SYNNERS PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Pat Cadigan | 496 pages | 01 Sep 2013 | Orion Publishing Co | 9780575119543 | English | London, United Kingdom Synners (Syntax and Semantics) at OSU

The fancy rubble of the old Pan Pacific Auditorium had been hard alive and jumping by the time she made it, bangers and thrashers and the pickle stand in business while the hackers ran fooler loops on their laptops to confound surveillance. Before she could get a new line on him, the cops had come in and busted things up. She had almost sulked herself into a doze when most of the crowd that had been waiting ahead of her rose en masse to stand before the judge. Doctors never keep regular hours. I wish you people would perpetrate insurance fraud in some other jurisdiction. Like Mars. Gina sat forward, her fatigue momentarily forgotten. The litany of charges was boring enough: conspiracy to commit fraud, fraud, unnecessary implantation procedures — the usual for a clinic that put in implants under pretense of treating depression, seizures, and other brain dysfunctions. Just another feel-good mill, big fucking deal. She started to drift off. Her eyes snapped open. A murmur went through the courtroom, and somebody smothered a giggle. The judge waited and the court waited. Several long moments later the judge turned away from the monitor in disgust. Do not call. Her novels and short stories all share a common theme of exploring the relationship between the human mind and technology. She was educated at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in theater and the University of Kansas KU , where she studied science fiction and science fiction writing under author and editor Prof. James Gunn. Cadigan met her first husband Rufus Cadigan while in college; they divorced shortly after she graduated from KU in That same year Cadigan joined the convention committee for MidAmeriCon , the 34th World Science Fiction Convention being held in Kansas City , Missouri , over the Labor Day weekend; she served on the committee as the convention's guest liaison to writer guest of honor Robert A. Heinlein , while also working for fantasy writer Tom Reamy at his Nickelodeon Graphics typesetting and graphic design firm. In the late s and early s, she also edited the small press fantasy and science fiction magazines Chacal and later Shayol with her second husband, Arnie Fenner. Cadigan sold her first professional science fiction story in ; her success as an author encouraged her to become a full-time writer in She emigrated to London in the UK with her son Rob Fenner in , where she is married to her third husband, Christopher Fowler not to be confused with the author of the same name. She became a UK citizen in late Cadigan's first novel, Mindplayers , introduces what becomes the common theme to all her works: her stories blur the line between reality and perception by making the human mind a real, explorable place. Her second novel, Synners , expands upon the same theme; both feature a future where direct access to the mind via technology is possible. While her stories include many of the gritty, unvarnished characteristics of the cyberpunk genre, she further specializes in this exploration of the speculative relationship between technology and the perceptions of the human mind. Cadigan has won a number of awards. Clarke Award both in and for her novels Synners and Fools. Robert A. Heinlein in part dedicated his novel Friday to Cadigan after becoming her friend, following her being the guest liaison to him for the 34th Worldcon in Kansas City. Review: Synners by Pat Cadigan

There's still a bit too much portability of executable code for realism, and a few magic programs are exempt from all the rules and start moving arbitrarily through the network, but there's at least a plot-driven explanation for some of that. Cadigan also handles corporations realistically rather than making them pure evil. They have stupid bureaucracies and want to make money in the cheapest way possible. They aren't out to destroy the world. Much of the plot revolves around an independent music video of a sort production group that gets bought out by a media conglomerate that's also working on a far more efficient and immersive neural interface, a scenario that sets up plenty of conflict without needing shadowy plots and government schemes. I found the thought of an advertising-focused corporation with direct neural access to the minds of consumers realistic and plenty creepy. The main downside of this book is that I found it rather hard to follow in places. The main characters were frequently high on a wide variety of drugs, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not, and Cadigan spends a lot of time describing their altered perceptions. This rarely works well for me, and there's enough of it in Synners that it drags, particularly combined with the very similar scenes describing the visual experience of music. Not unlike Mark. Living through the quake and the postmillennial madness that had followed was one way to end up under a pier talking to your toes; taking some of the stuff available on the Mimosa was another. Sometimes she could almost let the f—ing burnout go ahead and flush himself down the rabbit hole in his brain. So she did another night on the Mimosa, poking into shacks and lean-tos, searching under piers, checking out the jammers and scaring off the Rude Boys, looking to take him home, hose him down, and detox him enough to get him through his corporate debut the day after tomorrow. Toxed to the red line, no doubt. Like any of them needed to play hit-and-run in the Fairfax wasteland. The fancy rubble of the old Pan Pacific Auditorium had been hard alive and jumping by the time she made it, bangers and thrashers and the pickle stand in business while the hackers ran fooler loops on their laptops to confound surveillance. Before she could get a new line on him, the cops had come in and busted things up. She had almost sulked herself into a doze when most of the crowd that had been waiting ahead of her rose en masse to stand before the judge. Doctors never keep regular hours. Cadigan's first novel, Mindplayers , introduces what becomes the common theme to all her works: her stories blur the line between reality and perception by making the human mind a real, explorable place. Her second novel, Synners , expands upon the same theme; both feature a future where direct access to the mind via technology is possible. While her stories include many of the gritty, unvarnished characteristics of the cyberpunk genre, she further specializes in this exploration of the speculative relationship between technology and the perceptions of the human mind. Cadigan has won a number of awards. Clarke Award both in and for her novels Synners and Fools. Robert A. Heinlein in part dedicated his novel Friday to Cadigan after becoming her friend, following her being the guest liaison to him for the 34th Worldcon in Kansas City. In the s Cadigan and a childhood girlfriend "invented a whole secret life in which we were twins from the planet Venus", she told National Public Radio. In , Cadigan announced that she had been diagnosed with cancer. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. American science fiction author. Synners by Pat Cadigan

The speculation concludes with: 'Fuck it, what difference did one m I did not get very far with this one. The speculation concludes with: 'Fuck it, what difference did one more charge make, anyway? The fines would clean her out and then some, one more garnishment on her wages, so- fucking-what. All she cared about now was getting back on the street' Later, she wonders what her BFF Mark is doing: 'But the best question was what the fuck was Mark doing there all on his own without a word to her. She and Mark were in it together, always had been. They'd been in it together in the beginning, and when Galen had bought most of the video-production company out from under the Beater, and they'd been in it together when Galen had let the monster conglomerate take EyeTraxx over from him, and they were supposed to be in it together the day after tomorrow, when they were due to show up for their first full day working for the monster conglomerate. I gave up at page Not my thing. What if the tech revolution, instead of being made by start-up and college geeks, was driven by MTV-era creatives? That's essentially Cadigan's premise in this cyberpunk classic. It's impossible, obviously, not to read this novel with eyes, but I suspect that simply enriched the experience particularly as I find cyberpunk mostly irritating as a rule. It's why a lot of this review will focus on the future- vision of Cadigan. Cadigan got some things spot on - the concept not only of buil What if the tech revolution, instead of being made by start-up and college geeks, was driven by MTV-era creatives? Cadigan got some things spot on - the concept not only of built in traffic-warning GPS stands out, but even more so for the prediction that it would always get you the info just too late to do anything about it. The sense of an ever-connected life - a staple of the genre - seems much less surprising than it did in the s. But the more interesting thing is probably the fundamental differences. Mostly the assumption that what would drive technology was the entertainment industry, people's desire for spectacle that would move them, draw them in, enable them to connect with each other more deeply. And that this would be fueled by the drug- addled, vision-inspired world of video creation, which end up replacing even "Old Hollywood". Instead, it seems to me, while communication and connection have driven a lot of our technology in the last decade, it has been less immersive forms - text-based communication that doesn't rely on synchronicity to be effective; communication that enables us to chat lightly with a wide range of people - not the kind of tech that lets you get literally into your lovers head. Similarly, our entertainment industry has gone for more superficiality - cheap swelling-music emotional moments and lots of eye candy explosions - not the kind of dizzying, emotive, complex sequences Cadigan envisages. I'm not sure what that means about who we've become, but Cadigan's vision gave me a different way of looking at it. Of course, Cadigan wasn't predicting the future, she was writing a novel. And it's a great read. As mentioned above, this isn't my preferred genre, and I'm absolutely not a video music geek either, so I'm a tough audience. Like a lot of sf, the book asks a lot at the beginning, introducing a large cast with whiplash speed, alongside a new slang dialogue. The ebook would really have benefited from Amazon's x-ray feature, letting you quickly look up characters, but it wasn't set-up. There were slow bits - the video sequences in particular, but mostly it was a pretty simple story well told, and I enjoyed it to the end. Can't ask more than that. Nov 22, S. Higbee rated it it was amazing. This cyberpunk winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award takes a while to get going as the group of disparate characters are established amongst a tech-heavy world in a near-future where everyone is increasingly reliant on their technology. I felt very at home with much of her near-future predictions, which is a tad worrying when considering This cyberpunk winner of the Arthur C. I felt very at home with much of her near-future predictions, which is a tad worrying when considering how it all ends. When there is a number of main characters, there are always the one or two who particularly chime — for me, these were Gina, who hooked up with the video star Visual Mark twenty-something years ago and is still drifting in his wake as he becomes increasingly lost to his videos and drug-taking. She sings off the page with her cynical, acidic asides and her gritted passion for what she believes in. The other character I really loved is poor old Gabe, the typical artist-turned-corporate-wage-slave, who makes advertisements, while wishing he did almost anything else. To allay his boredom and sense of futility, he regularly escapes into a classic game using a hotsuit to enable him to virtually interact with the two main characters in the game. This is one of the main attributes of cyberpunk — not only to pull the reader into a high-tech, near-future world, but also into cyberspace where reality exists in the interface between humanity and machines. And the best of this genre takes you there, immersing you into an altered landscape, where memes and symbols take on different meanings that the reader completely accepts. This is why I am prepared to slow down my normal reading rate for this particular genre and pay attention — because the rewards are so very satisfying when it is done well. Needless to say, the climax is beautifully handled, and the final third of the book was difficult to put down as the plot continues gathering momentum during the ongoing crisis and humanity attempts to fight back. I finally put the book down, aware of coming back to the present from a long way away — always the mark of a master worldbuilder. In many ways this book simply reinforced my opinion that I don't really like "cyberpunk". Apparently another of the leading beacons of the sub-genre and another that I have broadly not liked. The story contains an interesting premise and explores what might happen and go wrong when the brain and cyberspace become too closely connected. But there were several things about the way this was executed that I didn't like. For one thing, there was a large number of not particularly memorable characte In many ways this book simply reinforced my opinion that I don't really like "cyberpunk". For one thing, there was a large number of not particularly memorable characters with shifting POV's. Not unusual in and of itself and I don't normally mind but when you are left for a page or two each time before the narrative makes it clear which character it has shifted to it just gets frustrating. This was exacerbated perhaps by fact that many of the characters didn't have much depth. Indeed, one wonders why there were so many characters in the narrative and how necessary they all were. I had some issues with plausibility as to the way the threat came about and spread around; it just didn't seem very convincing to me. I can't really talk too much about it though for fear of spoilers. The book feels dated and not because of the the author's failure to predict how the future would turn out but more stylistically. Some people will enjoy this, particularly those of you who like the sub genre, but if you're not already keen I doubt this will do much to turn you on to it I really wanted to like the book. The characters were good. Cadigan manages to avoid needless exposition, trusting her readers to puzzle the pieces together. Cadigan could also foresee many of the developments of the Web impressively. But none of that really compensates for the fact that Synners was so boring. I was reminded a lot of the movie Interstellar: at first the story seemed interesting and had good if not new ideas, but then it gets bogged down and the ending degenerates into a pile of s I really wanted to like the book. I was reminded a lot of the movie Interstellar: at first the story seemed interesting and had good if not new ideas, but then it gets bogged down and the ending degenerates into a pile of sentimental woo-woo. Synners was twice as long as it should've been. Cadigan has writing skill, but she doesn't seem to really know how to "kill her darlings", as they say. This book is filled with darling moments that should've been cut. Shelves: books-by-women , no-white-dudes Synners is a whirlwind of stream of consciousness sensory overload and 90s aspirational hacker slang. What it loses to inscrutability it more than makes up for in atmosphere. I'm a sucker for early cyberpunk and am certainly guilty of giddily tweeting out passages about memes or Never Going Off-line but it's okay because this book doesn't take itself too seriously. In addition to being a fast- paced proto-vaporwave romp, Synners does address some interesting themes about AI, consciousness, and hum Synners is a whirlwind of stream of consciousness sensory overload and 90s aspirational hacker slang. In addition to being a fast-paced proto-vaporwave romp, Synners does address some interesting themes about AI, consciousness, and humanity that were reflected in other contemporary media like Ghost in the Shell. If you like cyberpunk, give this one a shot. Aug 16, Brian rated it it was amazing Shelves: science-fiction. What might happen when the human brain interfaces directly with a network of powerful computers? Entertainment, of course, but something far beyond MTV, something that places the viewer in the experience, with maybe an LSD or Ecstacy filter, everything enhanced, time and space manipulated What effects would that have on the human brain? What would those effects do to the system? The answer is far more than I could have imagined, and it's not healthy. Whilst this is undeniably cyberpunk and its view of the future is very much one from the early 90s I kept feeling surprisingly nostalgic in the midst of all the horror this is definitely different in tone. Whilst many of the other works of the time are more reminiscent of action movies, full of nudity and violence, this is much more considered and exploratory. It doesn't lack for explosive events but has a strong character focus and solid world building which really marks it out. Nov 12, Paul rated it really liked it Shelves: book-club. I haven't read a ton of old cyberpunk, and what I read of Gibson's work blurred together and I read too long ago to remember decently. After reading this I feel the Wachoskis definitely read this before working on the Matrix. Definitely worth a read for people into this genre. Sep 22, dipandjelly rated it it was amazing Shelves: science-fiction , women-s-writing , forever-kind-of-book , favourites , dissertation. Dec 03, Adam Whitehead rated it it was amazing. In the not-too-distant future, the world is a morass of internet-based TV shows and corporate greed. The people best-equipped to survive in this world are those who synthesise content for the net: synners. The arrival of sockets, cybernetic implants which allow people to directly interface with computers through their minds, marks a major change in society and technology, and what it means to be human. But when something goes wrong, it falls to one group of synners - outcasts, failures and data In the not-too-distant future, the world is a morass of internet-based TV shows and corporate greed. But when something goes wrong, it falls to one group of synners - outcasts, failures and data junkies - to save society, fix the net Originally released in , it was a late-breaking novel in the cyberpunk movement, championed by the likes of Bruce Sterling, William Gibson and Neil Gaiman. It won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and has been enshrined in the Gollancz SF Masterworks range as one of the all-time defining works of science fiction. Synners is interesting for coming towards the end of the cyberpunk movement, at least before subsequent books like Jeff Noon's Vurt and Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon began taking it in very different directions and the movement was subsumed more into science fiction as a whole. It's also interesting for coming during the earliest days of the internet as we know it, so at least some terminology laptops, email, virtual reality rings true, unlikely earlier cyberpunk whose invented terms now feel very dated. Like most cyberpunk authors Cadigan missed mobile phones, but it oddly doesn't feel as archaic in this book. Cadigan is more interested in how technology and being networked impacts on the human condition and the methodology for accessing the net is less important. It is impressive how many other things she got right: satnav systems which actually don't really help anyone get anywhere, hackers uploading viruses to the net just for giggles and self-driving vehicles all feel pretty much on-point at the moment. More impressive is how the novel feels like it's subverting cyberpunk itself. There's nary a mirrorshade or ill-advised superskyscraper in an earthquake zone! But growing corporate power and tech companies acting like they are above the law and pressurising baffled politicians who can't see beyond the next election into giving them carte blanche to do whatever the hell they want without regard for the consequences for society and the economy have never felt more appropriate. Cadigan's prose mixes poetry with hard-edged science fiction descriptions of hardware and software. They are sequences of people immersing themselves in the net and drugs which come across as lucid fever dreams. The novel also delights in the mundane: one of the most important viewpoint characters, Gabe, has marriage problems and a changeable relationship with his daughter, Sam. There is a frustrated air of rebellion in many characters, who take drugs and listen to loud music but no-one really cares any more, certainly not the government which is now wholly in the pocket of corporate interests. Synners has some sins syns? The novel is slow to come together, taking a hundred pages to assemble a large cast of viewpoint characters possibly too many; Gina, Gabe, Sam emerge as the main viewpoints and the novel may have benefited from dropping some of the secondary viewpoints. The scattershot opening makes the world feel grounded and realistic, but the lack of focus makes it hard to work out what's going on. But about a quarter of the way into the book starts to coalesce and the last quarter has the pedal fully to the metal as a global crisis erupts and only our "heroes" - the most dysfunctional bunch of hackers and artists you could ever hope to meet - can save the day. Not the easiest of reads especially at the start but one that more than rewards the effort. May 11, Jessica Draper rated it it was ok. Of course the Big Bad Corporation is going to abuse technology! Of course the slick lawyer is evil! None of that is new--actually, few of the broad strokes were new when Cardigan was writing it--which means that the only hope is for a familiar tale told well. Other reviews mention that it takes a long time to get going--testify, brothers and sisters! They have also mentioned that it features far too many far too uninteresting protagonists--amen and amen! Middle-aged flameouts, burnouts, and sellouts of various stripes do not make for fascinating company, even for this middle-aged reader. Perhaps the last third manages to strike some sparks from this wet tinder, but I confess I never got that far. My free time is too rare to waste on blather. Poorly written, repetitive, uncreative blather at that. There are enough F-bombs in the first few chapters to annihilate every major city on Earth. Unfortunately, Cardigan has the habit of using a few dull terms as a crutch. Toxed on stone slang porn, if you will. One star for the good doctor. Nov 14, Paul rated it it was ok Shelves: scifi , fiction , cyberpunk. This book definitely made me nostalgic for days of cyberpunk past, but it was really too "Hollywood hacker" for my tastes - computers are basically just magic black boxes with little to no explanation to how they work. She doesn't describe it that way, but it's just the gestalt I experienced when reading it because of the very 90s concerns. In a lot of ways that' This book definitely made me nostalgic for days of cyberpunk past, but it was really too "Hollywood hacker" for my tastes - computers are basically just magic black boxes with little to no explanation to how they work. In a lot of ways that's my favorite part of the book, because I am very nostalgic for the "good old days" of the niche hacker communities that existed when the internet was new and before it became a marketplace worth untold billions not that I really want to go back there - I do make my living from some of those internet billions after all - just nice to imagine. Still, this book suffers from two very major flaws. The first is that I really dislike these sorts of "magical" computers where very implausible things happen with very little explanation. Then people with no training, using their equipment in some sort of strange way that almost certainly is not supported by the drivers, go in there and use their mind to overcome it or something. The other major flaw is the heavy repetition and resonances going on. It reminded me a lot of the worst aspects of Phillip K. Dick's writing, and it was very prominent. I get that she was going for a sort of general interconnectedness and she was trying to show how various things were bleeding together, but she had some ungodly number of phrases that kept popping up e. Aug 05, Michael Caveney rated it it was ok. The last third of this book is pretty good, but it's too much of a slow burn for you to still care when you get there Nov 28, Lesley Arrowsmith rated it liked it. Cyberpunk's not really my thing, but this is an engrossing world, and eventually it makes sense, kind of Mar 29, Drew Shiel rated it it was amazing. This does not read like a book written in the 80s. Aug 02, Allan Dyen-Shapiro rated it it was amazing. As much as I enjoy cyberpunk, I had never read this, one of the classics of the field; I had only read more recent stuff from Cadigan. And in that, she was much more conventional, a single protagonist, well-developed character fiction, to go with the ideas. Here, what she achieves is a completely immersive experience. Much like William Gibson in the same period, Cadigan chooses third person, limited, multiple POV, with lots and lots of characters given POV time, none more central than the others As much as I enjoy cyberpunk, I had never read this, one of the classics of the field; I had only read more recent stuff from Cadigan. Much like William Gibson in the same period, Cadigan chooses third person, limited, multiple POV, with lots and lots of characters given POV time, none more central than the others. The characters are unique, cool, and go along being themselves in parallel with the other characters, creating the entire synner subculture. Synners synthesize reality. At first through immersive virtual reality in what seems uncannily similar to today's technology, but later in sockets hardwired into their heads, reality is synthesized. The Beater is an ex-rock-and-roller who gave up his musical instrument for the role in creating. Visual Mark is an artist, almost not a part of the world, until he becomes completely digital when his physical body dies. Gabe, whose mid-life crisis is two female AIs with whom he escapes both his advertising job and his loveless marriage to a woman who will leave him once she gets sufficiently rich from real estate deals. Sam, his daughter, emancipated when she couldn't deal with Gabe's wife either, teenage, living the life of rebellion with an outsider class, but growing closer from a distance to her Dad who is now doing things she considers cool. Gina, quite violent, who follows Mark into the dangerous world of sockets and videos just to satisfy the adrenaline junky in her. And many others. And those are just the protagonists--there are also cool antagonists. Certain phrases, certain images, certain statements form leitmotifs that continue to recur as in a dream. A very enjoyable experience; I recommend this novel highly. Synners is a wonderfully ambitious novel that reinvented the young yet already torpid genre of cyberpunk. While the ideas about the future of computer use and hacking have not quite come through, the characters and mostly engaging writing keep the novel readable twenty odd years after its release. Cadigan's follows a group of people whose lives are tied to computers and computer-based entertainment industry in future California. Whether corporate lackeys, visionaries, or hackers the characters' Synners is a wonderfully ambitious novel that reinvented the young yet already torpid genre of cyberpunk. Whether corporate lackeys, visionaries, or hackers the characters' lives intersect at a moment when technology is about to takes its next big step. Whether this results in a brave new world or worse is partly in their hands. Synners is full of ideas of which some seem plausible even today, which is quite an achievement considering how fast the technology has evolved during the last 24 years or so since it was released. Of course, now one could foresee the burst of internet nor the technological addiction that has spread through the Western society in the last 10 years, but Cadigan did a decent job with her debut. Of course, not all works and Cadigan's ambition also shines in her language, which takes the certain "don't give a damn" -attitude of cyberpunk, the punk in it, to another level with its refusal to help the reader along too much. On the other hand, Cadigan is not foolish enough unlike some cyberpunk authors to forget about the humanity or characters while depicting the dystopic potentials of the future. The people, even in their addictions and personal nihilisms, are still human beings all the same, which gives access to the novel. It is one of the things that make the difficult sections endurable and perhaps turns this from a at times dense novel, which one is relieved to lay down before a head ache, to an interesting one that perhaps deserves another crack to appreciate its complexity. Aug 24, Joseph Hirsch rated it did not like it. I've read my fair share of cyberpunk. And I found her shorter works like "Dervish is Digital" to be gratifying additions to the growing cyberpunk canon. I started "Synners" with the highest of hopes, but I could just not find an entry point to this novel. There is a ton of what feels like unnecessary background characterization and rambling romantic subplots, and while I know the whole point of cyberpu I've read my fair share of cyberpunk. There is a ton of what feels like unnecessary background characterization and rambling romantic subplots, and while I know the whole point of cyberpunk is to disorient the lines between real and virtual, sometimes it is just plain hard understand what is going on in this novel. I do not think that this is the virtue of a work that is complex and plays with the fabric of reality, but just a defect of Cadigan's style at least on display in this book to fail to establish some basic rules of reality before violating them. It's an old truism that you learn the rules so that you can break them. In this work it feels like Cadigan is breaking rules without understanding them. I'm not sure chronologically where "Synners" sits in Cadigan's oeuvre, but in "Dervish" and "Tea from an Empty Cup" she demonstrates a much surer hand. I have rarely given up on a book written by someone whose last name isn't Mailer. This is a rare exception. I certainly wouldn't place it with other works in the "Masterworks" series that I do consider to be unassailable expressions of genius, like books from Philip Dick and Joe Haldemann. I really wanted to like this book because I enjoy cyberpunk-ish stories. The novel has innovative elements, my favourite being Sam's "potato" powered computer! I suspect that when it was published most people were unaware that computers could have viruses. Given that I had an Amiga computer from , I was well aware that viruses could and would infect a disk whenever they could - if only the characters in this story could have slid the write-protect tab to prevent infection. Overall, I had two I really wanted to like this book because I enjoy cyberpunk-ish stories. Overall, I had two main problems with the story: 1 It was sloooooooow to get going. I only felt any sense of pace beyond the pedestrian in the final two-fifths, and the early chapters felt repetitive without making me care about the characters. It made it difficult to follow who was who, and where they were. Having the two main protagonists both have a four-letter name beginning with "G" is just the easiest of the confusing elements to get familiar with. Still, I found the dated elements of the novel the most fun - intuitively produced virtual reality "rock video", the centralised single-provider satnavs that were always out of date one of the things that dates it as being pre-Google and iPhone! I feel that three stars is fair - but I might readjust that score if I ever re-read it. Jan 13, Nathan Davis rated it it was amazing. It was wonderful, and bizarre. In a perfect world, this would book would be equally well known as Snow Crash I feel Synners has the better ending, whereas Snow Crash just sort of stops mid-plot. Both are bizarre, cyberpunk novels that portray a fantastic world that could have been, and might yet be. One thing that feels dated in the book is how everyone has to get subscriptions to different feeds, but that actually is starting to feel more like reality as the different streaming services have splintered and the gaming services are splintering. Synners is deeply rooted deep in the culture of the dial up BBS, so perhaps that explains its less universal appeal. For some like me, it is a wonderfully nostalgic romp. This book will be largely hit-or-miss for people. If you grew up on Dial up BBSes and love nostalgia for that weird underground culture of hackers, demo-scenes and scrolly intros, this book is a love-letter to that era. Readers also enjoyed. Science Fiction. Speculative Fiction. Science Fiction Fantasy. Literary Fiction. About Pat Cadigan. Pat Cadigan. Pat Cadigan is an American-born science fiction author, who broke through as a major writer as part of the cyberpunk movement. Her early novels and stories all shared a common theme, exploring the relationship between the human mind and technology. Her first novel, Mindplayers, introduced what became a common theme to all her works. Her stories blurred the line between reality and perception by mak Pat Cadigan is an American-born science fiction author, who broke through as a major writer as part of the cyberpunk movement. Her stories blurred the line between reality and perception by making the human mind a real and explorable place. Her second novel, Synners, expanded upon the same theme, and featured a future where direct access to the mind via technology was in fact possible. Robert A. Heinlein in part dedicated his novel Friday to Cadigan after becoming her friend, following her being the guest liaison to him for the 34th Worldcon in Kansas City. In the s Cadigan and a childhood girlfriend "invented a whole secret life in which we were twins from the planet Venus", she told National Public Radio. In , Cadigan announced that she had been diagnosed with cancer. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. American science fiction author. New England Library. Categories : births 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century British novelists American science fiction writers American speculative fiction editors American women novelists American women short story writers British science fiction writers British short story writers British speculative fiction editors British women short story writers Cyberpunk writers Living people Novelists from New York state Postmodern writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers World Fantasy Award- winning writers Writers from Schenectady, New York. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote. University of Massachusetts Amherst , University of Kansas. Science Fiction , Cyberpunk. Arthur C. Clarke Award Synners Arthur C.

Synners – B&N Readouts

Synners is a great example of everything I like and dislike. On the good side, Cadigan, unlike many cyberpunk authors, has some grasp over how the technology actually works. Synners is perhaps best known for the ubiquitous presence of computer viruses in the future world, and despite missing the evolution of viruses from downloaded data to self-propagating exploits, the treatment holds up quite well fourteen years later. This isn't quite as impressive as it might sound, as I was reading non-fiction books about viruses in and earlier that were predicting many of the same things and happening quite a bit sooner than they did , but it's still well-done. Even more notably, Cadigan mostly avoids the standard cyberpunk confusion about where programs run, keeping them for the most part running on actual systems and unable to just randomly move around a network. There's still a bit too much portability of executable code for realism, and a few magic programs are exempt from all the rules and start moving arbitrarily through the network, but there's at least a plot-driven explanation for some of that. Cadigan also handles corporations realistically rather than making them pure evil. They have stupid bureaucracies and want to make money in the cheapest way possible. They aren't out to destroy the world. Her eyes snapped open. A murmur went through the courtroom, and somebody smothered a giggle. The judge waited and the court waited. Several long moments later the judge turned away from the monitor in disgust. Do not call. Go, physically, and tell them in person. Next to Gina, Clarence or Claw gave a loud, showy, fake sneeze. The judge banged her gavel. Menu More Topics. Get the App. American science fiction author. New England Library. Categories : births 20th- century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American women writers 21st-century British novelists American science fiction writers American speculative fiction editors American women novelists American women short story writers British science fiction writers British short story writers British speculative fiction editors British women short story writers Cyberpunk writers Living people Novelists from New York state Postmodern writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers World Fantasy Award-winning writers Writers from Schenectady, New York. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote. University of Massachusetts Amherst , University of Kansas. Science Fiction , Cyberpunk. Arthur C.

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