Rating: 
Summary: A funnier, less complex version of "Snow Crash"
Review: "Headcrash" started out slowly for the first chapter, which was devoted to establishing the nerdy thought processes of the narrator. After that, it kicks into high gear and never lets up.Set in 2005, the plot is kind of a funny version of Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" (without the Sumerian mythology) crossed with Jay McInerney's "Bright Lights, Big City," with some doses of William Gibson's "Neuromancer." The narrator works as a tech-nerd at a huge corporate conglomerate, with a horrible boss, gets fired, and is approached to cause some havoc at his former employer's information database. Much of the novel is set in a virtually real Internet -- and for once, an author writing about virtual reality does NOT resort to the "if you die in here, you die in reality" trick. Bethke pays homage along the way to an impressive collection of pop culture: "The Godfather," "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," "Sesame Street," "Brave New World," and "Doom" and other first person shooter games among others. He takes aim at political correctness (there's a law against Ethnic Humor).
Rating:
Summary: A funnier, less complex version of "Snow Crash"
Review: "Headcrash" started out slowly for the first chapter, which was devoted to establishing the nerdy thought processes of the narrator. After that, it kicks into high gear and never lets up. Set in 2005, the plot is kind of a funny version of Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" (without the Sumerian mythology) crossed with Jay McInerney's "Bright Lights, Big City," with some doses of William Gibson's "Neuromancer." The narrator works as a tech-nerd at a huge corporate conglomerate, with a horrible boss, gets fired, and is approached to cause some havoc at his former employer's information database. Much of the novel is set in a virtually real Internet -- and for once, an author writing about virtual reality does NOT resort to the "if you die in here, you die in reality" trick. Bethke pays homage along the way to an impressive collection of pop culture: "The Godfather," "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," "Sesame Street," "Brave New World," and "Doom" and other first person shooter games among others. He takes aim at political correctness (there's a law against Ethnic Humor).
Rating:
Summary: get it now
Review: A light hearted and much needed satire of a genre obsessed with being deadly serious. Someone had to write a book like this eventually, and I'm glad Bethke did it. The plot is well constructed, the ending is intriguing, and the story itself is loaded with so much comic fodder and food for thought that I've found myself re-reading this book several times, often without even intending to. Should be on every SF fans bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: Hopefully the first of many...
Review: Bethke did a great job of getting into the details of network technology, extrapolating the future, including the inside jokes, and keeping the book readable. On top of all that, it's funny and it has a good plot with some seriously STRANGE twists to it. With any luck, we'll see more books in this style from Bethke. I'll be first in line to pick one up.
Rating: 
Summary: Stuff so lame should be pilloried, not rewarded
Review: Bruce Bethke managed to write a mostly unfunny novelization of three or four Dilbert strips. The book was relevant for some two weeks, I guess, and they were gone before the hardcover edition saw the light of day (perhaps the reviewers at the publishing house read the manuscript at that time?). The protagonist is an unmitigated, weapons-grade J.E.R.K. with the declared IQ of two million and the tested one around minus ten. Other characters rustle when moving around - they're paper, not even cardboard. The "reality" of 2005 is more like June 3, 1994, with snazzy car names. All in all, forget you saw this book. Buy something else, a Coke, a burger, anything would be healthier - even a pack of untipped Gauloises. The environmental impact would be smaller, too.
Rating: 
Summary: HeadCrash - Funny, but a rubbish end
Review: From all the other rewiews you can see what the book is about, some applaud it others do it down.
The Humour of this book is rather good, its got a type of humour i can relate to easily
The cyberpunk view of how the nets gonna b like in the furutre with VR using datagloves, socks etc to feel and move in VR not excluding the haply named ProctoPod (which u don't wanna where that goes)
MAX_COOL AKA Jack Burroughs looses his job, but gets offered something in VR he cannot refuse, a hacking job that could get him £1mill in real life if he succeeds.
The storyline has twists n turns and you c ppl from Jacks (PYLE) VR past and who they are in real life.
However my gripe is with the end of the book, everything goes out of the window and the courtroom chapters simply are confusing beyond belief and i feel rushed when they were being put down into words.
However for some good laffs and a insight into how the net could turn out i recommend this book, as long as you don't wanna read it till the end, shut it at one of the end chapters and make ur own one up i think.
Rating: 
Summary: Cyberpunk fun. Buy it! Read it!
Review: Good clean cyberpunk fun from one of the originals. I read this in one sitting ending about 1:30AM. Two days later the visual images and offshoots of the plot are still evolving in my head. The author suggests a movie from this on the cover. I like the idea a lot. This would make a strong B-movie series. Maybe an updated Mick Jagger a la "Freejack"
Rating:
Summary: What a drag it is
Review: Hands down, Bruce Bethke's Headcrash was the worst book I read in 1997. Everything about it is derivative, from the title (see Neal Stephenson's far wittier and more biting cyperpunk satire, Snow Crash), to the plot (a mish mash of elements from Snow Crash and Neuromancer, tied together with pathetic attempts at Dilbertian organizational humor). I cannot imagine how this novel was nominated for anything, let alone won it could have won the Philip K. Dick award. Headcrash is neither funny nor entertaining. As soon as I finished plodding through this ill-written mess, it went straight to a trash can. Selden Deemer, Cybrarian
Atlanta, Georgia
Rating:
Summary: OK if you enjoy the level of humor
Review: HeadCrash by Bruce Bethke is a cyber-satire with a great mix of action, plot and humor. Jack Burroughs, the protagonist, is a computer nerd who works for an exceptionally large corporation by day, and by night on the Internet as the too-cool Max_Kool. But, when Jack is fired, he takes up a job as a free-lance cyber-mercenary. The action and hilarity ensues from there including hand-to-hand combat with seven-foot virtual Vikings, Nazis, and cross-dressing mob girls. Bethke's writing style is so entertaining and fluid that you don't ever want to put down the book. This book is like a cyberpunk version of the movie OfficeSpace, but unlike most other cyberpunk books, HeadCrash does not take itself seriously in the least. This comes as a refreshing change to anyone who has read many cyberpunk novels, but despite that, I would recommend this book to anyone (with the exception to young children, if you get my drift).
Rating:
Summary: If you're even slightly interested, READ THIS BOOK!
Review: HeadCrash by Bruce Bethke is a cyber-satire with a great mix of action, plot and humor. Jack Burroughs, the protagonist, is a computer nerd who works for an exceptionally large corporation by day, and by night on the Internet as the too-cool Max_Kool. But, when Jack is fired, he takes up a job as a free-lance cyber-mercenary. The action and hilarity ensues from there including hand-to-hand combat with seven-foot virtual Vikings, Nazis, and cross-dressing mob girls. Bethke's writing style is so entertaining and fluid that you don't ever want to put down the book. This book is like a cyberpunk version of the movie OfficeSpace, but unlike most other cyberpunk books, HeadCrash does not take itself seriously in the least. This comes as a refreshing change to anyone who has read many cyberpunk novels, but despite that, I would recommend this book to anyone (with the exception to young children, if you get my drift).
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