Dervish Is Digital

Rating:
Summary: Well-written, but...
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Dervish is Amazing
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Dervish is Amazing
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Dervish is Amazing
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A rollr coaster ride of the future
Review: Detective Dore Konstantine runs the three-person Techno Crime, AR (Artificial Reality) Division. Though swamped with work, as the net has become a copyright nightmare, Dore would not mind if they could win one once a while. Proof is difficult at best to find and justice is a cyber thought of the mundane realm.

However, Dore is stunned when designer Susannah Ell claims her former spouse wealthy Hastings Dervish is stalking her via artificial reality. Stalking is a real world dangerous dilemma, not a cyberworld problem. Susannah wants Dore to make Hastings stop preferably by arresting him. A disbelieving Dore knows the world of cyberspace is filled with lies, misinformation, and deadly illusion. In this place, Dore seeks the truth amidst the cesspool of AR while Japanese police peer Goku believes her target is working the Hong Kong casinos. Is that in the real world or the artificial world? Either way, Dore is going to learn just how clever and dangerous Dervish really is.

The return of Dore Konstantine, cyberspace police officer, is a joyful event for those readers who relish something quite different in their police procedurals. Like with its predecessor (see TEA FROM AN EMPTY CUP), DERVISH IS DIGITAL is a wild ride that never slows down for a moment even when the readers enter AR, a place that seems more authentic than our reality does at times. Talented Pat Cadigan takes the police procedural into places that few, if any, has gone before.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: A rollr coaster ride of the future
Review: Detective Dore Konstantine runs the three-person Techno Crime, AR (Artificial Reality) Division. Though swamped with work, as the net has become a copyright nightmare, Dore would not mind if they could win one once a while. Proof is difficult at best to find and justice is a cyber thought of the mundane realm.

However, Dore is stunned when designer Susannah Ell claims her former spouse wealthy Hastings Dervish is stalking her via artificial reality. Stalking is a real world dangerous dilemma, not a cyberworld problem. Susannah wants Dore to make Hastings stop preferably by arresting him. A disbelieving Dore knows the world of cyberspace is filled with lies, misinformation, and deadly illusion. In this place, Dore seeks the truth amidst the cesspool of AR while Japanese police peer Goku believes her target is working the Hong Kong casinos. Is that in the real world or the artificial world? Either way, Dore is going to learn just how clever and dangerous Dervish really is.

The return of Dore Konstantine, cyberspace police officer, is a joyful event for those readers who relish something quite different in their police procedurals. Like with its predecessor (see TEA FROM AN EMPTY CUP), DERVISH IS DIGITAL is a wild ride that never slows down for a moment even when the readers enter AR, a place that seems more authentic than our reality does at times. Talented Pat Cadigan takes the police procedural into places that few, if any, has gone before.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: excellent cyberpunk ala VR. Reading her previous works is help
full to get full enjoyment out of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Waste of Time
Review: I found this book very disappointing. There was too little action and too much psychoblather, particularly toward the end. The main plot involving Dervish was never explained. The book just seemed to end. I felt I had wasted my time with it.

Rating:
Summary: Alice in Cyberland
Review: In Pat Cadigan's previous novel, Tea from an Empty Cup, she introduced readers to Doré Konstantin, a homicide detective tracking down a murder leading to AR (Artificial Reality). In Dervish is Digital, Cadigan returns to the world of AR, where everything is a lie and must be accepted as such. Konstantin, too, is back, heading up the TechnoCrime division, a job that is more like purgatory than actual hell, but nevertheless not her life's dream.

If Tea was cyberpunk mixed with Eastern mysticism, one must sum up Dervish as cyberpunk with a healthy dose of Lewis Carroll. This is not so much a mystery novel as a trip through the looking glass. As Konstantin chases her elusive white rabbit, the reader is not asked to understand what is going on, but to hang on and enjoy the ride. Unfortunately, the ride has little dimension to it, feeling flat and unimaginative.

While I immensely enjoy Cadigan's writing, this book left me cold. The story did not have the grit that I have come to expect in Cadigan's worlds. (Maybe because I recently finished her excellent collection of short stories, Patterns.) This novel felt like an unfinished story in many ways. It is as if the characters and plot had been put into place, but without the scenery. Sure, there are weird moments aplenty in Dervish, but it is all the same kind of glitter that we saw in Tea. There is nothing here that suggests this story is taking us someplace new. If anything, the AR world becomes as monotonous to the reader as it has become to Konstantin.

While Konstantin makes repeated metaphors of carnival rides, the book is anything but. A strange trip, to be sure, but never real. The story seems forced, and the situation seems hollow. Even the end of the novel leaves the reader feeling cheated somehow.

If this is a reflection of Cadigan's own feelings about cyberpunk, perhaps she should move on to something that excites her before she (and the reader) dies of ennui. Pick up Synners again for a truly great cyberpunk story.

Rating:
Summary: Alice in Cyberland
Review: In Pat Cadigan's previous novel, Tea from an Empty Cup, she introduced readers to Doré Konstantin, a homicide detective tracking down a murder leading to AR (Artificial Reality). In Dervish is Digital, Cadigan returns to the world of AR, where everything is a lie and must be accepted as such. Konstantin, too, is back, heading up the TechnoCrime division, a job that is more like purgatory than actual hell, but nevertheless not her life's dream.

If Tea was cyberpunk mixed with Eastern mysticism, one must sum up Dervish as cyberpunk with a healthy dose of Lewis Carroll. This is not so much a mystery novel as a trip through the looking glass. As Konstantin chases her elusive white rabbit, the reader is not asked to understand what is going on, but to hang on and enjoy the ride. Unfortunately, the ride has little dimension to it, feeling flat and unimaginative.

While I immensely enjoy Cadigan's writing, this book left me cold. The story did not have the grit that I have come to expect in Cadigan's worlds. (Maybe because I recently finished her excellent collection of short stories, Patterns.) This novel felt like an unfinished story in many ways. It is as if the characters and plot had been put into place, but without the scenery. Sure, there are weird moments aplenty in Dervish, but it is all the same kind of glitter that we saw in Tea. There is nothing here that suggests this story is taking us someplace new. If anything, the AR world becomes as monotonous to the reader as it has become to Konstantin.

While Konstantin makes repeated metaphors of carnival rides, the book is anything but. A strange trip, to be sure, but never real. The story seems forced, and the situation seems hollow. Even the end of the novel leaves the reader feeling cheated somehow.

If this is a reflection of Cadigan's own feelings about cyberpunk, perhaps she should move on to something that excites her before she (and the reader) dies of ennui. Pick up Synners again for a truly great cyberpunk story.