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Leo@Fergusrules.Com: A Novel
Leonora (Leo) is an Italian Asian American teen-ager with a rotten attitude and a genius I.Q. Thrown out of twelve schools and fluent in as many languages, she's sent to live with her grandmother in the Philippines, where she spends all her time in a computer environment called Apeiron - a parasitic virtual reality program which drove its mad creator to dive headlong into a gorge. Only in Apeiron can Leo shed the awkward body of an adolescent girl and emerge in the persona of Fergus, the warrior; only in Apeiron can she hobnob with Socrates and John Lennon. But one day the only boy she's ever liked disappears, and Leo, in a quest to rescue him, finds herself lured into the program's computer generated hell. A post-modern tilt at Alice in Wonderland , a computer-age Huckleberry Finn, leo@fergusrules.com is above all the story of a young woman's search for the lost world of her ancestors in a society in which technology has replaced community.
Arne Tangherlini received his A.B. in History and Literature from Harvard and his M.A. from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. He was a teacher for many years both in the Philippines and the United States and the co-author of Smart How Academic Talents are Nurtured and Developed in America.
" Leo @ fergusrulesrules.com is a fantastical coming of age story about a brainy, racially mixed teenage girl…who spends much of her spare time in her bedroom, jacked into a cyber wonderland called Apeiron. This computer-generated 3-D world is a timeless landscape, home to a historical line-up of digitally re-created dignitaries, such as Confucius, Julius Caesar and Napoleon… She also encounters relatives and ancestors, including her great aunt, who as a young woman survives being shot by American soldiers in the Philippine American War. Other dangers include pterodactyls with giant Barbie-doll bodies that dump guano and screech, 'Nike, Guess, Benetton, Levi's! Tommy, Tommy, Tommy-boy!" and a child-steamrollering Zamboni that is operated by gnomelike people and has a control room guarded by a three-headed dog. Needless to say, Leo is a trip…a 21st century homage to the works of Argentine poet and author Jorge Luis Borges
Arne Tangherlini received his A.B. in History and Literature from Harvard and his M.A. from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. He was a teacher for many years both in the Philippines and the United States and the co-author of Smart How Academic Talents are Nurtured and Developed in America.
" Leo @ fergusrulesrules.com is a fantastical coming of age story about a brainy, racially mixed teenage girl…who spends much of her spare time in her bedroom, jacked into a cyber wonderland called Apeiron. This computer-generated 3-D world is a timeless landscape, home to a historical line-up of digitally re-created dignitaries, such as Confucius, Julius Caesar and Napoleon… She also encounters relatives and ancestors, including her great aunt, who as a young woman survives being shot by American soldiers in the Philippine American War. Other dangers include pterodactyls with giant Barbie-doll bodies that dump guano and screech, 'Nike, Guess, Benetton, Levi's! Tommy, Tommy, Tommy-boy!" and a child-steamrollering Zamboni that is operated by gnomelike people and has a control room guarded by a three-headed dog. Needless to say, Leo is a trip…a 21st century homage to the works of Argentine poet and author Jorge Luis Borges
215 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
1 person is currently reading
65 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 16, 2025
While intriguing overall, I think this book suffers from being a mile wide and an inch deep - as soon as you catch your bearings you're whisked away to something drastically different. However, I can still appreciate the journey we take through the narrator's experiences as she falls deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole.
April 10, 2016
Virtual reality Philippine dream-logic Alice in Wonderland
April 6, 2021
A Filipina neuromancer, a cyber punk ode to the odyssey, a heart breaking, confusing whirlwind of beautiful language and horrifying, repulsive imagery.
The book is all plot but no structure. It’s got a soul and bones and no flesh. I’m trying not to sound pretentious but it’s impossible to review and describe without poetry.
This book IS poetry.
It’s home and it’s alien and it’s frickin beautiful and weird and at the end, I think you’re supposed to relish the confusion.
One part Thomas Pynchon, another William Gibson, and it’s all a love letter to third culture pinoy teenager-dom.
Read it and weep.
The book is all plot but no structure. It’s got a soul and bones and no flesh. I’m trying not to sound pretentious but it’s impossible to review and describe without poetry.
This book IS poetry.
It’s home and it’s alien and it’s frickin beautiful and weird and at the end, I think you’re supposed to relish the confusion.
One part Thomas Pynchon, another William Gibson, and it’s all a love letter to third culture pinoy teenager-dom.
Read it and weep.
July 17, 2018
I remember reading this as a young adult, and at some point I donated it to the library, or Goodwill - something. I started remembering phrases from it recently, and could not find it ANYWHERE when I tried to google what I remembered of it. I finally found it, and it definitely lived up to my memories. A strange-in-a-good-way novel with a twist at the end.
December 7, 2023
Uncontrolled chaos, the best kind of nonsense
November 28, 2024
Ready Player One if it was Alice in Wonderland and also kinda bad; this book would be a killer movie but idk if it translates in this medium
January 11, 2025
the children yearn for MMORPGs on acid
August 6, 2024
I got this book for free, attracted to the aesthetic of the cover. I really wasn’t sure what to expect, besides a quote on the front cover calling it “Alice in Cyberland.” It has been a while since I read a book without having any sense of it before.
This book led me on quite a journey. It was fast-paced and pure world-building, even though it was a world mostly of smoke and mirrors. It was surely entertaining, and even funny at times. I enjoyed the y2k sense of computer mysticism, but I don’t think I really got all that much out of it.
It was fun, and it’s a solid book. It has a good beginning, an exciting middle, and a twist end that *almost* makes you want to re-read the book.
This book led me on quite a journey. It was fast-paced and pure world-building, even though it was a world mostly of smoke and mirrors. It was surely entertaining, and even funny at times. I enjoyed the y2k sense of computer mysticism, but I don’t think I really got all that much out of it.
It was fun, and it’s a solid book. It has a good beginning, an exciting middle, and a twist end that *almost* makes you want to re-read the book.
March 22, 2008
One of my absolute favorites, hands down. Think alice in wonderland, tutored by Joseph Campbell, with an addiction for parasitic virtual games in cyberspace. Deals with issues of dislocation, disintegration, and the issues of identity in relation to our emerging online environments. I would daringly call this essential reading for the online gamer, literary elites, and the Asian-American, though the writer is not (his wife is filipino, c'mon). Quick note: The author committed suicide 2 weeks prior to this books publication.
April 5, 2011
I enjoyed the imagery in the book, but I generally didn't follow it very well. Perhaps my lack of video gaming as well as lack of role playing type experiences explain this. Just not my type of thing.
April 24, 2015
Although I did enjoy this book - particularly the last five or so chapters - I did find it a bit hard to follow at certain points. Maybe if I had been paying more attention, I would have picked up on more of this intensely packed and clever novel.
April 25, 2009
probably the weirdest book i ever read. i hated it.
May 9, 2012
Book #36 for 2012: Head-trip. It's like Dorothy or Alice on acid. I did not know what hit me.
October 23, 2009
Hated it at the end, but looking back, it was extremely well written. Really really good.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews