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The Arachne #1
Arachne
Lisa Mason’s classic cyberpunk about an ambitious young mediator who must confront a terrifying presence haunting her telelink. From the author of Summer of Love and The Gilded Age.
High above the dangerous streets of post-quake San Francisco Island, mechanically modified professionals link minds in a cybernetic telespace to push through big deals and decisions at lightning speed. But unexplained telelink blackouts and bizarre hallucinations have marred mediator Carly Quester’s debut appearance before a computer-generated Venue—forcing her to consider delicate psychic surgery at the hands of a robot therapist, Prober Spinner. And suddenly the ambitious young mediator is at risk in a deadly Artificial Intelligence scheme to steal human souls—because the ghosts of Carly’s unconscious may be a prize well worth killing for.
“Powerful . . . Entertaining . . . Imaginative.”
--People Magazine
“In humanity’s daring to enter the cybernetic heaven (and hell) of telespace, Lisa Mason reveals the lineaments of all that is tragic and transcendent in our evolution. Once the journey into this vivid and terrifying future has begun, there is no returning until the infinite has been faced and the last word read.”
--David Zindell, Author of Neverness
“Cybernetics, robotics, the aftermath of San Francisco’s Big Quake II, urban tribalism—Lisa Mason combines them all with such deftness and grace, they form a living world. Mason spins an entertaining tale . . . She allows Carly’s robotic allies a measure of personality and sophistication beyond the stock role of a chirping R2D2 or a blandly sinister Hal . . . Her characters and their world will stay with you long after you’ve finished this fine book.”
--Locus, The Trade Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy
“Lisa Mason stakes out, within the cyberpunk sub-genre, a territory all her own.”
--The San Francisco Chronicle
“Mason’s endearing characters and their absorbing adventures will hook even the most jaded SF fan.”
--Booklist
“Arachne is an impressive debut by a writer gifted with inventiveness, wit, and insight. The characters face choices well worth reading about. This is cyberpunk with a heart.”
--Nancy Kress, Author of Brain Rose
“There is a refreshing amount of energy associated with Lisa Mason’s writing. The good old values are there: fun, excitement, drama—but served up with new and original twists. Lisa Mason is definitely a writer to watch—and to read.”
--Paul Preuss, Author of Venus Prime
“Lisa Mason must be counted among science fiction’s most distinctive voices as we rush toward the new millennium.”
--Ed Bryant
High above the dangerous streets of post-quake San Francisco Island, mechanically modified professionals link minds in a cybernetic telespace to push through big deals and decisions at lightning speed. But unexplained telelink blackouts and bizarre hallucinations have marred mediator Carly Quester’s debut appearance before a computer-generated Venue—forcing her to consider delicate psychic surgery at the hands of a robot therapist, Prober Spinner. And suddenly the ambitious young mediator is at risk in a deadly Artificial Intelligence scheme to steal human souls—because the ghosts of Carly’s unconscious may be a prize well worth killing for.
“Powerful . . . Entertaining . . . Imaginative.”
--People Magazine
“In humanity’s daring to enter the cybernetic heaven (and hell) of telespace, Lisa Mason reveals the lineaments of all that is tragic and transcendent in our evolution. Once the journey into this vivid and terrifying future has begun, there is no returning until the infinite has been faced and the last word read.”
--David Zindell, Author of Neverness
“Cybernetics, robotics, the aftermath of San Francisco’s Big Quake II, urban tribalism—Lisa Mason combines them all with such deftness and grace, they form a living world. Mason spins an entertaining tale . . . She allows Carly’s robotic allies a measure of personality and sophistication beyond the stock role of a chirping R2D2 or a blandly sinister Hal . . . Her characters and their world will stay with you long after you’ve finished this fine book.”
--Locus, The Trade Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy
“Lisa Mason stakes out, within the cyberpunk sub-genre, a territory all her own.”
--The San Francisco Chronicle
“Mason’s endearing characters and their absorbing adventures will hook even the most jaded SF fan.”
--Booklist
“Arachne is an impressive debut by a writer gifted with inventiveness, wit, and insight. The characters face choices well worth reading about. This is cyberpunk with a heart.”
--Nancy Kress, Author of Brain Rose
“There is a refreshing amount of energy associated with Lisa Mason’s writing. The good old values are there: fun, excitement, drama—but served up with new and original twists. Lisa Mason is definitely a writer to watch—and to read.”
--Paul Preuss, Author of Venus Prime
“Lisa Mason must be counted among science fiction’s most distinctive voices as we rush toward the new millennium.”
--Ed Bryant
ebook
First published July 1, 1990
2 people are currently reading
226 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 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 10, 2018
Carly Quester's a hot-shot mediator in telespace, which often means helping her clients get away with things that would be crimes if it wasn't business and they weren't rich. But when her link goes down in the middle of a mediation, Carly risks losing her lob... unless she undergoes probe therapy with a robotic therapist who might want something from Carly herself.
(Reviewer note: I read an ebook version of a book originally published in the 90s and revised since then, although I don't know how much. One thing I noticed changed is the main character's last name. However, I've always had trouble with Goodreads when trying to alter which version of a book, with multiple versions, my review attaches to, or is selected when I mark the book as being read, and so any particular comment might not apply to whatever version of the book the review finally falls under).
Forcasting the near future, particulary involving a technology that exists in its infancy already, is probably the riskiest type of SF you can write, because you have to take the chance that you'll look a little ridiculous in only a few years. And the cyberpunk movement often had the worst of that, dealing with computers and a wired world before we really understood what that would look like. Some avoid the pitfalls by not focusing overly much on the computer side, others by being vague and a far enough jump ahead that you could still see it happening as an extension of where we are now.
Unfortunately, this is not one of those books, as the plot relies on an Internet that is not really much like what it turned out to be and, for me, at least, it's hard to take seriously. And, what's more, it hit on one of my personal pet hates for SF involving computers... more than hit on, the plot hinges on it. That is, the idea that the human mind or consciousness 'goes somewhere' when accessing an Internet, and something can happen to it while it's there. To be fair the author seems to write it not so much as "that's what it's like when you get on the Internet" as "they developed a new Internet-like system that makes use of wild technology that taps into the collective unconscious directly" but still, it's nails on a chalkboard for me to read about characters losing their mind because some key element of their consciousness was 'stolen.' As such, it's a little hard to be objective... the book lost me a few pages in.
Or, mostly did, at least. There was some things I genuinely liked. For example, the legal shenanigans and scheming, big corporations using obscure corporate loopholes to screw over the little guy was entertaining in a grim "hope they eventually get their comeuppance" type of way. And, I really liked the idea of the Republic of Cool, a fascist government that took over the Berkeley Campus. If the book wasn't about on about Telespace and Archetypes and such all the time and focused more on these elements I might well have enjoyed it more.
One of the other key ingredients of cyberpunk, that often doesn't work well for me, is unlikeable, morally compromised characters. Here the book kind of fell down a little too, there were times that I literally felt, "Okay, well, I see no reason to care about this character anymore," and though they tried to turn it around in the end, it didn't feel genuine... nor, for that matter, did the fall in the first place. Characters sprung from being unconcerned with the moral weight of their actions to being suddenly judgemental to doing the same things they were judgemental about or far worse and not giving a $@!$ about anybody to sort of kind of getting redeemed but just because it was end of the book rather than for any actual reason. When one of the more likeable characters in your story is a bot who's bitter about all of humanity and is considering murdering one for their own profit, you're in dangerous territory.
Overall, I'd mark the book as okay, not for me but others might enjoy it more because they don't have my particular annoyance triggers, and there's certainly some talent here. I immediately moved on to the sequel because I got it as part of the same bundle of ebooks, hoping that a second novel might improve some of the problems, although those hopes were not especially high.
(Reviewer note: I read an ebook version of a book originally published in the 90s and revised since then, although I don't know how much. One thing I noticed changed is the main character's last name. However, I've always had trouble with Goodreads when trying to alter which version of a book, with multiple versions, my review attaches to, or is selected when I mark the book as being read, and so any particular comment might not apply to whatever version of the book the review finally falls under).
Forcasting the near future, particulary involving a technology that exists in its infancy already, is probably the riskiest type of SF you can write, because you have to take the chance that you'll look a little ridiculous in only a few years. And the cyberpunk movement often had the worst of that, dealing with computers and a wired world before we really understood what that would look like. Some avoid the pitfalls by not focusing overly much on the computer side, others by being vague and a far enough jump ahead that you could still see it happening as an extension of where we are now.
Unfortunately, this is not one of those books, as the plot relies on an Internet that is not really much like what it turned out to be and, for me, at least, it's hard to take seriously. And, what's more, it hit on one of my personal pet hates for SF involving computers... more than hit on, the plot hinges on it. That is, the idea that the human mind or consciousness 'goes somewhere' when accessing an Internet, and something can happen to it while it's there. To be fair the author seems to write it not so much as "that's what it's like when you get on the Internet" as "they developed a new Internet-like system that makes use of wild technology that taps into the collective unconscious directly" but still, it's nails on a chalkboard for me to read about characters losing their mind because some key element of their consciousness was 'stolen.' As such, it's a little hard to be objective... the book lost me a few pages in.
Or, mostly did, at least. There was some things I genuinely liked. For example, the legal shenanigans and scheming, big corporations using obscure corporate loopholes to screw over the little guy was entertaining in a grim "hope they eventually get their comeuppance" type of way. And, I really liked the idea of the Republic of Cool, a fascist government that took over the Berkeley Campus. If the book wasn't about on about Telespace and Archetypes and such all the time and focused more on these elements I might well have enjoyed it more.
One of the other key ingredients of cyberpunk, that often doesn't work well for me, is unlikeable, morally compromised characters. Here the book kind of fell down a little too, there were times that I literally felt, "Okay, well, I see no reason to care about this character anymore," and though they tried to turn it around in the end, it didn't feel genuine... nor, for that matter, did the fall in the first place. Characters sprung from being unconcerned with the moral weight of their actions to being suddenly judgemental to doing the same things they were judgemental about or far worse and not giving a $@!$ about anybody to sort of kind of getting redeemed but just because it was end of the book rather than for any actual reason. When one of the more likeable characters in your story is a bot who's bitter about all of humanity and is considering murdering one for their own profit, you're in dangerous territory.
Overall, I'd mark the book as okay, not for me but others might enjoy it more because they don't have my particular annoyance triggers, and there's certainly some talent here. I immediately moved on to the sequel because I got it as part of the same bundle of ebooks, hoping that a second novel might improve some of the problems, although those hopes were not especially high.
December 15, 2022
San Francisco after the Big Quake II - home to one of the world’s largest Financial Districts, a world of telelinked genetically modded humans conducting business in telespace, and also home to reinvigorated Aztec Death Cults, and dealers in a new super-focus drug, known as cram. Carly Nolan is a young genned up-and-coming lawyer who has a sudden link dropout during her first case, which could lead to her decertification, so naturally she is concerned. She must undergo a form of AI-led psyche evaluation by an AI prober, Pr. Spinner (which has its own agenda), and this leads to a shadowy underworld of black market trade in human psyche fragments by AIs. These archetypes (one of which manifests as a Fate) are much sought after by AI as a link to a fabled Transcendence, evolving into a new post-human reality. But these fragments are obtained by breaking humans in telelink, a form of murder. Lisa Mason has given us an entertaining cyberpunk novel of gritty and despicable legal violence, drug abuse and ferocious underworlds (both human and AI). The ending leaves a few strands hanging but Arachne is generally pretty satisfying.
March 11, 2025
The back cover describes this as "William Gibson scripting L.A. Law," and that's about right. Throw in a little of Thomas Pynchon's absurdity, too. A great and oftentimes forgotten entry in cyberpunk fiction, with protagonists far different from the norm.
September 17, 2016
With its blend of lawyers practicing in cyberspace, a near-dystopian future wherein Aborigine and Aztec cultists roam the streets and college campuses are martial-law city-states policed by armed revolutionaries, Jungian archetypes made manifest in the consensus-reality of the telelink, and put-upon AIs wishing humanity would do a better job of recognizing their sentience, Arachne by Lisa Mason is a brilliant cyberpunk novel. The book's two main protagonists, hot-shot human lawyer Carly Nolan and an AI called Prober Spinner, are very well-written and engaging; Pr. Spinner is particularly fascinating in her love-hate relationship with humanity. Arachne is another cyberpunk book that explores what it means to be human, what are the boundaries of being human, and can these boundaries be transcended or, at the very least, gone beyond. In addition to this fascinating aspect of the book, Mason builds a lived-in, believable, near-future California that is tinged with dark humor (such as when traffic gridlocks last so long fixed communities start to spring up). The book stumbles, in my estimation, in Carly's dalliance with a co-worker. In these passages, Mason's usual taut, brisk, evocative prose (which, with its futuristic neologisms, reminded me somewhat of A Clockwork Orange) descends a bit into treacly romance-novel language (particularly bothersome was a reference to Carly's "delta"). But the book recovers from these sections, as indeed does Carly, and the final third is thrilling as Carly and Pr. Spinner strive to overcome a threat inside cyberspace that could have dire consequences for Carly in the 'real' world. Overall, Arachne was a fun and fast book, an excellent exemplar of the cyberpunk genre.
January 19, 2023
A woman and robot brought together by strange circumstances in a cyberpunk future
I picked up a paperback copy of Arachne at used book sale based off its cover art. While the book didn't contain the action I felt the cover had promised, it was still an interesting read, but had trouble with sometimes being too detailed, while at other times being too broad. Questions were raised that never were given satisfyingly answers, so if that is a major flaw for you, you might one to skip this one.
If your looking for pulp sci fi book to read and don't mind any of the issues I listed, this one will do.
I picked up a paperback copy of Arachne at used book sale based off its cover art. While the book didn't contain the action I felt the cover had promised, it was still an interesting read, but had trouble with sometimes being too detailed, while at other times being too broad. Questions were raised that never were given satisfyingly answers, so if that is a major flaw for you, you might one to skip this one.
If your looking for pulp sci fi book to read and don't mind any of the issues I listed, this one will do.
September 15, 2025
Difficult book to review. Some aspects are incredible and some are... not. Vibe: 5/5, Worldbuilding: 5/5, Characters: 3.5/5, Plot: 2/5
On the upside, this perfectly captures that golden era of late 80s/early 90s cyberpunk. Dystopian, gritty, tech-focused, abstract, quirky, etc. One of my favorite aspects of this style is the focus on exaggerated and absurd dystopian society, and Lisa Mason truly excels at it. In that regard, Arachne fits right with genre classics Virtual Light and Snow Crash.
The level of detail is absolutely, unequivocally insane and commendable. Literally everything is described WAY beyond what is necessary. As someone who loves this style of detail-oriented writing, I did in fact love this... however, I have to be honest: its waaaay over the top. The plot is constantly put on hold to describe every random background thing for pages upon pages. In total the book is 90% description/infodump and 10% plot. However, while this style of writing ruined similar books like Trouble And Her Friends because the endless descriptive passages were about pointless mundanity, Lisa Mason at least succeeds in making all this description worthwhile because the world is so creative, fun, and darkly humorous. I really enjoyed reading about all the goofy dystopian shit happening in the background-- I just wish the author had reined it in to give more time to the actual important plot elements.
The characters are fairly well developed and interesting. Mason did a great job with Pr. Spinner, giving her an endearingly bitter and unique personality of being comically angry and vengeful towards humans in a Bender-esque way (the AI in this world gives Futurama vibes which is enjoyable). I wasn't sure initially about the Wolfe character, but ultimately he was an interesting, morally gray character with a fitting arc. The push-pull with Carly was done well. But I'm on the fence about Carly; it felt like the author couldn't decide what to do with the character-- is she an unlikable, spoiled, snooty, genetically perfect, lawyer? or is she relatable because she's conflicted? or is she admirable because she will become a hero? In the end, Carly didn't actually go in any direction and ended up being flat. I found it hard to care about what happened to her. Nuke it all bot, just give me more Spinner.
Despite the amazing cyberpunk vibes of the book, unfortunately it ended up being pretty weak overall. It honestly feels like an abbreviated prequel written as an addendum to the main book. The whole thing is building up to Carly being important, but the crux of it doesn't come until the very end. It's also completely unclear what exactly her character has built up to. Right where the story should have kicked into high gear with Carly doing important main character stuff, it just ends. Imagine a whole origin book about Spiderman that ends right when Peter Parker realizes he has spider powers... pretty boring.
There is also a weird shift 2/3rds of the way in-- Carly had been described as fairly steadfast in her morals and concerned with doing the right thing; she was involved in bad stuff but generally came away retaining her moral outlook, and I generally found myself rooting for her. But then a chapter ends, an undisclosed amount of time apparently passes and then at the start of the next chapter Carly is a raging drug addict who has fully embraced the evil corporate lawyer ethos. This was so incredibly jarring that I assumed it was a dream sequence or something but... nope. The massive shift made it incredibly difficult to care about her fate, especially with how late it came. It could have made for good drama if it hadn't been so abrupt or late in the story-- do we really want the book to end with the main character becoming super unlikable?
The other aspect that made this impossible to love is how abstract it is. This is one of the flaws of this kind of speculative near-future SF: tech ends up evolving differently than the author guessed so when read decade(s) later it ends up feeling silly, anachronistic, and/or nonsensical. Basically the whole thing revolves around an internet that is nothing like the actual internet of today. So we have a differently abstract version of an already abstract thing, plus there is tons of in-world slang mixed with abstract jargon, legalese, and abstract tech described with abstract purple writing. The author also tries to overlay layers of mythology and psychology, which in theory is great-- but it just adds to the confusion. I don't feel like the ultimate revelation concerning Carly made much sense at all. I really like what the author TRIED to do, I just don't think the execution was effective.
Overall, some really really good stuff and incredible levels of detail, but a weak plot that felt like a backstory / build up to something else rather than its own story. Curious to see how the sequel is though.
On the upside, this perfectly captures that golden era of late 80s/early 90s cyberpunk. Dystopian, gritty, tech-focused, abstract, quirky, etc. One of my favorite aspects of this style is the focus on exaggerated and absurd dystopian society, and Lisa Mason truly excels at it. In that regard, Arachne fits right with genre classics Virtual Light and Snow Crash.
The level of detail is absolutely, unequivocally insane and commendable. Literally everything is described WAY beyond what is necessary. As someone who loves this style of detail-oriented writing, I did in fact love this... however, I have to be honest: its waaaay over the top. The plot is constantly put on hold to describe every random background thing for pages upon pages. In total the book is 90% description/infodump and 10% plot. However, while this style of writing ruined similar books like Trouble And Her Friends because the endless descriptive passages were about pointless mundanity, Lisa Mason at least succeeds in making all this description worthwhile because the world is so creative, fun, and darkly humorous. I really enjoyed reading about all the goofy dystopian shit happening in the background-- I just wish the author had reined it in to give more time to the actual important plot elements.
The characters are fairly well developed and interesting. Mason did a great job with Pr. Spinner, giving her an endearingly bitter and unique personality of being comically angry and vengeful towards humans in a Bender-esque way (the AI in this world gives Futurama vibes which is enjoyable). I wasn't sure initially about the Wolfe character, but ultimately he was an interesting, morally gray character with a fitting arc. The push-pull with Carly was done well. But I'm on the fence about Carly; it felt like the author couldn't decide what to do with the character-- is she an unlikable, spoiled, snooty, genetically perfect, lawyer? or is she relatable because she's conflicted? or is she admirable because she will become a hero? In the end, Carly didn't actually go in any direction and ended up being flat. I found it hard to care about what happened to her. Nuke it all bot, just give me more Spinner.
Despite the amazing cyberpunk vibes of the book, unfortunately it ended up being pretty weak overall. It honestly feels like an abbreviated prequel written as an addendum to the main book. The whole thing is building up to Carly being important, but the crux of it doesn't come until the very end. It's also completely unclear what exactly her character has built up to. Right where the story should have kicked into high gear with Carly doing important main character stuff, it just ends. Imagine a whole origin book about Spiderman that ends right when Peter Parker realizes he has spider powers... pretty boring.
There is also a weird shift 2/3rds of the way in-- Carly had been described as fairly steadfast in her morals and concerned with doing the right thing; she was involved in bad stuff but generally came away retaining her moral outlook, and I generally found myself rooting for her. But then a chapter ends, an undisclosed amount of time apparently passes and then at the start of the next chapter Carly is a raging drug addict who has fully embraced the evil corporate lawyer ethos. This was so incredibly jarring that I assumed it was a dream sequence or something but... nope. The massive shift made it incredibly difficult to care about her fate, especially with how late it came. It could have made for good drama if it hadn't been so abrupt or late in the story-- do we really want the book to end with the main character becoming super unlikable?
The other aspect that made this impossible to love is how abstract it is. This is one of the flaws of this kind of speculative near-future SF: tech ends up evolving differently than the author guessed so when read decade(s) later it ends up feeling silly, anachronistic, and/or nonsensical. Basically the whole thing revolves around an internet that is nothing like the actual internet of today. So we have a differently abstract version of an already abstract thing, plus there is tons of in-world slang mixed with abstract jargon, legalese, and abstract tech described with abstract purple writing. The author also tries to overlay layers of mythology and psychology, which in theory is great-- but it just adds to the confusion. I don't feel like the ultimate revelation concerning Carly made much sense at all. I really like what the author TRIED to do, I just don't think the execution was effective.
Overall, some really really good stuff and incredible levels of detail, but a weak plot that felt like a backstory / build up to something else rather than its own story. Curious to see how the sequel is though.
January 7, 2019
Carly Quester has been groomed from birth to be a pro-linker in telespace. She was part of the first generation to have their genes tweaked, started getting telelink modifications early, went to the right schools and is now on the fast track at Ava & Rice. At least she was until her link crashes during her first solo mediation. Now suspension is looming over her head with thousands of others ready to take her place. She gets some solace from D. Wolfe, a senior associate, who turns out to have his own problems. He has seen ghosts in telespace so he is very interested in how this pans out for Carly. What he's done up to now is use cram and abuse other substances.
Carly goes for an electropsy which gives her a clean bill of health, but does not explain the crash. To be certified for Prime Time again Carly has to have her telespace perimeter probed three times. She is disconcerted because the medcenter sengine has sent her to Prober Spinner, an AI, when she specifically requested human. Pr. Spinner has her own ambition, to gain an archtype, something that will allow her to be more than just a program.
Fun read, well developed characters, interesting future society. Telespace is not your run of the mill virtual reality. I was able to conceptualize it well enough for myself so the plot flowed smoothly and made the Carly and Pr. Spinner probe scenes informative and exciting. I am a little surprised to see Cyberweb was released five years after Arachne. Not that Arachne left some big cliffhanger, but it left society unchanged. Are the big corporations just going to keep on taking advantage of individuals? Is Carly going to be able to make a positive influence?
Carly goes for an electropsy which gives her a clean bill of health, but does not explain the crash. To be certified for Prime Time again Carly has to have her telespace perimeter probed three times. She is disconcerted because the medcenter sengine has sent her to Prober Spinner, an AI, when she specifically requested human. Pr. Spinner has her own ambition, to gain an archtype, something that will allow her to be more than just a program.
Fun read, well developed characters, interesting future society. Telespace is not your run of the mill virtual reality. I was able to conceptualize it well enough for myself so the plot flowed smoothly and made the Carly and Pr. Spinner probe scenes informative and exciting. I am a little surprised to see Cyberweb was released five years after Arachne. Not that Arachne left some big cliffhanger, but it left society unchanged. Are the big corporations just going to keep on taking advantage of individuals? Is Carly going to be able to make a positive influence?
July 9, 2023
There’s something about these early era cyberpunk books that seems impossible to recreate in today’s fiction. Computers and the internet were frontiers of untapped potential, so the minds of these authors were left to frolic as they pleased. Nowadays we are so jaded by the reality of technology that we tend to lose that innocent curiosity of what could be.
Arachne was a very good book and fit perfectly in the cyberpunk genre alongside the likes of Gibson and Williams. The tone and density of storytelling felt like I was reading a Gibson story, but it had a much more direct focus in its plot. The internet in Arachne is viewed similarly to your cliché 80s cyberpunk stories, but is simultaneously simpler and more complex. When “jacked in” human and AI linkers are viewed as simple geometric shapes, but the process of getting to “telespace” is built on complicated constructs called perimeters that lock your brainwaves into their proper digital trajectory.
However, some neural waves are known to break loose and create a spontaneous construct that bridges the gap between human and digital. But this is where the great twist lies for the book’s resolution. A resolution that, while convoluted as only early cyberpunk can be, made for an entertaining read.
Arachne was a very good book and fit perfectly in the cyberpunk genre alongside the likes of Gibson and Williams. The tone and density of storytelling felt like I was reading a Gibson story, but it had a much more direct focus in its plot. The internet in Arachne is viewed similarly to your cliché 80s cyberpunk stories, but is simultaneously simpler and more complex. When “jacked in” human and AI linkers are viewed as simple geometric shapes, but the process of getting to “telespace” is built on complicated constructs called perimeters that lock your brainwaves into their proper digital trajectory.
However, some neural waves are known to break loose and create a spontaneous construct that bridges the gap between human and digital. But this is where the great twist lies for the book’s resolution. A resolution that, while convoluted as only early cyberpunk can be, made for an entertaining read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 12, 2017
My rating flip-flopped about twenty times as I read this book. I went from liking it to loving it to disliking it in the span of 263 pages. I love cyberpunk type settings as I read a ton of Shadowrun and while the world that Ms. Mason had created was interesting, it was hard to like as was the main character, Carly Nolan. Carly is very shallow and while the author certainly tried to assert her as a woman of power and ambition, Carly never got above an entitled spoiled lawyer who should have it all. In my opinion, the A.I. Bot, Pr. Spinner actually had more personality combined than the other two main characters, Carly and Wolfe. But the most disconcerting thing was that by the end of the book, it had descended into a drug story. It wasn't about lawyers or a futuristic world or overcoming obstacles...it was about the dangers of illegal drugs. That's ultimately what turned me off and led me down to the "2" rating. It's not a bad book, it just fell off the deep end.
March 21, 2020
I'm being generous. I guess if a novel about cyberpunk attorneys were my thing, I might like it. As it is, unfortunately, I found it rather boring.
September 17, 2007
I read this book one long sick night. It is imaginative on a high scale. My copy has a different cover of course from a different publisher.. hehehe It explores the depth of what humanity might go through in the not so distant future. It bills itself as cyberpunk.. but it goes far beyond that. It makes us look inside ourselves and ponder deep philosophical issues. I am very picky with my sci fi, and this book has made it into my permanent collection. =)
February 9, 2013
The best book I've ever read that contains the phrase "People's Republic of Berkeley."
That's not much of a review, so I'll say this: it's actually really good, but I docked a star because the ending comes out of nowhere, and feels a bit like the author said "Oh, I forgot that I was writing a cyberpunk book, let's throw a bunch of bad shit at the fan and watch the aftermath." :/
Good stuff aside from that, though. Spinner reminds me a lot of a friend of mine.
That's not much of a review, so I'll say this: it's actually really good, but I docked a star because the ending comes out of nowhere, and feels a bit like the author said "Oh, I forgot that I was writing a cyberpunk book, let's throw a bunch of bad shit at the fan and watch the aftermath." :/
Good stuff aside from that, though. Spinner reminds me a lot of a friend of mine.
October 6, 2011
An interesting attempt to blend cyberpunk tech with what read like some flavor of Jungian analysis. The AIs were a bit too human for
me to believe in them and the book ended at a point that suggested it had been cut in two to create a sequel.
me to believe in them and the book ended at a point that suggested it had been cut in two to create a sequel.
September 18, 2010
very unappealing characters
December 13, 2011
Plenty of setting, but not much in the way of story or characters.
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