Solip System

Hardwired #1.5

by Walter Jon Williams

begins shortly before the ending of Hardwired and continues beyond that point. In the main character is the computer personality Reno (a minor character in Hardwired). The author intended that this book would provide a link between Hardwired and Voice of the Whirlwind.

Genres: Cyberpunk, Science Fiction, Fiction, Adventure

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1989

About the author

Walter Jon Williams has published twenty novels and short fiction collections. Most are science fiction or fantasy -Hardwired, Voice of the Whirlwind, Aristoi, Metropolitan, City on Fire to name just a few - a few are historical adventures, and the most recent, The Rift, is a disaster novel in which "I just basically pound a part of the planet down to bedrock." And that's just the opening chapters. Walter holds a fourth-degree black belt in Kenpo Karate, and also enjoys sailing and scuba diving. He lives in New Mexico with his wife, Kathy Hedges.

Reviews

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This whirlwind of a little story details the fate of the orbital corps at the hands of Reno, who had just managed to infiltrate the body of the chairman of Tempel corp at the end of Hardwired, filling in the details of the ensuing conflict that shaped the 100 year history of the Earth-oribtals relationship until the time of the ostensible "sequel", Voice of the Whirlwind. Well worth a read for fans of the series.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solip:System is an excellent expansion/novella/follow-up to Hardwired.

I re-read Hardwired immediately before starting Solip:system, which was the right choice. Solip:system starts immediately after the events of Hardwired.

You will only like Solip:System if you liked Hardwired (which I did). Hardwired is an entirely Earth-based novel, which explores the basic tenets of Cyberpunk. Solip:system takes the next steps, and is entirely focused on the Orbitals. Solip goes into significantly more depth on the Orbitals, whom are more mysterious in Hardwired.

Aside from the Orbitals, the major technological concept that Solip tackles are those of mind-storage (in microchip/crystal), duplication, and take-over. These are not novel concepts (and probably weren't at the time of writing either), but they are done well.

The novella does contain some gross-factor; in the handling of Roon's perverted relationship with his 'niece'. If you haven't read Hardwired or have an understanding of the characters, you might find this disgusting/unnecessary... I viewed it more as an exploration of the perverted mind of the sort of sociopath you might expect to attempt world domination.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solip:System is a novella set between Hardwired and Voice of the Whirlwind, featuring disembodied consciousness Reno in a plot to bring down the Orbitals, using the Black Room personality hijacking software. It's very much a triumph of style over substance, cool and slick and bleakly self-destructive. We never really have a chance to get to know Reno or what he wants, beyond his death wish. There's no sense of risk in the plot, no real sense of danger of exposure. I read this as a bridge, and it seems to have worked well enough, but I can't recommend it as anything much above average.

[J.j. Metsavana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Otsene järgi siis "Hardwiredile", erinevalt tavapärasest ulmekirjanduses tuttavast skeemist ei esinda selles maailmas orbitaal-linnad teps mitte progresiivsemat poolt inimkonnast ja seetõttu on peategelane otsustanud kogu värginduse maha tõmmata. Täpsemalt on peategelaseks digitaliseeritud sõjaveteran nimega Reno, kel õnnestub läbi ühe vähetuntud tagaukse ronida otse kõige kõrgema orbitaalmaailma bossi pähe ja tema teadvus enda omaga ülekirjutada.

Minujaoks osutus Reno pagana nauditavalt lahti kirjutatud karakteriks. Selgub nimelt, et Reno digitaalne mina on saanud paljude kopeerimiste käigus kahjustada ning see ei kirjuta orbitaalbossi Rooni teadvust terviklikult üle jättes hullumeelse massimõrvari ja lapsepilastaja mitmedki ihad ja mõtted kuskile neuroneisse alles. Lugu kulgeb ise Harwiredist aeglasemas tempos aga ei saa küll kuidagi öelda, et oleks kehvem. Minuarust võidaks neid kahte müüa ühes komplektis kuna koos moodustavad tekstid igati tugeva terviku.

[Raja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chronologically, this novella is the direct sequel to Hardwired. In the afterword, Williams admits that the other sequel, Voice of the Whirlwind, wasn't actually written as a sequel, but converted into one after the fact by adding some references to the events of Hardwired. Solip:System bridges the gap by describing what happened in the orbital blocs after the end of Hardwired, from the POV of one of the most interesting side characters in Hardwired.

I can't say much more than that without major spoilers for Hardwired. Solip:System doesn't stand alone, but as a follow up to Hardwired, it's excellent.

[Zare · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set as a link between Hardwired and Voice of the Whirlwind novels, this short story shows how was dominance of the Orbitals brought down,

In Hardwired novel Orbitals are for all means and purposes controlling the Earth. All the elites and powers are concentrated in the orbital stations while the unwashed masses are placed exclusively on Earth. Orbitals are running all profit businesses on Earth after they have broken the planet based resistance during the so called Rock War.

In main novel (Hardwired) our protagonists managed to fight off the Orbitals for at least a while by launching the crippling blow using their friend Reno, hacker and programmer, living as an AI after barely surviving the assassination attempt, by uploading his saved personality together with the deadly Black Mind program/virus into the body of the novel antagonist, leader of Temple Pharmaceuticals corporation, Roon. This is where novel ends and this short story starts.

What follows is Reno sowing chaos amongst Orbitals, managing to put them all into collision course with each other with final goal of basically igniting equivalent of civil war between the elites that will weaken them sufficiently to make Earth important again.

Author manages to present in a very interesting way what old people would call possession. If someone's conscience is uploaded to a body what happens with the original persona? As story goes on and Reno gets hold of intrigues and ruthlessly manages to take over and then bring into conflict one Orbital corporation after another, he also becomes aware of changes in himself, the way he behaves. Soon (especially after interacting with the Roon's protege's - this is horror story on its own, if you read Hardwired you know what this is about) he will recognize that Roon is not gone but just lurking below the surface. And this will complicate things a bit...

Very interesting story, highly recommended to fans of cyberpunk and shady corporations bent on world control and domination.

[Ben Thurley · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty unnecessary and retroconned short story / novella aimed at bridging the gap and/or creating a connection between two of Williams' classic novels, Hardwired and Voice of the Whirlwind. While it has its own hacker espionage angle on the bleak cyberpunk solar system of these novels, there's not a lot to recommend this as a stand-alone work. It's not particularly gripping as a story and maybe there are obsessives out there who needed a link between two novels sold as original and sequel. But, honestly, I'd rather take them as they are.

[Baron Greystone · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's good. Short. Brutal. I appear to have a limited edition. I remember paying a lot for it. It's autographed. But I also understand you can get a Kindle edition for three bucks nowadays. Alrighty then.

Anyway, it's a bit of a sequel to the novel Hard Wired. Which is why I got this one. It also bridges the gap to another of the author's novels, Voice of the Whirlwind. So you can trace the timeline ahead if you are so inclined.

It really won't mean anything to you if you haven't read Hard Wired, and if you didn't like that novel you have no reason to get this short story. But if you're a fan, it's worth it. Disturbing, but worth it.

[David Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much shorter work that directly follows from the action in Hardwired. In many ways, this is a much better work since it focuses on AI and personality transfer while ignoring a lot of the weird and nonsensical technobabble related to cybernetic implants in the previous work.

[Dávid Novotný · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although it was published in Czech republic together with Hardwired, it deserves separate rating.

Short story/novel that starts just before Hardwire ends and takes you to a quick crazy ride. I really loved hat corporate scheming, politics and backstabbing. Events take quick turns, and everything is fast and distilled to pure necessity.

Beautiful dark cyberpunk world, with even darker ending. I loved every part of it, and reading it was pure enjoyment.

[Urgewyrm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is, I think, the worse cover for a cyberpunk story ever.

Runner up is the alternative cover for this story with the chrome stripper which has nothing to do with anything.

The story itself is great, finishing off poor Reno's story and laying the very loose groundwork for Voices of the Whirlwind. No panzers, deltas or Weasels here.

Again, much like Hardwired, you see the foundation for a lot of the cyberpunk genre in this story.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

A damned Good Sequel

A very clever plot concerning Reno, a saboteur, who took over another body via Black Mind. I'm sure somebody will keep bugging him for another sequel. But I don't mind, as this series keep holding my interest. Well written.

[Mike Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good short novella set in Williams’ Hardwired universe. Though set in the same world as Hardwired it is far more concerned with virtual reality than with the frenetic high octane smuggling of the earlier work. Good but a little too short to be brilliant.

[Aaron Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of depressing, but still a fine short read. Only bother to read it if you read Hardwired first. Otherwise it's depression will seem just pointless and icky without that backstory.

[Winans E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read!

I don’t remember this novella from 30 years ago. Glad I discovered before I nature pulls the pin. Where I am death is not; where death is I am not(Epicurus.)

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fast, compact, and effective piece of cyberpunk fiction. It doesn't linger and hits hard.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

How to tear a future world apart, a near literal army of one. This short builds well on Hardwired (you need to have read Hardwired to enjoy Solip) and is a quick read. Not much more to say on this.

[Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent novella to wrap up one of the story line started in Hardwired. Recommend.

[5t4n5 Dot Com · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe this novella was written as an afterthought to attempt to bridge a gap between Hardwired and Voice of the Whirlwind , thus creating a trilogy once a few things got ironed out in Voice of the Whirlwind .

Which i think is a bit bad because this book is a very much needed sequel to Hardwired whether or not there was another book to follow.

I'm definitely pleased it was written as it does finish off Hardwired and Nero's escapades as Roon rather nicely.

Brilliant novella, and now i dive straight into Voice of the Whirlwind .

[Jason Peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this novella so much I finished it in two sittings and I'm not someone who sits still for long (my reading sessions are littered with pacing breaks). Interestingly, I just happened to be playing the console game Cyberpunk 2077 at the time I picked this up, and it was jarring to know that the main plotline of the game as it relates to Johnny Silverhand is the exact same device used here in Solip:System.

If you're into cybernetic implants and murderous AI viruses in a criminal underworld set in a future that couples humanity's base instincts with advanced technologies, you'll be right at home enjoying every moment with this all-too-short book. The prose is fluid and the pace unrelenting, with delightfully blue-collar characters and a sly sense of humor throughout.

It never ceases to amaze how much Walter Jon Williams influenced the entire foundation of ideas that comprise Cyberpunk as a genre/sub-genre. The man is a legend, and this book is incredible.

[pete saussy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read, shorter than I expected

Sorry but cant tell you the usual gush. The story was interesting to me. You can decide for yourself, then