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The Arachne #2
Cyberweb
Reduced to scavenging for subsistence scraps among the trash people of San Francisco, Carly Nolan may have finally found her re-entry into the fast lane. Together with her onetime probe therapist Pr. Spinner - an aging and suspicious standalone A.I. entity with rusty, ill-defined housing - the disgraced linker is summoned back into public telespace by a tri-headed mainframe icon called Cognatus. And Cognatus has an offer Carly Nolan dares not refuse: a job, a future...and absolution. But there are sticky strings attached. Carly's new assignment - a telespacial hunt for unconnected human archetypes - has aroused some dangerous interest back in the real world. A ruthless mercenary Ultra fembot with fluid loyalties is now dogging her trail. The young shaman of a savage urban tribe has become obsessed with the beautiful "genny woman" who has sacrificed her soul to the "Glass Land." And worst of all, Carly herself may be no more than an unsuspecting pawn of the Silicon Supremacists - a renegade cabal of A.I. revolutionaries planning no less than the total destruction of humankind.
262 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1995
2 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
Lisa Mason
75 books72 followersStay safe and well in 2021! Please visit my website at http://www.lisamason.com for all my print books, ebooks, screenplays, Storybundles, interviews, blogs, my husband Tom Robinson's bespoke jewelry and artwork, cute cat pictures, and more!
My second collection, ODDITIES: 22 Stories, is available now as an ebook on Kindle worldwide and as a print book in seven countries, including the U.S. and the U.K. The collection includes stories previously published in OMNI, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Full Spectrum 5, and others, plus six new stories. A Locus Magazine Notable Book.
I've got eight other books available as beautiful trade paperbacks (and ebooks): CHROME, Summer of Love, The Gilded Age, The Garden of Abracadabra, Arachne, Cyberweb, One Day in the Life of Alexa, and Strange Ladies: 7 Stories.
Summer of Love was a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book, The Gilded Age was a New York Times Notable Book. My Omni story, "Tomorrow's Child," sold outright as a feature film to Universal Pictures and is in development.
My second collection, ODDITIES: 22 Stories, is available now as an ebook on Kindle worldwide and as a print book in seven countries, including the U.S. and the U.K. The collection includes stories previously published in OMNI, Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Full Spectrum 5, and others, plus six new stories. A Locus Magazine Notable Book.
I've got eight other books available as beautiful trade paperbacks (and ebooks): CHROME, Summer of Love, The Gilded Age, The Garden of Abracadabra, Arachne, Cyberweb, One Day in the Life of Alexa, and Strange Ladies: 7 Stories.
Summer of Love was a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book, The Gilded Age was a New York Times Notable Book. My Omni story, "Tomorrow's Child," sold outright as a feature film to Universal Pictures and is in development.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 17, 2025
Enjoyable but ultimately forgettable 90s cyberpunk.
On the upside, the author improved upon the first book Arachne in some ways. Mainly, she reined in the endless long description dumps which gives a lot more time for things to happen. In Cyberweb, it feels like the characters are able to actually do things, there is action, and there is now space for a plot! Pacing is suitably fast. Unfortunately this comes at the expense of losing a lot of the quirkiness of the world.
The world of Arachne really stood out and was incredibly developed and interesting, whereas Cyberweb feels pretty generic - seedy club, dank tunnels, a filthy abandoned building or two, and lots of abstract cyberspace. While those are all excellent things to have in your cyberpunk book, this one lacks the wider observations and commentary on dystopian society that were so well done in the first book. Still, I did enjoy the locations that were here.
The characters are once again fine, and Mason does a good job developing the side characters. Although I would've been fine with less Ouija as the caveman dialect gets so annoying. Unfortunately, Carly and Spinner don't experience much, if any, development and just sort of do things as necessary to move the plot forward.
There are a couple major problems with the book though.
The first is that Carly is incredibly dull. She was interesting and dynamic at the beginning of Archane, but became unlikable at the end and not much changes here. Other than being somewhat arrogant, she doesn't get much personality at all. We're frequently told what she isn't: she isnt a lawyer, she isn't a street thug, she isn't able to access public telespace, yet we're not told what she is. She has no arc or development. I did like that she has returned to wanting to do good, but this is hardly delved into. The other big problem with Carly is that the book hinges on her "hyperlink" ability which is poorly defined and makes little sense. I still have no idea how it works, what exactly it does, or why I should care.
The biggest issue though is that the book is just too short. Mason introduces several big ideas involving the evolution of the internet, human rights, AI supremacists, hidden factions of pro-human AI vs anti-human AI, human vs corporation... and while the plots do all weave together, absolutely none of it is given adequate development or closure. The ideas in the book are definitely interesting, but there is just too little of any of it. There is a large focus on Ouija and his aboriginal tribe that goes nowhere and I can't help but think all those words would have been better used on Carly & Spinner's story.
Similar to the first book, this one just sort of ends arbitrarily as things should have been ramping up. As such, despite boasting a solid cyberpunk setting and ideas, it never rises to being more than mediocre.
Supposedly there might be a third book in the series, if there is I hope Mason lets herself go just for it and makes it like 500 pages to fully deliver on every plot and idea.
On the upside, the author improved upon the first book Arachne in some ways. Mainly, she reined in the endless long description dumps which gives a lot more time for things to happen. In Cyberweb, it feels like the characters are able to actually do things, there is action, and there is now space for a plot! Pacing is suitably fast. Unfortunately this comes at the expense of losing a lot of the quirkiness of the world.
The world of Arachne really stood out and was incredibly developed and interesting, whereas Cyberweb feels pretty generic - seedy club, dank tunnels, a filthy abandoned building or two, and lots of abstract cyberspace. While those are all excellent things to have in your cyberpunk book, this one lacks the wider observations and commentary on dystopian society that were so well done in the first book. Still, I did enjoy the locations that were here.
The characters are once again fine, and Mason does a good job developing the side characters. Although I would've been fine with less Ouija as the caveman dialect gets so annoying. Unfortunately, Carly and Spinner don't experience much, if any, development and just sort of do things as necessary to move the plot forward.
There are a couple major problems with the book though.
The first is that Carly is incredibly dull. She was interesting and dynamic at the beginning of Archane, but became unlikable at the end and not much changes here. Other than being somewhat arrogant, she doesn't get much personality at all. We're frequently told what she isn't: she isnt a lawyer, she isn't a street thug, she isn't able to access public telespace, yet we're not told what she is. She has no arc or development. I did like that she has returned to wanting to do good, but this is hardly delved into. The other big problem with Carly is that the book hinges on her "hyperlink" ability which is poorly defined and makes little sense. I still have no idea how it works, what exactly it does, or why I should care.
The biggest issue though is that the book is just too short. Mason introduces several big ideas involving the evolution of the internet, human rights, AI supremacists, hidden factions of pro-human AI vs anti-human AI, human vs corporation... and while the plots do all weave together, absolutely none of it is given adequate development or closure. The ideas in the book are definitely interesting, but there is just too little of any of it. There is a large focus on Ouija and his aboriginal tribe that goes nowhere and I can't help but think all those words would have been better used on Carly & Spinner's story.
Similar to the first book, this one just sort of ends arbitrarily as things should have been ramping up. As such, despite boasting a solid cyberpunk setting and ideas, it never rises to being more than mediocre.
Supposedly there might be a third book in the series, if there is I hope Mason lets herself go just for it and makes it like 500 pages to fully deliver on every plot and idea.
November 17, 2020
Sequel to Arachne (which I read in January 2019). Telelinker Carly Nolan had an anomaly in a link was sent to a perimeter prober, Pr. Spinner. In a session they discovered an archtype. Spinner instead of turning over this information to R-X and who would probably kill Carly to get at the archtype, keeps it to herself and helps Carly hide from Data Control. They have just started working together when Carly is kidnapped and forced to work with an unknown mainframe.
The aborigines disdain everything to do with telelinking, what they call the Unseen, but Ouija is coerced into dealing with Carly. Ouija has to deal with the personal conflict of having anything to do with Glass Land (other that steal from it) as well as the threat to the tribe. There is a push to get the abos to go to shelters where they'd get food, but also be registered. That would certainly lead to the end of their way of life and maybe worse.
There was enough background given in the first couple of chapters that refreshed my memory of Arachne, enough that you could probably enjoy this one without having read Arachne. I liked the characters. The robots had their own personalities. Carly has a dilemma, she doesn't want to go from working for a heartless (maybe even evil) law firm to a mainframe that may be inimical to humanity.
The aborigines disdain everything to do with telelinking, what they call the Unseen, but Ouija is coerced into dealing with Carly. Ouija has to deal with the personal conflict of having anything to do with Glass Land (other that steal from it) as well as the threat to the tribe. There is a push to get the abos to go to shelters where they'd get food, but also be registered. That would certainly lead to the end of their way of life and maybe worse.
There was enough background given in the first couple of chapters that refreshed my memory of Arachne, enough that you could probably enjoy this one without having read Arachne. I liked the characters. The robots had their own personalities. Carly has a dilemma, she doesn't want to go from working for a heartless (maybe even evil) law firm to a mainframe that may be inimical to humanity.
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October 27, 2022I read this some years after reading the previous book, but I did remember some of that. Carly is not the most likable protagonist, but she is trying to do some good and to not align with the baddies. A whole lot of money kind of compromises those ideals, as she doesn't know who her new benefactor/employer is working for. Her robotic AI frenemies are untrustworthy and kind of cool and very interesting to read about. However, I found the neo-tribal technology-rejecting element to implausible enough that it was jarring to read about them. Maybe if they hadn't lived right in the city, I could have believed them more.
I like Mason's writing style a lot, and this is classic cyberpunk. I love Carly's adventures in the future San Francisco and in cyberspace. The action moves along nicely. But not much gets resolved. If there were a third book in this series, I'd be eager to read it and I'd give this book another star.
I like Mason's writing style a lot, and this is classic cyberpunk. I love Carly's adventures in the future San Francisco and in cyberspace. The action moves along nicely. But not much gets resolved. If there were a third book in this series, I'd be eager to read it and I'd give this book another star.
December 19, 2025
It is such a shame that Lisa Mason died while working on the third book in the Arachne series. It's an underrated cyberpunk gem. I will say that the "abos" have not aged well - but that sort of cultural appropriation was all over the 90s.
March 20, 2018
After the events of Arachne, Carly Quester is living life as a fugitive, wanted for unspecified crimes against Data Control, but really mostly because of what she has, an archetype of incredible power (which is essentially magic). She's living with Pr. Spinner, a robot therapist and once the bane of her life, but now they've become unlikely friends. Carly gets a chance to put her life back together when she's hired for a mysterious job under a false identity, that requires her new abilities and pays a lot and promises to clear up her troubles, but she's not sure she can trust her employer, and there are other forces at work.
I read this both because I already had it as part of a bundle, and because there were a few things I liked about the first book, and, as sometimes happens, I hoped the second book might shake out some of the bugs and improve.
Unfortunately, rather the opposite happened. This book had all the things that irritated me about the first book, and none of the inventiveness. Instead, we get a poorly conceived (and to me tedious and annoying) "people living a tech-free tribal society in the middle of the city" subplot, another rather cliche one about AI supremacists, and a plot that didn't really feel like it went anywhere. Characters and their relationships seemed entirely different from the first book (Spinner herself was closer to the AI supremacist side in the first book and although the change is given lip service, it doesn't feel natural) and although they were generally less unlikable than the first book, I didn't really find much reason to be interested either.
There were also believability issues in connecting to the previous book, a case that had been assigned to Carly when she was still a mediator and before she went on the run winds up becoming important as she tries to find the person and warn them of the legal shenanigans her former employers are planning... except, this is weeks, months even after she left and the previous book established the court system as being so lightning fast that the main character's entire struggles in the first book were caused because she delayed things by a few minutes. So it's hard to imagine that the case was still pending.
Not ruling out trying the author again, but it'd have to be a completely different kind of book, I think.
I read this both because I already had it as part of a bundle, and because there were a few things I liked about the first book, and, as sometimes happens, I hoped the second book might shake out some of the bugs and improve.
Unfortunately, rather the opposite happened. This book had all the things that irritated me about the first book, and none of the inventiveness. Instead, we get a poorly conceived (and to me tedious and annoying) "people living a tech-free tribal society in the middle of the city" subplot, another rather cliche one about AI supremacists, and a plot that didn't really feel like it went anywhere. Characters and their relationships seemed entirely different from the first book (Spinner herself was closer to the AI supremacist side in the first book and although the change is given lip service, it doesn't feel natural) and although they were generally less unlikable than the first book, I didn't really find much reason to be interested either.
There were also believability issues in connecting to the previous book, a case that had been assigned to Carly when she was still a mediator and before she went on the run winds up becoming important as she tries to find the person and warn them of the legal shenanigans her former employers are planning... except, this is weeks, months even after she left and the previous book established the court system as being so lightning fast that the main character's entire struggles in the first book were caused because she delayed things by a few minutes. So it's hard to imagine that the case was still pending.
Not ruling out trying the author again, but it'd have to be a completely different kind of book, I think.
January 30, 2014
Here's the description of this book on Goodreads:
"Reduced to scavenging for subsistence scraps among the trash people of San Francisco, Carly Nolan may have finally found her re-entry into the fast lane. Together with her onetime probe therapist Pr. Spinner - an aging and suspicious standalone A.I. entity with rusty, ill-defined housing - the disgraced linker is summoned back into public telespace by a tri-headed mainframe icon called Cognatus. And Cognatus has an offer Carly Nolan dares not refuse: a job, a future...and absolution. But there are sticky strings attached. Carly's new assignment - a telespacial hunt for unconnected human archetypes - has aroused some dangerous interest back in the real world. A ruthless mercenary Ultra fembot with fluid loyalties is now dogging her trail. The young shaman of a savage urban tribe has become obsessed with the beautiful "genny woman" who has sacrificed her soul to the "Glass Land." And worst of all, Carly herself may be no more than an unsuspecting pawn of the Silicon Supremacists - a renegade cabal of A.I. revolutionaries planning no less than the total destruction of humankind."
Confused? I sure was. I had no idea what the hell was going and the the pseudo-cyberpunk terminology employed by this author just made it worse. Gibson I can get. Mason I can't. I made it through three chapters and gave up. Just not worth my time. It gave me headaches. Not recommended.
"Reduced to scavenging for subsistence scraps among the trash people of San Francisco, Carly Nolan may have finally found her re-entry into the fast lane. Together with her onetime probe therapist Pr. Spinner - an aging and suspicious standalone A.I. entity with rusty, ill-defined housing - the disgraced linker is summoned back into public telespace by a tri-headed mainframe icon called Cognatus. And Cognatus has an offer Carly Nolan dares not refuse: a job, a future...and absolution. But there are sticky strings attached. Carly's new assignment - a telespacial hunt for unconnected human archetypes - has aroused some dangerous interest back in the real world. A ruthless mercenary Ultra fembot with fluid loyalties is now dogging her trail. The young shaman of a savage urban tribe has become obsessed with the beautiful "genny woman" who has sacrificed her soul to the "Glass Land." And worst of all, Carly herself may be no more than an unsuspecting pawn of the Silicon Supremacists - a renegade cabal of A.I. revolutionaries planning no less than the total destruction of humankind."
Confused? I sure was. I had no idea what the hell was going and the the pseudo-cyberpunk terminology employed by this author just made it worse. Gibson I can get. Mason I can't. I made it through three chapters and gave up. Just not worth my time. It gave me headaches. Not recommended.
April 28, 2025
I read this some years after reading the previous book, but I did remember some of that. Carly is not the most likable protagonist, but she is trying to do some good and to not align with the baddies. A whole lot of money kind of compromises those ideals, as she doesn't know who her new benefactor/employer is working for. Her robotic AI frenemies are untrustworthy and kind of cool and very interesting to read about. However, I found the neo-tribal technology-rejecting element to implausible enough that it was jarring to read about them. Maybe if they hadn't lived right in the city, I could have believed them more.
I like Mason's writing style a lot, and this is classic cyberpunk. I love Carly's adventures in the future San Francisco and in cyberspace. The action moves along nicely. But not much gets resolved. If there were a third book in this series, I'd be eager to read it and I'd give this book another star.
I like Mason's writing style a lot, and this is classic cyberpunk. I love Carly's adventures in the future San Francisco and in cyberspace. The action moves along nicely. But not much gets resolved. If there were a third book in this series, I'd be eager to read it and I'd give this book another star.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews