to simply to feed their egos, or simply to fit in. Well worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: Ecstasyclub a view into each of us
Review: Simply the best book I have ever read! Rushkoff explains in his first novel, how it feels to be a "youth" How the people in the book actually made a cult in their pursuit to find some kind of "nirvana" and to beat down on cosmetology, a (rival) cult. The books succesfully mixes eachpersons own dilemmas, the club scene, The love/hate relationship that excists between very good friends, a couple of lovestories and action. Its just fascinating! After reading it, I felt like I had just been a part of something really big, that only me and the people that read the book knew about! And for you reading, Im not a drug addict, Im not a clubber, so Im not romanticising this book, for those reasons
Rating: 
Summary: Page turner with potential, but falls short on believability
Review: The author creates a cyber eutopia by weaving an intricate plot that touches numerous aspects of the 90's twenty-something rave culture, incorperating sex, a lot of drugs, and music...techno music, from tribal to tranz. The characters each have their own recognizable qualities that any college kid could relate to...the self-absorbed, idealistic, mega intelligent, cultish leader who loves to hear himself talk. Then there's his sidekick, the narrator, the reluctent pessimist who's always questioning himself and his friends motivations. Then there's the ensemble supporting cast of hot chicks and burners who are all geniuses with no direction. While their trials and tribulations leave you impressed with their drive and beliefs, it left me feeling like ...Wow, it would be great to live like this, but who really does, and by the end of the book, who would really want to. I also couldn't help thinking that the author told the story with a tinge of self-indulgence for he made a couple of the characters just to cool for their own good, probably picturing himself as one of them...but maybe I'm being to critical...and on the other hand, maybe I'm not.
Rating:
Summary: More Than Just Drugs
Review: The Ecstasy Club by Douglas Rushkoff is the fastest read book I have ever encountered. I consumed and devoured every word, every scene, every concept. This book put priority over almost everything in my life at that time. Rushkoff's ideas and concepts were extremely hard to grasp, but that is exactly what kept me interested. This novel was the first I have ever read about the current club scene: raves, drugs, sex, and Rock 'n Roll (or in this case Techno). One may think that this novel is strictly written for the teenager, but I believe that it may attempt to explain the culture of teenagers to any adult who is interested. I believe, though, that if an adult attempts to read this novel, it will have an "all or nothing" effect; either the adult will grasp the idea completely or reject it out of ignorance. The novel contains a journey theme. This journey consists of a group of kids traveling to throw raves for their enjoyment as well as their profit. On the symbolic level, it is a quest for the truth about life; an answer to all the questions concearning the fate of our world. In the end, the truth is not uncovered by the "deprogrammed" (Ecstasy Club members and alike) outdoing the "programmed" (cultists and fascists), but by an evolution into a mutual understanding between both groups. When this novel was first recommended to me by a friend, I expected it to be good, but definitely not this powerful. The Ecstasy Club had me overwhelmed with the most complex thinking concearning the realites of our world that I will ever grasp. It takes a very smart, open-minded person to enjoy the novel in its entirety. "So do we need an educated elite to censor out the bad information, or are we evolved enough to accept or discard prescriptions for change using nothing other than our intuition? Maybe it's YOU who are unduly afraid of the dominance of favored, state-sponsored memes. If we accept the basic premise that out mindset extends, eventually, to the reality we inhabit, then wouldn't your attribution of the psychedelic revolution to a fear-mongering elite and subsequent admission of your own powerlessness in the face of such adversity ultimately result in the full manifestation of the very forces you hope to quash?" This quote was the first realization of the truth regarding reality that I was in the process of revealing. Sadly, though, the truth is not easy enough for me to just simply tell you; it must be uncovered by diving into the deep, complex dialogue Rushkoff uses throughout the novel's multi-level development.
Rating:
Summary: More Than Just Drugs
Review: The Ecstasy Club by Douglas Rushkoff is the fastest read book I have ever encountered. I consumed and devoured every word, every scene, every concept. This book put priority over almost everything in my life at that time. Rushkoff's ideas and concepts were extremely hard to grasp, but that is exactly what kept me interested. This novel was the first I have ever read about the current club scene: raves, drugs, sex, and Rock 'n Roll (or in this case Techno). One may think that this novel is strictly written for the teenager, but I believe that it may attempt to explain the culture of teenagers to any adult who is interested. I believe, though, that if an adult attempts to read this novel, it will have an "all or nothing" effect; either the adult will grasp the idea completely or reject it out of ignorance. The novel contains a journey theme. This journey consists of a group of kids traveling to throw raves for their enjoyment as well as their profit. On the symbolic level, it is a quest for the truth about life; an answer to all the questions concearning the fate of our world. In the end, the truth is not uncovered by the "deprogrammed" (Ecstasy Club members and alike) outdoing the "programmed" (cultists and fascists), but by an evolution into a mutual understanding between both groups. When this novel was first recommended to me by a friend, I expected it to be good, but definitely not this powerful. The Ecstasy Club had me overwhelmed with the most complex thinking concearning the realites of our world that I will ever grasp. It takes a very smart, open-minded person to enjoy the novel in its entirety. "So do we need an educated elite to censor out the bad information, or are we evolved enough to accept or discard prescriptions for change using nothing other than our intuition? Maybe it's YOU who are unduly afraid of the dominance of favored, state-sponsored memes. If we accept the basic premise that out mindset extends, eventually, to the reality we inhabit, then wouldn't your attribution of the psychedelic revolution to a fear-mongering elite and subsequent admission of your own powerlessness in the face of such adversity ultimately result in the full manifestation of the very forces you hope to quash?" This quote was the first realization of the truth regarding reality that I was in the process of revealing. Sadly, though, the truth is not easy enough for me to just simply tell you; it must be uncovered by diving into the deep, complex dialogue Rushkoff uses throughout the novel's multi-level development.
Rating:
Summary: excellent book
Review: this book is one of those that it takes a while for you to understand, but when you do, you find that the book is amazing. rushkoff's words are intelligent, and they show what goes through the mind of a drugged-up, burnt-out, raved-out gen-x'er and their friends. all in all, one of the best books i've ever read.
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