From: NoSpaceSpamGirl@subhuman.net
"alias" wrote in message
news:613c1c.om2.ln@127.0.0.1...
> In article , SpaceGirl
wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> >
> > He really has lost his way... it seems that cyberpunk writers have a
very
> > short half-life in which they produce interesting work.
>
> i'd agree with this if we could edit it to read "CP writers have a short
> half-life" .. which they do. but i don't think Mr. G has been a CP
> writer in a long time.. the labels superglued to him.. no shaking it
> loose.. but that does not mean the guy has to play along ; )
I really do need an editor :)
>
> IMO Gibsons
> > successor should have been Neal Stephenson, and perhaps for a while he
was.
>
> hmm.. well i'm not a fan of NS's .. i liked "Zodiac" and there was a
> good book in Snow Crash just begging for a brutal editor to cut it
> free.. unfortunately i think they left too many of those extra pages in
> and smothered the thing..
Yes, I think you are right - the books are overlong; while I'm able to
forgive a degree of nerdy obsession (this *is* cyberpunk after all) there
are portions of Snow Crash that could have been compressed down into a few
pages. Did we really need all that history on Babylonian languages?
Thankfully Stephensons' style overcame leaden content :)
> but .. NS and Mr. G are at opposite poles really.. Gibsons prose is
> worth reading regardless of substance.. thats remarkable to me. the
> style alone is substance! i'm always in awe of that when i read him..
yes, but even that is hit and miss. As his works matured that have started
to seem more like parodies of themselves. There's a degree of "gritty
realism" which IMO is missing. Or... perhaps I matured? God help me.
> i think people forget that this isn't just a means to communicate..
of course. Cyberpunk is "style over content", yes? It's nice when there's a
bit of both.
> a talented author makes the means of communication beautiful in and of
> itself. NS can't do that.. or hasn't done it yet .. or maybe doesn't
> value it and has no interest .. i don't know. but these 2 aren't in the
> same league .. they can't be.. thier not playing the same sport.
I disagree - or perhaps it's lost in the weight of his stories. The opening
pages of Snow Crash are beautiful.
> > But his books are loosing coherance and "style". I always through style
was
> > a defining factor of CP.
>
> define "style" ; ) .. when i say "style" i usually mean the prose
> style.. everyone has a distinctive one.. (ok.. everyone with an inkling
> of talent) .. but i think u mean fashion? i'll agree that CP has a
> traditional "style" in that sense.. and a traditional look.. and yes, NS
> doesn't seem to be a big fan of it. he's more of a straight up SF
> writer IMO.
While NS has an undeniable different *style*, he is still *poetic* in
places. It's not as "hip" as Gibson perhaps, but I think this actually
results in novels which are somewhat more timeless. What was hip in the 80s
and 90s isn't any more.
>
> >Anyway, one author who still seem to managed a grip
> > on the genre (IMO) is JC Grimwood. His books are getting better and
better.
> >
>
> never heard of him.. but i'll put it on the list.
>
> ..
> alias
Jon Courtenay Grimwood. His "Arabesk" series of books are thrillers with
heavy cyberpunk overtones. Set in the near future, but in an alternate world
where the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire did not fall. It's all sort of
superheated, understated high-tech, politics and murder. Utterly fantastic
stuff, and fairly... visceral in places :) Three books in the series, but
they are all self-contained. Try "Pashazade" as a taster.
xM
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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