Snow Crash: Cyberpunk Chaos Realm

Hiro Protagonist is a programer/hacker/greatest katana wielding avatar in the Metaverse/pizza delivery boy for the Cosa Nostra Franchise.

And he's definitely not Fry from Futurama. Hiro Protagonist is the protagonist hero of the cyberpunk novel Snow Crash.

When Hiro's routine delivery goes off the rails, he decides to change his career, and begins a partnership with a savvy skateboarding teenage delivery girl named Y.T/when Hiro's hacker friend Da5id falls victim to the Snow Crash drug, our Protagonist starts hackin' for clues/and inadvertently gets taken into game of high stakes cyber espionage – it's a hacker kind of day.

Neal Stephenson's narrative moves at the speed of light, and is as dynamic as its fictional world, fully realized with/Information banks/data mining and spy agencies/cybernetic upgrades/a virtual candy-land/corporate dominance/desertion from the natural commons/systematic buyouts/violent takeovers/and turf wars on a global scale: These are the features of the new world [diss]order found in Snow Crash. 

Strain vs Resistance

The novel is notorious for its visceral portrayal of a carved up/fractured 21st century America: where most of its territory is owned/occupied by private organizations, security firms, and autonomous freelancers with a knack for crime/hacking/extreme thrills. In this place the government maintains a fraction of its power – able to keep tabs on a small portion of society. Intertwined into the story is a full dose of Sumerian mythology/linguistics/anthropology/computer science/and good ol' religion.

There can be some roadblocks, such as the tidbits about Sumerian society, and its imprint on development of mankind. The meticulous detail slowed the pacing of the book, as Stephenson dug deep into the historical records to deliver a comprehensive account. Stilll the semi-intrusive history lesson works as a unique lore vehicle tying all the dangling bits together into one underlining story beat. Example: one of the fictional characters [a subroutine avatar called The Librarian], quotes Sumerian history, while comparing the ancient methods of saving and storing information as an early BIOS system. 

Digimortal

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The novel's most memorable aspect is the Metaverse: A cyberspace conceptualized by interactivity of human beings, who are digitized and projected into virtual space in the form of avatars. [Think of the Sims, in Neo Tokyo] Within the Metaverse you can be/own/create/just about anything, but you gotta have the resources or know your way around the root programing. There are rules in place governing the stability of the system, but some individuals can influence the code directly: either by hacking, or by being the world's initial builders.

Not quite the Matrix; but more advanced than Habitat. To some, Metaverse is the Kubla Khan's pleasure dome. A digital dwelling occupied by freelance hackers, corporate data-miners, and the rich/famous – digitized to avatar form. To others, Mataverse is a cesspool of information, or a place to kick around for a bit. Worth noting, even in this made up reality, peoples' social standing tends to influence the detail of their avatar and rendering power of their cyber property.

And just like in some of today's video games, the level of meta-importance/skills tends to unlock more features. Example: Hiro's intimate knowledge of Metaverse root structure, endowed him with unmatched sword-wielding skills, which carry over into the real world. Practice makes perfect, and I doubt the mind's eye minds if its being flexed in virtual space or reality. Meta.

Byte Block

Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow

Stephenson's Snow Crash is the illegitimate nineties upgrade of William Gibson's Neuromancer. Both books present a distorted technological dystopia; and, both have an underlining cyberspace theme that will stimulate any cyber-junkie or futurist. Although, Snow Crash has done a more amicable job of predicting the extent of augmented reality, and its affect on society. Neal coined many words and behaviors that made it into everyday use: googling, metaverse, data mining, crowdsourcing, continuous-connectivity – and my fave – wacky pseudonyms like Vitaly Chernobyl.

Timeless sci-fi works present solid futurist concepts, and offer insight of the future by studying history to captivate present-day readers. Snow Crash contains many futurist predictions that materialized in our reality (meaning the book aged well). Once Snow Crash enters your neurological pathways its viral strain will take hold, upgrading your imagination hundredfold: Start trippin'.

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The good: Cerebral fiction to the core
The bad: Franchises took over [Demolition Man got it right!]
The ugly: The Raft [basically Kowloon City on water]

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Stars and Zombies: Resident Evil Umbrella Conspiracy

Today, a series of violent and gruesome murders stirs the silent mountain town of Raccoon City. To end the rumours surrounding the bizarre attacks, the Special Tactics And Rescue Service are deployed to investigate the mountain community.

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy is a novel based on the PS1 survivor horror game: Resident Evil. And like the game, the book illustrates the fate of the S.T.A.R.S. team as they try to survive inside a mysterious mansion filled with zombies and deadly puzzles.

Are the S.T.A.R.S. doomed to fail their first mission?

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A novel based on a video game? Yup. I didn't quite know what to make of it at first too. But being a huge fan of Resident Evil games, I decided to give the book a lurk. What I found within was a surprisingly well-written recreation of the video game in its entirety.

Let's dine on expressive penmanship tonight.

The first Resident Evil game is known for horrific critters, and intense survivalist moments that come from a memorable cast trying to solve a mystery inside a cryptic mansion. The book recreates those settings in great detail:

“It looked abandoned from the outside, the weathered wood and stone of the giant mansion crumbling and dark. The full size of the structure was cloaked by the shadowy, overgrown hedges that surrounded it, isolating it form the forest. A massive outset front porch presented double doors, their only option...”

This descriptive narrative carries through the entirety of the book, dragging you into the dark horrors of a zombie filled opulent mansion. Where each door opened reveals more mystery of a strange T-Virus and the fate of its, aimlessly shambling, flesh-eating creators. Unlike the game where you play with only one chosen character, the novel focuses on several key characters: Chris, Jill, Rebecca, Albert and Barry.

S.D. Perry has crafted a chilling mystery by choosing to write the story through several narratives—mostly Chris, Jill and Rebecca. This first-person account of events allows for character specific commentary, which adds some unexpected deviation from the script set by the video game.

“And if you don't pull your head out of your ass and start being more careful, you're going to join them—another torn and lifeless body crumpled in a cold hallway somewhere, another victim to the insanity of this house.”

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I enjoyed reading how each of the characters explored specific parts of the elaborate mansion and its surrounding grounds. This gave the novel a more immediate pace, and took care of the tedious back and fore shuffling in the game.

Also, by describing the horror of the titular residence using the five senses, and inner-monologues, the book adds an extra dimension that complements the video game nicely. When playing the game I never imagined that the house smelled like a putrid, damp, meat locker. Yuck.

If you played the game, you'll undoubtedly smirk at certain parts in the novel. I don't want to give away too much, but if you got flustered with the game's uncanny camera angles and puzzles, and thought they could have been solved by more gun-raging approaches, S.D. Parry has been there along with you and mentioned/fixed it in her narrative.

If you're a newcomer to the world of Resident Evil you may find the book a bit silly. Since the cover has exact replicas of the game's CG characters, it's safe to say the book is marketed to Res Evil fans. If you happen to be in the comforting safety of your abode, I re... Hold on.

I though there was someone lurking outside my window. Never mind. I re...

What! Is someone at the door? I can hear your feet shuffling; I should check if the door is locked. Oh no, the lock is turning! Who are you? Wait wait... (muffled screams).

~~~~~ Four putrid skinless menacing curs out of five.

Trust Me I'm Lying: Manifesto of Online Media [un]Truths

Getting through to people is no easy task. Especially when you have an entire microcosm of instantaneous online information to contend with. Ask any budding PR professional about how hard it is to get publicity on an issue/campaign and they will tel you: It's really hard.

For Ryan Holiday, all it takes is a well placed [manufactured] tidbit of info wiggled in front of a starving blogger. Once the “mark” is hooked the entire media monster will often rear its starving maw.

Pull at own risk.

Who is Ryan? Ryan Holiday is a Director of Marketing for a well know apparel company. As part of his actual job he often machinates media to promote and hack brand names and products. How? By turning a something small -- often ridiculous and fabricated -- into a hot topic the entire online economy cannot resist.

Amazon.com

Ryan illustrates how getting a small blog to cover your story can often float that story upward to bigger outlets. Mind you, that the story in question is completely prefabricated and specifically designed to go viral. He calls this “trading up the chain,” and details how it can have immense benefits for a product or brand.

Gossip blogs, technology blogs, fashion blogs, political blogs, are now prominent news outlets -- or are often owned by bigger media corps. All need the scoops. All have new and daily postings. All of them craft useful content to inform their readers, right? Wrong. In the era of the paid by click economy the only thing that matters to bloggers is getting their site the hits.

How is this done? By crafting pseudo-exclusive news. Entire articles written for the sake of driving traffic and selling goods. But what happens when this shady tactic is used to shift and/or manipulate public opinion? Hold on to your keyboard, because the entire Internet is full of this sort of manipulation.

“And sure, sometimes people get mad when they realize they've been tricked. Readers don't like to learn that the story they read was baseless. Bloggers don't like to learn that I played them. But this is the risk bloggers and I take, mostly because the consequences are so low.”

In Trust Me I'm Lying, not only does Ryan share his knowledge of media vulnerabilities, he also exposes its chronic addiction to always craft/steal scoops at all cost. To stay relevant, and to make profits, blogs need to be updated all the time. This creates the need for content. Unfortunately, relevant news does not happen all that often. To fix that, bloggers need to create newsworthy events out of nothing to keep their sites updated daily (sometimes hourly).

Saga by Image Comics

In this vacuum of forced publishing the very idea of well-thought, researched, and accurate stories is best left with the scribes of the past. Content that does not spread is dead. And what spreads are loaded stories to inspire anger, cutesy pictures, short paragraphs, gossip, and many, many, lists. Usefulness and correctness of the content is always second to maximizing the spread.

Check this leaked guideline to pseudo-posting: Crap advice for novices.

The book goes in-depth on how to corrupt and inject stories to bloggers. It also shows in detail the affect that something entirely fabricated can have on individuals and companies. Welcome to [un]reality. PR folks beware.

I enjoyed Ryan's insight on the unseen side of the communication biz: death of the RSS Feed, coverage about coverage, myth of corrections, and keeping things broken on purpose. He backs his points with his own case studies, and compendium of links to examples that often prove how little credible fact checking and sourcing there is online. It's indeed a place ripe with exploitation.

Lazy journalism and media manipulation may not be the newest of topics. But as far as I know there has not been a story angle written from the point of the manipulator. You may not like Ryan (or the fact he has used his shady tactics to promote his book), but keep in mind that he is not the only deception artist that keeps the digital pen corroded.  

Red Shirts: The Short Life of Ensign... [What was his name?]

Imagine checking your spaceship's food synthesizer on deck six, when suddenly a violent explosion rips apart the hull sucking out your frozen visage onto the void of space. 

Not the most glamourous way to go, for an ensign.

Every work of sci-fi needs a space battle, or a needlessly complex and dangerous away mission in which some poor—usually nameless—ensign dies. Horribly. Pointlessly. But what if all those low-ranked lives were real and actually meaningful? 

In Red Shirts they are. 

Meet ensign Andrew Dahl, a new upstart who just joined the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid. His station: xenobiology laboratory. All was right for this young cadet, until his laboratory crew vanished. Or hid to be exact. Why? Because two senior officers of the Intrepid just walked in with a quite improbable request. 

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If you ever watched cable TV sci-fi, you'll probably admit that a lot of the narrative seems to be quite implausible, sometimes even downright silly. Quirky technology, unscientific science, and a lot of messy skirmishes by supposed advanced civilizations. It's all super entertaining. It's also what makes Red Shirts such a hoot to read. 

In Red Shirts this wacky cable sci-fi narrative is imposed onto actual beings, but treats them as expendable extras. The characters are just regular Joe-workers trying to make it through away missions which seem to take away too many of their crew-mates. The result: hyper-reality doused in hilarity.

There's much to be taken from this surprisingly clever book: It's as we're allowed to peer behind scenes, to catch a glimpse at how professional crewmen live out their existence in deep space. It all seems grand and well, until the forced narrative physics start to control and twist the destiny of the entire Intrepid crew.

The writing is simple and crisp. Brief paragraphs. Fast sentences. Simple language. Mr. Scalzi's screen-writing prose really shows in pacing and scene development. The novel has that hook and pull quality of an episodic TV show. Although it's much more grimy, intimate and sexual than a weekly TV show. 

The characters and their reactions to the unreality around them is what makes this book for me: 

“It's messed up that the most rational explanation for what does go on on this ship is that a television show intrudes on our reality and warps it. But that's not even the worst thing.”

“Jesus Christ! if that's not the worst thing, what is?” 

“That as far as I can tell, it's not actually a very good show.” 

John Scalzi, the author of the book, has been a creative consultant on the Stargate: Universe franchise. It's no surprise that his book is sci-fi written for the fans by a fan. And the proof is in the script: witty, [im]probable and engaging; here's a man that knows his way around a starship deck—or a make believe deck, I should say.

Sorry I got to end this post, just remembered that I need to dispose of all my red shirts. There's too much plasma residue on 'em... 

Frankenstein: Delightful Vortex of Ire

A poet by the name of Lord Byron was curious about who out of his friends could write a better horror story, to everyone's surprise the winner turned out to be 18-year-old Mary Shelley.

It's been almost two centuries since Mary Shelley first anonymously published Frankenstein; and a good thing she did, because without the blazing trail of this Modern Prometheus, latter sci-fi offerings would suffer monstrously--pun intended.

Much to the likeness of Dracula by Bram Stoker, the story of Victor Frankenstein is written in a series of letters by explorer Captain Robert Walton, to his sister, Margaret Walton. The book is split into three parts. The beginning of the book introduces Captain Walton's narrative: a man who comes across the stranded and near dead, Victor Frankenstein in the North Pole region.

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After the rescue, Victor begins to recover from his wounds and gradually narrates to Captain Walton about his accursed creation, and why he has pursued it to the desolate lands of North Pole.

'You seek knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you.'

Written with imaginative and affluent flair, the story of Frankenstein and his monster, is as much about the folly of unchecked passion, as it is about the very nature of what it is to be human. To become much more than his predecessors, the studious Victor dedicates himself to the exuberant task of exploring the mysteries of creation through the use of Chemistry. The triumph of his labours: animated by the lightning, an eight feet tall deformity the (nameless) monster.

The exact steps of the monster's creation are left ambiguous, leaving the reader to come to his/her own conclusion. It is what happens after the lifeless matter gets activated that matters. Repulsed by the toils of his labour, Victor condemns the demon he has created, leaving the monster to wonder the lands confused and alone.

'It is with considerable difficulty that I remember the original era of my being: all the events of that period appear confused and indistinct. A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me; and it was a long time before I learned how to distinguish between operation of my various senses.'

With this statement the monster begins to recall his origins and gradual ascension to awareness. This part of the book is unique because it gives the reader a fresh perspective on perceptions of becoming mature through understanding. But unlike a loved human child, the monster's efforts to join the human race are spurned by hateful spite and violence. And this in turn poisons the well that is the beast's yearning for friendship.

What comes after is not too surprising; in his sad exile, the monster concocts and idea: he demands of his creator a concubine in the likes of his original creation. Despite promising the monster a companion, Victor does not create another being. This action enrages the monster prompting him to extract great vengeance onto Victor, tearing away from him all he holds dear and sacred.

Mary Shelly had a keen eye for detail, reverence of nature, and great interest in supernatural forces. With these three characteristics she has crafted an enduring tale of scientific passion, wondrous natural wonders flooded with panoramic Gothic imagery, and a touch of occult art. Frankenstein has inspired a whole genre of horror and sci-fi fiction writers and artists. Like a being born from a passionate mind, this novel is one of a kind.

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One of my favourite artistic visions of the famed monster--Darkstalkers rule! 

Isaac Asimov: Foundation Review

A twelve thousand year old Galactic Empire is about to end its grandiose rule. Few know of its slow and unavoidable disintegration; even fewer yet want to admit it. But one man chooses to begin another destiny for all humanity. 

Through the use of Psychohistory (a mix of sociology, psychology and economics), Hari Seldon sets in motion an audacious plan to save mankind from the upcoming dark ages of ignorance. He gathers the brightest minds in the galaxy, places them on planet Terminus, and tasks them with guiding future generations. Thus the Foundation is set.

While the Galactic Empire is still functional at the centre of the galaxy, the outer worlds are beginning to crumble. Technology becomes scarce and knowledge of its use slowly lost. But not on planet Terminus. Because of its limited nuclear power which aids Foundation's scholars, Terminus quickly becomes a prime target of territorial dispute amongst its neighbouring worlds.

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It will take you about 15 page turns to realize this sci-fi is a thought nimbus for your mind. There's plenty of scheming and planing in this space opera. There are complex and detailed worlds to explore, and inventive technologies to ponder and fear, all of which make Foundation such a delight to read. This intriguing galaxy of Isaac Asimov materializes in your mind through intricately woven storytelling.

The book is divided in five chronological parts. Each part follows key characters as they make decisions to (hopefully) steer the Foundation project towards its ultimate goal. The story in the first book progresses through a 200 year time-line, which is compacted with prolific content and savvy thoughtful narrative. Worlds and cultures collide in the battle of wits to control the remnants of potentially destructive technologies, first by religious dogma, then through trade economics. 

Asimov's prose is enjoyable as it is clever. The book is populated with level-headed scholars, opportunistic politicians, scheming vassals, pompous princes, and savvy merchant tradesman. If you were ever impressed with the imaginative worlds and technologies of Star Wars or Star Trek, you'll be in for a treat as Foundation novels are filled with grand ideas that have appeared in countless sci-fi flicks and books time and time again. 

The book was first published in 1951, but it's easy to deduct why it has been hailed as a masterwork. The human drama, the complex political plays, the instantly likable characters all make for a mesmerizing read. Do keep in mind that Foundation is only the first part of a seven novel series. And each novel chronicles different characters and events. If you're going to delve into this story you better be prepared to read the rest. After all, a galactic tale of this magnitude cannot be contained within mere 300 pages.