Headcrash

Rating:
Summary: The best book.... EVER.
Review: This book has to be THE funniest cyber-SF book I have ever read. Unlike some others, I LIKED the ending, I understand what the author was thinking when he wrote it, but to put it down here would be to exceed my 1000 word limit. I recomend this book to EVERYONE who can read.

Rating:
Summary: Reminds me of early Douglas Adams (when he was still funny)
Review: This book is a hilarious (yet affectionate) lampoon of science fiction/cyberpunk conventions by the writer who, in fact, coined the term "cyberpunk." This book is not only a terrific first novel, but it recently won the highly-respected Philip K. Dick Award for best science fiction novel published in 1995 as a paperback original. I understand that so far the sequel, Headcrash 2.0 (to be out Real Soon Now), has only been sold to a British publisher. SO BUY THIS BOOK and help convince the brilliant U.S. publishing industry to give us our desperately-needed, more-than-maintenance update, version 2.0

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Brilliant
Review: This book is amazing. It gives an alternative view to what the net COULD be like, and uses humour in the best possible way.

Rating:
Summary: Philip K. Dick is rolling over in his grave
Review: This is an awfully written, witless book. The fact that it won the Philip K. Dick Award strips the prize of any credibility it used to have. The beginning is entertaining, but unoriginal: virtually every joke was stolen from the comic strip Dilbert. After the protagonist is fired and no longer works in an office, the author is forced to steal jokes from somewhere else. Apparently he couldn't think of any other place to steal from, because the middle third of the book scarcely advances the plot while keeping the unthinking masses satiated with juvenile oral sex anecdotes and euphemisms for the word "penis." The climax hinges on a bunch of ludicrous coincidences that would make the literary god of stupid coincidences, Charles Dickens, roll his eyes. The ending is the only part that satirizes cyberpunk, with lines like "We'll get them in the sequel." Don't read this garbage.

Rating:
Summary: Hollywood should have used this instead of the three lamers
Review: This is an original, but the best way I can describe it is: The book starts off with a Scott Adams meets William Gibson flavor, throws in a taste of Douglas Adams, and has an old Prisoner episode aftertaste. I loved it and hopes he serves up many new recipes. (Burp)

Rating:
Summary: If only Neal Stephenson and Bethke could get together...
Review: This is the book that Snow Crash should have been. Now, before I am attacked as a heretic, let me say that I'd be the first to admite that Neal Stephenson is a much better writer than Bethke. It's just that Stephenson has a tin ear when it comes to humor, whereas Bethke is spot-on. As good as Stephenson's writing is, I found much of the humor in Snow Crash (which was another attempt at a send-up of the cyberpunk genre) to be slightly funnier than a dumb Saturday Night Live skit. Bethke's parody is much more inspired. It helps to be familiar with the shopworn cliches of cyberpunk before you read this. All the elements of your standard-issue cyberpunk thriller are mercilessly skewered in this book: characters who are so impossibly cool that they have to drink antifreeze, the ritualistic scenes of "suiting up" in incredibly cool cyber-equipment, hopelessly optimistic portrayals of the future of virtual reality, pointless fads of the present extrapolated into earth-shaking trends of the future, and the Incredibly Greedy and Faceless Corporate-Government Cartel that Controls the World. Tom Clancy, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Crichton are also spoofed. Once again, Bethke's writing style is only marginally better than what you'd expect from a bright college sophomore, but it does the job. Now, if only we could have a novel with Stephenson's gifted writing and Bethke's sense of humor, we might really have something.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, bizarre, and very entertaining!
Review: This is the funniest cyberpunk novel I have ever read. This book takes a crack at evrything from political correctness to whacked out religion. Some parts are so funny you have to stop reading because of the tears in your eyes!

Rating:
Summary: A great send up of cyber-pretentions. Cyberpunks must read.
Review: This is the official notice that cyberpunk isn't really dead,
but maybe it should be. An excellent send up of both the oh so cool
cyberpredators and their heartless corporrate foes. Dilbertesque management humor meets cyberpunk and neither side wins. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: I am sorry I bought it
Review: Very disappointing. Did not live up to expectations generated by the reviews I read at Amazon.com. Started with a good idea but awkward plot development and juvenile style