From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Feb 16 15:25:58 1996 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!fizban.solace.mh.se!paladin.american.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.kei.com!uhog.mit.edu!news!news From: "Rob Slade, the doting grandpa of Ryan Hoff" Subject: "Headcrash" by Bethke Message-ID: Keywords: author= Rob Slade Lines: 26 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu (Graystreak) Organization: Intelligent Agents Group X-Newsreader: (ding) Gnus v0.94 Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 17:43:34 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Lines: 26 Bethke manages to put even less plot into a novel than Piers Anthony, and that is a considerable feat. However, if you have any interest in computers, computer support or cyberpunk fiction, you probably won't mind as you chuckle your way through the book. Starting off like "The Bastard Operator from Hell Meets Theory X", the plot wends and twists its way steadily into spaghetti. Bethke obviously knows his computers (and a solid block of insider jokes), but isn't about to let the facts get in the way of a good virtual reality. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996 BKHDCRSH.RVW 960128 %A Bruce Bethke %O http://www.spedro.com/headcrash %C 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 %D 1995 %G 0-446-60260-4 %I Warner Books %O U$5.50/C$6.99 %P 344 %T "Headcrash" roberts@decus.ca rslade@vanisl.decus.ca aa046@freenet.victoria.bc.ca "So, concerning the above message, you think Rob Slade is responsible?" "Heavens, no! I think Rob Slade is terribly *ir*responsible!" Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER) From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Aug 29 15:26:15 1996 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!paladin.american.edu!zombie.ncsc.mil!newsgate.duke.edu!agate!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.sgi.com!uhog.mit.edu!news!news From: Simon Speed Subject: REVIEW: HEADCRASH (1995) Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Keywords: author=Simon Speed Lines: 54 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu (Graystreak) Organization: None X-Newsreader: (ding) Gnus v0.94 Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 17:22:02 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Lines: 54 Headcrash by Bruce Bethke Review Copyright 1996 Simon Speed Rating on a scale of 0 to 10 : - er dunno. Summary:- Good humoured cyberfun I read this book. I enjoyed this book. But when it comes to reviewing it for other people I have a slight problem. It was written by a computer programmer with a knowledge of cyberpunk fiction. The programming life and the conventions of the cyberpunk genre are its main subjects. If you're another cyberpunk reading programmer like me, you'll get all the jokes. But as for all you zombies out there I don't know. This is Betke's first novel. Its hero is a computer programmer in an urban near future America, who in his spare time surfs the near future equivalent of the internet - a parody of the "cyberspace" depicted in the novels of William Gibson. He is the hapless individual caught up in an action adventure plot that ranges across the modern office environment, the urban jungle and cyberspace. Ostensibly the plot is a vehicle for satire, on the corporate world, the urban world and the cyber world, but really its just a vehicle for humour. Bethke always pulls his punches in favour of a bit of rib tickling - in a rundown part of town the hero's parked car is attacked by a street gang who fix it up for him rather than damaging it. The satire is sharpest when it comes to describing office life: but even here I've heard worse stories for real, than the hero's fictional misadventures. The cyberspace parody is simply that, using the holes that just about every other critic has poked in Gibsonian cyberspace, as an opportunity for a bit of harmless fun. I won't describe the plot, not that this would spoil the book, it's just that it's not worth describing. One point worth noting is the decline of the "computer wiz-kid" character in fiction, which is very much exemplified in this book. I can remember when these were geniuses who worked with banks of controls and meaningless flashing lights and helped save the world. Gibson's hero's still had some of this glamour though they were limited by having to live in the capitalist system (poor guys!). But after the crooked and incompetent slob in "Jurassic Park" we now have Bethke's "total wankers and losers." No I am not quoting out of context. But enough of the criticisms. The jokes are funny and they come thick and fast. From conventional gags in the plot to funny chapter titles to little window-like boxes embedded in the text and used to carry yet more jokes. The effect is like that created in the movie "Airplane" - jokes hit you continuously from every angle keeping you permanently off balance. Its here that the book really succeeds and its the reason that I enjoyed it. There's also plenty of fellatio in the plot, so it should prove good and educational for your kids. Distribute freely in cyberspace - if you can find it.