Grand Assault's Books > Book reviews by Grand Assault

Not for prophet

Posted : 3 months, 1 week ago on 13 August 2009 02:34 (A review of The Holy Bible: King James Version)

I have to say I was a little disappointed by The Bible. I've seen many reviewers call it 'life changing' and promise that it contains profound wisdom and divine knowledge, as well as it being 'the best selling book of all time', but I wouldn't go as far with my praise. The Bible is comprised of two shorter stories with one recurring character who appears regularly to tell the other characters how badly they're messing up.

It starts off with some Sci-fi elements, as the character 'God' creates the universe within a week and then stuffs it full of great and wonderful things. I think it's worth noting that God is also the author of this book, which I thought reeked of egotism, but I let it slide. We're then introduced to two other characters, a man and a woman, who don't get much in the way of a back story. The only thing we know about them is that they just appeared one day and that they were created so utterly stupid that they thought they could hide from an all-knowing and all-seeing God after siding with his arch nemesis, a talking snake.

This God guy punishes them in a fair and measured way for their ignorance - by condemning the rest of their race to misery, sin and injustice for the rest of time. Meanwhile, his arch nemesis the snake got away with just a few legs lopped off. When you start off with such a stupid pair of people it's obvious that inbreeding their genes is only going to make them worse, so after all of the incest and murder that their children get up too, God wipes the slate clean and kills off the entire human race, save for one guy in a boat.

It all goes a bit quiet after that as God takes a step back, maybe feeling a bit guilty after his extermination of an entire planet. Then a new bearded hero arises in the form of Moses and God decides to tone down his rage, focusing instead on being a racist. After picking favourites and plaguing the Egyptians for an undisclosed amount of time, God decides to send his son down amongst the people to sort them out once and for all. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

God's son is called Jesus (probably to be played by Gerard Butler in a film adaptation), but Jesus is also God and a ghost too! The only real Godly characteristics Jesus has from the outset is his killer beard and knack for reeling off a wicked anecdote. You might think God being on Earth would be greeted with harmony and rejoice, but instead the reaction of the people is pretty far-fetched as they choose to spurn and persecute the guy, despite him trying to impress them with free alcohol and feeding 5000 festival goers with one fish.

Eventually the people that God created get a bit sick and tired of him being around, showing off and telling the same old stories, so they decide to crucify him. Jesus is double-crossed by Judas, one of his right-hand men. Judas feels pretty bad about selling out his friend so he commits suicide, only to return as Dracula in the sequel 2000 years later. Like every good superhero, Jesus has a crisis of confidence and temporarily loses his powers, but it couldn't have come at a worse time as he is brutally tortured and murdered by Jews and Romans. Luckily he reacquires them in time to reincarnate from the dead and float back up to Heaven, suggesting that the all-powerful God couldn't even survive for a few years on Earth, unlike the rest of us mere mortals!

The story was littered with fantastical events and a fair few plot holes, whilst the Deus Ex Machina twist was used far too often. The characters were introduced at random and given no back story, and they spoke in a language that was so difficult to understand that even Shakespeare would have to scratch his head. There were some legends along the way, like Samson and Jesus' bodyguard, Peter, but most of the other humans were just flood fodder, or there to be tortured to prove a point.

It combines many themes and genres, from science-fiction, homophobia, infanticide, incest, racism, genocide and war to apocalyptic survival, horror and ultra-violence. Overall, most of the characters are too stupid to feel any connection with, I mean - I wouldn't go around nailing God to a cross, and my wife would be out on the street if she was pregnant and a 'virgin'. But it's probably worth a read for the sheer amount of carnage and violence contained within its pages.

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Woken Furies

Posted : 4 months ago on 20 July 2009 06:59 (A review of Woken Furies (Gollancz S.F.))

Richard Morgan brings his Kovacs trilogy to a close with Woken Furies, the final insight into the adventures of Takeshi Kovacs. Despite the slight possibility of hope offered by the ending of Broken Angels, Kovacs finds himself again operating on the wrong side of the law as a petty criminal. Back on his home planet of Harlan’s World, Kovacs has not led an easy life despite his financially rewarding exploits on Sanction IV. The anti-hero begins Woken Furies sleeved in a damaged synthetic body and we catch up with him midway through executing a harrowing personal vendetta.

I’d always assumed that Woken Furies would be the last of the Kovacs novels, and according to Morgan’s website, this is a book that should be ‘savoured as it goes down‘. It is the longest book of the three and I did my best to luxuriate in the story, instead of devouring the text at the rapid pace that Morgan’s writing style makes it so easy to do. I definitely did my best at savouring it, knowing that I’d have to go through the process of finding a new author to revere once I was done.

Occurring one-hundred years after the events of Altered Carbon, Kovacs is funding a murderous rampage against the New Revelation religious sect by selling the stacks of slaughtered priests to an old acquaintance. It’s hardly an economical living, but his quest for revenge is purely personal. During his attempt to acquire a new sleeve, he encounters and saves a girl, Sylvie, from being assaulted by religious zealots. In return for his help she offers him a place to stay alongside her mercenary colleagues. Despite the scarcity of land on Harlan’s World, an entire continent remains uninhabitable thanks to rampaging military machines left over from a conflict that ended many years ago. Sylvie and her mercenaries are commissioned to deactivate these robots by the government on Harlan’s world and Kovacs soon finds himself out in the dangerous Uncleared zone offering a helping hand.

During this excursion, Sylvie blacks out and reawakens as the long-dead, universally revered revolutionary leader, Quellcrist Falconer. Falconer’s quotes pervade all three of Morgan’s books, she is a much studied and controversial character, responsible for a previous uprising on Harlan’s World. By the time of her entrance, Kovacs already finds himself on the wrong side of the church, the yakuza and worst of all – the first family on Harlan’s World. Although fearless in the face of most would-be assassins, the Harlan’s have employed a much more able procurer of justice – A younger copy of Takeshi Kovacs himself.

After two stories of Kovacs slaughtering his way through peerless opposition, Woken Furies sees him pitted against an opponent who genuinely riles him – himself. Reading through the book you pick up on slight inferences that Kovacs might be losing some of his Envoy skills, or becoming rusty with his God-like powers. He questions whether he’ll be able to defeat his younger self and strives to be as unpredictable in his plans and movements as possible so as not to be tracked down. This genuine villain threat combined with the fact that this is the final book of the trilogy, adds an extra sense of foreboding to the reading experience.

Kovacs’ strained relationship with the apparent Quellcrist Falconer is another intriguing element of Woken Furies, given the stories and quotes of her that he has regurgitated throughout previous books. With his obvious contempt for authority figures and her desire to overthrow the ruling class on Harlan’s World, you would expect the violence obsessed ex-Envoy to have established a more friendly affiliation with the long dead revolutionist. Instead, Kovacs is more concerned with the Sylvie personality that has been overridden by Falconer.

The Harlan’s World setting also allows for some probing into Kovacs’ past in the sprawling cityscapes and we are exposed to a whole new world for Morgan to build. One peculiar quirk of Harlan’s World is the fact that centuries old Martian platforms orbit the planet and destroy anything that flies above a certain altitude. These ‘orbitals’ shape the persona of Harlan’s World, inciting an innate fear of heights in most of the population and were alluded to back in Altered Carbon. They are involved in an interesting plot twist toward the end of the book and contain a raw power that might just be enough to bring the omnipotent Harlan family to their knees.

As Kovacs’ last outing, the finale is particularly ambiguous, easily offering enough of a possibility for a fourth book to be written (however unlikely), but more importantly, enough for us to generate our own ideas of where the anti-hero goes from here. There were instances of sheer genius in Woken Furies that left me shaking my head in amazement, it makes me wonder just how easy Morgan must find it to write these stories. He is full of eyebrow-raising marvel and with all of these extra pages, he manages to cram more of it in. I guess it’s a sign of a great writer that I was tinged with sadness once I’d read the last page – not because of the story itself, but rather that I haven’t got anymore Kovacs to rabidly consume with my next read.

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If it aint broke...

Posted : 4 months ago on 20 July 2009 06:57 (A review of Broken Angels)

Takeshi Kovacs returns in Richard Morgan’s second sci-fi outing. Taking place thirty years after the events on Earth in Altered Carbon, Kovacs is still fighting the good fight and having a terrible time of it. Previously, Kovacs was employed as a private investigator and Altered Carbon read like a solid piece of noir detective fiction, but now he’s putting his talents to use as a soldier in a bloody corporate war on the planet Sanction IV. As a result, Broken Angels reads much more like a survivalist war piece.

Broken Angels starts off at a much more modest pace than Altered Carbon, though Kovacs is still feeling the pain. This time, the opening pages tell of him regaining consciousness aboard a medical ship, suffering from serious explosion wounds. It fast transpires that Kovacs’ unit was wiped out during a failed ground campaign. Kovacs is fighting for Carrera’s Wedge, a mercenary army sworn in to fight Joshua Kemp and his rebellious anti-government army.

Once again, Kovacs’ status as an ex-Envoy soldier guarantees him importance amongst the ranks of the Wedge. Sleeved in a specialised combat-ready body, he is approached by a pilot who asks for his assistance in acquiring a Martian artifact discovered just before the outbreak of war. The artifact, located in the middle of a war zone, is alleged to be a portal that leads to a specific location in the infinity of space that houses an abandoned Martian starship. Kovacs agrees, and after springing the head archaeologist of the original expedition from political prison, he contrives to enlist the support of one of the major corporations involved in funding the war on Sanction IV.

Matthias Hand, an exec for the Mandrake Corp. sees the incentive for infinite profit and agrees to aid Kovacs with financial backing. He oversees the recruitment of a team of soldiers who have already died in the ongoing fighting to form a tactical protection unit, whilst secretly leaking erroneous information that results in the expedition site suffering a nuclear bomb attack to clear it of opposing forces. The expedition begins, with the team having to struggle against the effects of nuclear fallout and the radiation sickness that begins to ravage their bodies.

I rate Altered Carbon as ‘un-putdownable’ because of its constant action or intrigue. I must admit that I didn’t feel the same about Broken Angels during the beginning of the story. It was a much slower burner than its predecessor. However, once the expedition had begun, Morgan’s ingenious ideas erupt into life and the inspiration that litters his work and separates him from more average science fiction writers emerges with a vengeance. Kovacs and his team must pit their wits against a possible saboteur amidst the group, a collection of rapidly evolving and deadly nanobes, in-fighting, mistrust and of course the ever present desperation of trying to finish the job before radiation melts skin from bone.

Once the gate is open, the action continues to evolve. The starship awaits in all of its gigantic alien glory and aboard its decks the team attempt to comprehend their findings amidst Martian skeletons and centuries old automated machinery. The finale of the book is extraordinary and it was during the final third of Broken Angels that I realised that I was in love with the entire Kovacs universe. The protagonist himself continues to rage at all authority, to push all those around him to breaking point. At times he appears less as a human being and more as an indestructible force of nature. His abilities and amorality make him a terrifying individual, but one that never fails to interest the reader.

The ending once again leaves Kovacs in a state of limbo. His future completely unsecured and his personal happiness definitely unfulfilled, you can’t help but wonder what will happen next for the ultimate superhuman.

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Altered Carbon

Posted : 7 months, 2 weeks ago on 7 April 2009 09:40 (A review of Altered Carbon (SF) (Gollancz S.F.))

Proving once again that judging a book by its cover almost always pays off, I picked up Altered Carbon for no other reason than the intriguing Da Vinci-esque anatomical sketch adorning the front page. Interestingly, I’ve never seen this version of artwork in any other bookshop, leading me to wonder whether it has been discontinued altogether, which is a crying shame. Armed with my copy of Richard Morgan’s first published tome, I meandered to the cash desk only to have to fend off excited advances from the geeky female attendant who seemed determined to jump my bones, just because I was an Altered Carbon fan. Things were looking promising.

Altered Carbon is a piece of hard-boiled detective fiction, set on a future Earth, where important technological advances have fashioned a whole new way of existence for the human race. To say the book hits the ground running is an understatement. You’re thrown immediately into the action as the principal protagonist - Takeshi Kovacs - and his girlfriend are slaughtered by rampant commandos amidst the opening pages. I have to admit, I haven’t read many books that begin by killing off the lead character in the prologue, but it certainly made an impact…

Luckily, there are now two types of death. Mankind has achieved the impossible by digitising the human ’soul’. A person’s memories, experiences, abilities and personality traits are all saved automatically onto a ‘cortical stack’ - implanted deep in the spinal column at the back of the neck at birth - which can then be uploaded into another body (or ’sleeve’) or stored indefinitely. Real Death can only be inflicted by destroying the stack, otherwise the human conscious can simply be downloaded again into a new sleeve to fight another day. Takeshi’s death was purely superficial and upon awaking again, he finds himself on Earth, millions of miles from his home planet and in a non-descript, middle aged sleeve.

He has been commissioned to help an unpopular, yet extremely wealthy suicide victim who is convinced he was actually murdered. Those with extreme wealth can not only afford the extravagant cost of re-sleeving, but also keep reserve clones of themselves, as well as back-up stacks, making them seemingly invincible. No longer restricted by the ageing process of the human body, the wealthy now seek to extend their lifespans ad infinitum, earning them the nickname of Meths - of Methuselahs.

Kovacs is sought after because of his status as an Ex-Envoy. With the human race now spread across the galaxy, the UN mandate expanded exponentially and a ‘Protectorate’ was formed. The ultimate tool in the Protectorate arsenal is the Envoy shock troops. Designed to beam across the universe into dormant sleeves, and then engage in either stealthy or all-out warfare, the Envoys are the ultimate peacekeeping soldiers. Each individual is intensely trained in combat, self-control, subterfuge and slaughter. Kovacs knows how to look after himself due to his relentless mental training.

Some of his experiences with the Envoys are alluded to as the story unfolds, as well as the reasons for him quitting the unit. His flashbacks and psychological delusions were some of my favourite parts of the book. In times of great distress he speaks with his dead friend Jimmy de Soto who seems to help him overcome incredible odds, or spark him back into life after taking a thorough beating. Such spectres of his imagination give you an idea of how Kovacs manages to maintain his sanity against the brunt of such clinical and inhumane Envoy conditioning. His ability to harness and channel his anger into effective energy is devastating, saves his life on numerous occasions and presumably made him such an effective candidate for Envoy training in the first place.

The future universe created by Morgan is packed with intelligent ideas and a superb Martian mythology side story. I loved reading about humanities interaction with an alien species and how that, combined with re-sleeving technology almost eradicated organised religions. The present state of Earth, and humanity’s extrasolar existence is elaborated on in mere snippets as the story progresses, and as a result, you’re never overwhelmed with information or swamped with the cyber-jargon that seems to be a mainstay of most sci-fi novels. For Kovacs, Earth itself is an alien-world and so he acclimatises to his new surroundings with the same hesitancy as we do as a reader. Morgan also overflows with ideas of how re-sleeving can be abused, how human flesh is now a commodity to be bought and traded and generally how all of the issues that plague humanity today are still firmly unchanged in this futuristic universe. The abuse of the poor by the rich is simply taken to whole new levels of depravity and the fear of an overwhelming military might still exists in order to frighten the human race into obedience.

Along with the outstanding world-building, the characterisation is a real strong point for Altered Carbon. Kovacs is a demi-god of a protagonist who you never tire of reading about. He is such a ruthless and effective murderer that you begin to believe that violence is like an addictive drug for him. Yet despite his borderline psychosis, he is still troubled by very human emotions, such as love. Morgan’s writing style is extremely easy to digest. I never once found myself lost within the text and even the combat scenes were described with crystal clarity. Short, engaging chapters resulted in me reading much more of the book in single sittings than I’d intended.

Altered Carbon is an outstanding sci-fi novel that begins an engaging Takeshi Kovacs trilogy, leading into Broken Angels and ending with Woken Furies. I think it was actually half way through the second book that I realised I was in love with the world that Morgan had created. I found myself imagining what life would be like in this futuristic dystopia and was constantly over awed with the authors brilliant imagination. Altered Carbon became an instant favourite and I’d recommend its furious-paced futuristic action to any science fiction fan.


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In the Zone

Posted : 8 months, 2 weeks ago on 8 March 2009 02:07 (A review of Roadside Picnic (S.F. Masterworks))

Although only a short story, this science-fiction novel has served as the inspiration for both Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film Stalker as well as the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. PC game and its follow-ups. Published in 1971, the Strugatsky brothers (Arkady and Boris) tell of a bizarre and metaphysical area of land known as The Zone, and detail how it impacts on the lives of the local residents who live nearby. Although widely renowned in Russia for their science-fiction writing, Roadside Picnic remains their single most successful work ever to be translated into English.

Aliens have visited Earth, and, with very little warning or explanation they promptly left soon afterwards. This period of time is known as The Visitation amongst Earth’s now bewildered and speculative populace. In their wake the Aliens have left all manner of incomprehensible technologies and advanced equipment, seemingly discarded haphazardly by the visiting race. The authorities were quick to fence off The Zones, both because of the tremendous dangers they now possess and to preserve the area for scientific research. The story begins several years after the visitation and describes the emergence of a subculture of men who have become willing to risk their lives in order to scavenge strange artefacts from The Zone and sell them for money on the black market. These men are Stalkers.

The novel’s principal protagonist is Redrick Schuart, a veteran of the Zone. We first see him being employed as a laboratory technician who willingly leads an excursion of other scientists into the restricted area. This is the only time he operates within the confines of the law with regard to trips into the Zone an here we are introduced to his innate survival instincts and mannerisms that have served to keep him alive for so long. Infinitely cautious and painstakingly accurate, he uses his knowledge to scout out and avoid the creeping deaths that populate the alien wasteland. The Zone brings danger principally in the form of anomalies. Reading about the various unexplainable death-traps that are housed in the book was the absolute highlight; the Strugatsky brothers have built a world that you cannot ever get bored of reading about, thanks to the consistently interesting quirks lingering within it.

Such anomalies that the Stalkers must contend with include areas of intense gravitational pull, which have the potential to crush human beings. There is a jelly-like substance which can melt bone effortlessly through skin. Wild fire traps, concentrated lightning and deadly whirlwinds all defy every established human law of science and threaten anyone within radius of their invisible danger with certain death. The goal for any trespasser is the artefacts still scattered across the Zone. Once a Stalker manages to circumvent the armed border guards and survive against the lottery of anomalies, he might just make it out with an alien technology novel enough to sell for his troubles. Like the anomalies, the artefacts induce just as much speculation as to their purpose from both the fictional scientific community and the reader themselves.

As the book progresses, scientists begin to make the smallest of breakthroughs, utilising technology harvested from the Zone for their own end. The story splits over a number of years which functions to show some of the long term effects of the Visitation. As well as the physical dangers and wonders contained within The Zone, countless other unexplainable phenomenon occur. For example, it is known that any Stalker who conceives a child will be cursed with a mutated newborn as a result. Red is no exception, with his own child earning the nickname of ‘Monkey’ thanks to the fur covering her entire body. Furthermore, anyone who emigrates away from The Zone is struck with tremendous misfortune or uncontrollable cursed powers. Wherever they go, natural disasters follow in a non-coincidental fashion, to the extent that emigration away from the zones is eventually outlawed.

The title of the book comes from an ingenious metaphor as to the reasoning behind The Visitation. While many human-centric theorists attribute the visit as a forewarning or even a gift to humanity by superior intellects in the universe, a less egotistical doctor puts forward the notion that the alien visit was nothing more than a ‘roadside picnic’ for an intergalactic race. Much like humans would pull over in a forest, spend a rowdy night around a camp-fire and then leaving the next day with all of their forgotten and discarded belongings littering the area, the aliens have done the same thing, with humans acting as the wild animals in the forest, emerging after the chaos to see the remarkable left-overs of such a trivial event.

As the years accelerate in the book, we are told contrasting stories about the fate of the Zone. With one man believing that Stalkers have all but died out and artefact’s remaining in the Zone run dry, his superior insists that the black market trade is as rampant as ever. Red himself finds that his own child is becoming increasingly less human and reluctantly decides, after an unwelcome meeting with a former Stalker, to enter The Zone once more in search of its most valued treasure - the golden sphere. Seemingly with the power to grant the inner-most wish of anyone who visits it, Red embarks on his final journey in the Zone.

Throughout the novel the occurrences in, around and beyond the Zone never cease to amaze you as a reader. The protagonist, Red, is fiercely loyal, a firebrand in every way. The turmoils that he subjects both himself and his family too often make you wonder whether death would be a more humane option for him as opposed to his continued trips into The Zone. I wouldn’t have complained if this book was at least twice as long.

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The Road review

Posted : 1 year, 7 months ago on 3 April 2008 04:49 (A review of The Road)

The Road follows one man and his son as they travel across post-apocalyptic America in search of warmer climes after humanity has sealed its own fate with an undescribed cataclysmic event. The towns and cities of old have been burned to the ground and all foliage has met a similar end as they are surrounded by a world of grey misery as they make their way along old highways scavaging for tinned foods and dodging lawless cannibals who will kill and eat anything in order to survive.

Despite the settings, the storytelling is very cyclic in nature, with the boy and his dad doing the same thing day after day, and the descriptions of building a fire, walking all day, eating, making a camp and building another fire are quite tedious after a while as you'd imagine. What starts as an extremely bleak and scene-setting section of prose becomes repetitive and mundane, which is obviously supposed to represent the blandness of human life on earth in this troubled times, but it makes for dull reading. Furthermore, the style of writing leaves little or no punctuation in sentences, there are no chapter breaks, the lines and sentences are extremely short and the dialogue almost irrelevant.

Aside from these factors, it's still a mildly entertaining story and the idiosyncrasies of their journey (eg, finding a train, another human being etc) are extremely entertaining despite their modern day inanity, because the rest of the story is so repetitive. Because of the style of writing though, I wouldn't recommend this to any of my friends.

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Dance, Dance, Dance review

Posted : 2 years, 2 months ago on 7 September 2007 04:32 (A review of Dance, Dance, Dance)

Another amazing piece of fantastical fiction from Haruki Murakami. He writes books in such a manner that keeps you constantly interested. To coin a cliche, this book really is difficult to put down. Murakami's protagonist is someone I definitely sympathised with. A man after my own heart, I was instantly drawn to him, he's just a classic every-man that is incredibly charismatic yet amazingly ordinary.

The story wouldn't make much sense to review here, you really have to read it. It's enthralling, the man is an amazing wordsmith.

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Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World review

Posted : 2 years, 3 months ago on 12 August 2007 04:24 (A review of Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World)

I picked this up on the recommendation of a friend and didn't know quite what to expect. I glossed over the blurb on the back and saw the words 'detective story' and was instantly sold. The book is written in a manner that has alternate chapters telling two seemingly unrelated stories.

Hard Boiled wonderland doesn't really take the form of a detective story at all, though there is plenty of mystery involved. It follows a yuppie kind of fellow employed by the 'System' - a ubiquitous company which deals in data protection. His latest client, an eccentric professor, seems to have strange connections to the System and eventually the life of the protagonist is changed forever when he agrees to process data from the professors latest experiments.

The end of the world story involves a town of the same name, seemingly inescapable and enclosed by a huge impenetrable wall and dense forest. The unnamed protagonist in this story struggles to come to terms with his surroundings as he learns the way of the new village.

The story is well written containing many references to modern pop-culture, though it isn't just an excuse to drop in a name here or there. The story is genuinely interesting and extremely dry in places. I found the Hard boiled story much more interesting at first, the character here being a man much after my own heart. Well recommended.

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Moby-Dick or, The Whale review

Posted : 2 years, 9 months ago on 11 February 2007 07:49 (A review of Moby-Dick or, The Whale)

The classic whaling tale.

Everybody knows how the storyline goes, but few know of how delightful the book actually is to read. I picked this up when going through a phase of loving anything nautical and I felt I owed it to myself to read a real classic. I'm glad I did, because at the very least I felt a great feeling of accomplishment once I was finished. I was somewhat shocked to see just how comical and well written this book was. I was engrossed from start to finish. As a warning I'd highlight the fact that there remains an abriged and unabridged version of the story and I ploughed through the latter, which means there were a lot of miscellaneous chapters regarding what can only be described as the authors own feelings on whales, their taxonomy and his feelings on hunting. I would recommend the abridged version to anyone who just wants to get on with the ripping good story!

The notorious storyline and the characters were definitely enjoyable and entertaining, and I love books like this which open your eyes to the source of many popular culture references, song lyrics, names etc. It also succeeded in making me sympathise with one of the most noble of professions, despite the negative connotations that whaling caries today.

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Neuromancer review

Posted : 2 years, 9 months ago on 5 February 2007 06:19 (A review of Neuromancer)

One of the most fascinating and engrossing books I've ever read and easily the most interesting of the 'sprawl' trilogy.

The society which he manages to create is just truly marvellous and I can just appreciate the kind of world in which the stories take place. The bionic body modifications and the concepts of cyperspace, microsofts and self-aware AI's just paint such magnificent visions of the future that I just wish I was born about 10 generations down the line!

His ideas have spawned an entire subculture and after reading this, you can see where so many other modern novels, films and games have 'collected' their inspiration from.

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