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SYNNERS: Ein Cyberpunk-Roman
Sex, Drogen und Video - darum dreht sich das Leben vieler junger Menschen auch im 21. Jahrhundert. Nur kommt noch etwas Aufregendes hinzu, etwas, das unheimlich antörnt, das dich aber auch schaffen und ausknipsen kann: das Synning, das Interface mit der elektronischen Apokalypse, der Trip in die irrsinnigen Welten der Realitäts-Synthesizer.
Synners, erstmals im Jahr 1991 veröffentlicht, ist der zweite Roman von Pat Cadigan, der Queen Of Cyberpunk, und wurde 1992 mit dem Arthur-C.-Clarke-Award ausgezeichnet.
Der Apex-Verlag veröffentlicht diesen Klassiker der Cyberpunk-Literatur als durchgesehene Neuausgabe, ins Deutsche übersetzt von Michael Windgassen.
558 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 1991
About the author
Pat Cadigan
263 books447 followersPat Cadigan is an American-born science fiction author, who broke through as a major writer as part of the cyberpunk movement. Her early novels and stories all shared a common theme, exploring the relationship between the human mind and technology.
Her first novel, Mindplayers, introduced what became a common theme to all her works. Her stories blurred the line between reality and perception by making the human mind a real and explorable place. Her second novel, Synners, expanded upon the same theme, and featured a future where direct access to the mind via technology was in fact possible.
She has won a number of awards, including the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award twice,in 1992, and 1995 for her novels Synners and Fools.
She currently lives in London, England with her family.
Her first novel, Mindplayers, introduced what became a common theme to all her works. Her stories blurred the line between reality and perception by making the human mind a real and explorable place. Her second novel, Synners, expanded upon the same theme, and featured a future where direct access to the mind via technology was in fact possible.
She has won a number of awards, including the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award twice,in 1992, and 1995 for her novels Synners and Fools.
She currently lives in London, England with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 222 reviews
February 8, 2017
Cyberpunk.
Is it all pretty much a mess wrapped up with mirror shades and spinal shunts, hacking and guns?
NOT this one!
Well, it was pretty much a mess of characters and mediots for more than half the novel and I'll be honest, I was rather mystified and wondering where the novel was going or whether it WAS going anywhere. It felt like a random number generator approach to novelization. We had a bunch of friends all interconnected on the media-train in all different positions or outside of the corporate loop, and most of it was fairly interesting in and of itself, but then I kept asking myself... Where is this going? It felt like a discovery novel. As in, the author is throwing out everything and she's just gonna get there when she gets there.
Which is fine, but I truly had to wonder. As a coherency thing, I got through something like 70% of the novel and I was CERTAIN that I was going to give it a 2 star rating. I was SO over it. I didn't like it. I didn't care.
So what happened?
Well, apparently, Cadigan pulled one hell of a magic trick on us, or she just poured over her text with a VERY fine comb in prep for the rewrite and then just produced GENIUS, wrapping up all these character threads into something really freaking amazing for the last 30% of the novel.
Total vindication.
All those bits and pieces came shining out of the page and turned this hot mess of a novel into something profound, technologically awesome, and strange.
I wouldn't say that I'd like to read this again anytime soon, perhaps, because it was something of a chore, but the satisfaction quotient is WAY up there. She knows how to pull of ENDINGS. Wow.
This was the dark horse of all novels. :)
And it turned out pretty punk-ish by the end, too, but no guns. It's a nice change for the genre. :)
Is it all pretty much a mess wrapped up with mirror shades and spinal shunts, hacking and guns?
NOT this one!
Well, it was pretty much a mess of characters and mediots for more than half the novel and I'll be honest, I was rather mystified and wondering where the novel was going or whether it WAS going anywhere. It felt like a random number generator approach to novelization. We had a bunch of friends all interconnected on the media-train in all different positions or outside of the corporate loop, and most of it was fairly interesting in and of itself, but then I kept asking myself... Where is this going? It felt like a discovery novel. As in, the author is throwing out everything and she's just gonna get there when she gets there.
Which is fine, but I truly had to wonder. As a coherency thing, I got through something like 70% of the novel and I was CERTAIN that I was going to give it a 2 star rating. I was SO over it. I didn't like it. I didn't care.
So what happened?
Well, apparently, Cadigan pulled one hell of a magic trick on us, or she just poured over her text with a VERY fine comb in prep for the rewrite and then just produced GENIUS, wrapping up all these character threads into something really freaking amazing for the last 30% of the novel.
Total vindication.
All those bits and pieces came shining out of the page and turned this hot mess of a novel into something profound, technologically awesome, and strange.
I wouldn't say that I'd like to read this again anytime soon, perhaps, because it was something of a chore, but the satisfaction quotient is WAY up there. She knows how to pull of ENDINGS. Wow.
This was the dark horse of all novels. :)
And it turned out pretty punk-ish by the end, too, but no guns. It's a nice change for the genre. :)
January 7, 2013
Took me three times through to be fairly sure I had all there was in this book, when I first read it back in the early 90s. It's dense. It's cryptic. Its narrative cuts are very, very sharp. It's got its own slang and a heap of expert-IT-argot and it bristles with wicked lines. "If you can't eat it or fuck it and it can't dance, throw it away." - "Ninety percent of life is being there, and the other ten percent is being there on time." And the key-motif, the one the whole book's about: "Change for the machines." O my, yes, that still works best of all.
The characters are nearly as sharp as the lines, and the world-building is neat - info-LA plugged into every form of VR there was, from appetite-suppressant implants to insty-parties for the suburban wannabes, via somebody's gypsy cam and somebody else's wired up hot-suit. It has excellent space opera sub-stories, and wild ideas about the old SF chestnuts like, What is Human. To quote the other catch-phrase, is all that far enough up the stupidsphere for you?
With 20 years and change since the first time, I worried that, like so many near-future cutting edge novels, it wouldn't work when the future catches up. But *Synners* makes it in spades. The info-scene is actually right on line, the comp. science was so well done that it hardly feels dated. The frenzy about viruses is all that seems a bit retrospective now. But the people are still cool. And the lines are still sharp. And the story still whacks along like Metallica on fast forward, and the scenarios haven't lost an inch of punch. Esp. the melt-down viral breakout and the last showdown on the virtual lake-shore - quick nod to "Stranger on the Shore" there - with its scene-jumping almost as fast and confusing for the reader as it is for Gina and Gabe. A few books aren't just a good read but become a world you don't want to leave. I'm happy Synners is still one in my small pile of those. Anyone too far up in the stupidsphere to whack to it, in Synnerspeak - and a number of reviewers seem to have been -well, that's a real shame for her or him.
The characters are nearly as sharp as the lines, and the world-building is neat - info-LA plugged into every form of VR there was, from appetite-suppressant implants to insty-parties for the suburban wannabes, via somebody's gypsy cam and somebody else's wired up hot-suit. It has excellent space opera sub-stories, and wild ideas about the old SF chestnuts like, What is Human. To quote the other catch-phrase, is all that far enough up the stupidsphere for you?
With 20 years and change since the first time, I worried that, like so many near-future cutting edge novels, it wouldn't work when the future catches up. But *Synners* makes it in spades. The info-scene is actually right on line, the comp. science was so well done that it hardly feels dated. The frenzy about viruses is all that seems a bit retrospective now. But the people are still cool. And the lines are still sharp. And the story still whacks along like Metallica on fast forward, and the scenarios haven't lost an inch of punch. Esp. the melt-down viral breakout and the last showdown on the virtual lake-shore - quick nod to "Stranger on the Shore" there - with its scene-jumping almost as fast and confusing for the reader as it is for Gina and Gabe. A few books aren't just a good read but become a world you don't want to leave. I'm happy Synners is still one in my small pile of those. Anyone too far up in the stupidsphere to whack to it, in Synnerspeak - and a number of reviewers seem to have been -well, that's a real shame for her or him.
September 18, 2019
There is a great deal to enjoy and admire about this prescient, trippy novel: its energetic, jazzy prose; its efforts to imagine and bring to life virtual reality experiences long before virtual reality experiences were made real (it was published in 1990); and its colorful cast of characters, especially the foul-mouthed, driven, prone-to-fisticuffs Gina. But ultimately it spins its narrative wheels a bit too much over the course of its several hundred pages, and the climax devolves into near-incoherence. I’m glad to have read it, and it’s definitely way more satisfying than some of the other 3-star reads on my shelf, but I also wanted more from it in the end.
January 23, 2023
3.0 Stars
I am hit or miss with the cyberpunk subgenre and unfortunately this one fell flat for me. It was… fine, but I failed to connect to the characters or get immersed in the worldbuilding. I am just disappointed but I hope this would be a new favourite.
I am hit or miss with the cyberpunk subgenre and unfortunately this one fell flat for me. It was… fine, but I failed to connect to the characters or get immersed in the worldbuilding. I am just disappointed but I hope this would be a new favourite.
November 20, 2019
All appropriate technology hurt somebody. A whole lot of somebodies. Nuclear fusion, the fucking Ford assembly line, the fucking airplane. Fire, for Christ's sake. Every technology has its original sin.
Rating: 2.5 stars, rounded down.
Done. Done, done, done, done... DONE.
The ideas were certainly interesting. Hell, the characters were interesting. However, the story could have been told in about half the time. And, most importantly, the presentation could have been done in a way that didn't make me feel "toxed" for the majority of the book. Reading it felt like the the longest fucking trip of my life. Now, where are the Cheetos?
Rating: 2.5 stars, rounded down.
Done. Done, done, done, done... DONE.
The ideas were certainly interesting. Hell, the characters were interesting. However, the story could have been told in about half the time. And, most importantly, the presentation could have been done in a way that didn't make me feel "toxed" for the majority of the book. Reading it felt like the the longest fucking trip of my life. Now, where are the Cheetos?
Did Not Finish
October 7, 2016DNF @ 116 pages
I gave this a shot but can't muster any enthusiasm to continue. I have no idea what is going on (but nothing about it has inspired me to persevere to discover) there are too many characters to keep track of, and I am finding the writing style jarring. I don't think cyberpunk is my thing.
I gave this a shot but can't muster any enthusiasm to continue. I have no idea what is going on (but nothing about it has inspired me to persevere to discover) there are too many characters to keep track of, and I am finding the writing style jarring. I don't think cyberpunk is my thing.
September 15, 2019
This is a cyberpunk novel with musicians instead of shades-wearing hackers. It was nominated for Nebula in 1991. I read it as a part of Monthly reads in Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels for September 2019.
The story follows multiple characters and starts with a twist:
"I'm going to die," said Jones.
The statuesque tattoo artist paused between the lotuses she was applying to the arm of the space case lolling half-conscious in the chair. "What, again?"
The following first third of the book introduces a number of diverse characters (with unusual for the time strong female cast), who are (in no particular order): a musical video producer, young and old hackers, a producer of interactive immersing games, based on old movies, several musicians, a low rank manager, ready to kill in order to advance, a sentient AI. Because the reader falls in the midst of the story, it moistly reads as ‘wtf is happening?’
As story progresses we, readers get a better understanding what’s going on and there is an interesting mix of great predictions and errors that seem obvious. The most glaring inconsistency is an absence of web search engine, like Google now and AltaVista in 1995. Yes, the web itself was announced in 1990 and first web-searchers appeared in 1993 but search function was used earlier both on local computers and pre-WWW networks. Instead in the book they crawl through directory trees. The strongest prediction is user-generated video content (think YouTube).
From reviews here on GR many reviewers were impressed by the ending and upped their ratings due to it. For me it was yes, unusual, but nothing extraordinary. To evade spoilers there is a lengthy adventure in virtual reality that constantly reshapes earlier memories and experiences of the characters, a bit like Elysium. The concept is interesting but I wasn’t enamored with execution.
"They might yet. 'Truth is cheap, but information costs.' I can't remember who said that."
"Vince What's-His-Name," said Sam. "Died in a terrorist raid or something. I thought you said all information should be free."
"It should. It isn't. Knowledge is power. But power corrupts. Which means the Age of Fast Information is an extremely corrupt age in which to live."
"Aren't they all?" Sam asked him.
He smiled his dreamy little smile at her. "Ah, but I think we're approaching a kind of corruption unlike anything we've ever known before, Sam-I-Am. Sometimes I think we may be on the verge of an original sin."
"TV and more TV. It looks like something out of an old movie," Sam said. "Forty, fifty years ago, they were always dragging out the TV screens when they wanted to show what the glorious future would look like. As if the future was just going to be more TV."
They'd be cut off from the rest of the world. Sam couldn't remember a time in her life when that had ever happened before; twenty-four hours a day every day for almost eighteen years, she had been within arm's reach of outside contact; the idea of not having anything made her feel claustrophobic, and she said so.
"I've never thought of it that way," Fez told her. "Though I must admit, I've felt antsy since the dataline went down. It bothers me that I can't press a button and check on the rest of the world, or at least the small parts of it that I'm interested in. I'm not the only one. You haven't been able to walk around and see it, dear, but the irritability threshold around here is lower than it used to be. We're not in our natural habitat anymore. We've become denizens of the net. Homo datum."
"Synners."
The story follows multiple characters and starts with a twist:
"I'm going to die," said Jones.
The statuesque tattoo artist paused between the lotuses she was applying to the arm of the space case lolling half-conscious in the chair. "What, again?"
The following first third of the book introduces a number of diverse characters (with unusual for the time strong female cast), who are (in no particular order): a musical video producer, young and old hackers, a producer of interactive immersing games, based on old movies, several musicians, a low rank manager, ready to kill in order to advance, a sentient AI. Because the reader falls in the midst of the story, it moistly reads as ‘wtf is happening?’
As story progresses we, readers get a better understanding what’s going on and there is an interesting mix of great predictions and errors that seem obvious. The most glaring inconsistency is an absence of web search engine, like Google now and AltaVista in 1995. Yes, the web itself was announced in 1990 and first web-searchers appeared in 1993 but search function was used earlier both on local computers and pre-WWW networks. Instead in the book they crawl through directory trees. The strongest prediction is user-generated video content (think YouTube).
From reviews here on GR many reviewers were impressed by the ending and upped their ratings due to it. For me it was yes, unusual, but nothing extraordinary. To evade spoilers there is a lengthy adventure in virtual reality that constantly reshapes earlier memories and experiences of the characters, a bit like Elysium. The concept is interesting but I wasn’t enamored with execution.
"They might yet. 'Truth is cheap, but information costs.' I can't remember who said that."
"Vince What's-His-Name," said Sam. "Died in a terrorist raid or something. I thought you said all information should be free."
"It should. It isn't. Knowledge is power. But power corrupts. Which means the Age of Fast Information is an extremely corrupt age in which to live."
"Aren't they all?" Sam asked him.
He smiled his dreamy little smile at her. "Ah, but I think we're approaching a kind of corruption unlike anything we've ever known before, Sam-I-Am. Sometimes I think we may be on the verge of an original sin."
"TV and more TV. It looks like something out of an old movie," Sam said. "Forty, fifty years ago, they were always dragging out the TV screens when they wanted to show what the glorious future would look like. As if the future was just going to be more TV."
They'd be cut off from the rest of the world. Sam couldn't remember a time in her life when that had ever happened before; twenty-four hours a day every day for almost eighteen years, she had been within arm's reach of outside contact; the idea of not having anything made her feel claustrophobic, and she said so.
"I've never thought of it that way," Fez told her. "Though I must admit, I've felt antsy since the dataline went down. It bothers me that I can't press a button and check on the rest of the world, or at least the small parts of it that I'm interested in. I'm not the only one. You haven't been able to walk around and see it, dear, but the irritability threshold around here is lower than it used to be. We're not in our natural habitat anymore. We've become denizens of the net. Homo datum."
"Synners."
July 11, 2022
"If you don't believe you can be in two places at once, you've forgotten everything you've learned."
A difficult book to get into, but once you hit the 100th-page mark or so, it becomes absolutely impossible to put it down. Unusually for an SF work, almost every character (and the cast is spectacular all-round) gets some psychological exploration, which gives Synners a fabulously personal touch. I'll have to make sure to read more by Cadigan.
A difficult book to get into, but once you hit the 100th-page mark or so, it becomes absolutely impossible to put it down. Unusually for an SF work, almost every character (and the cast is spectacular all-round) gets some psychological exploration, which gives Synners a fabulously personal touch. I'll have to make sure to read more by Cadigan.
September 1, 2011
I'd kinda forgotten how much I love good cyberpunk until I read this. Turns out I really really like it.
Interestingly, in many ways this feels like a prequel to much of the cyberpunk I've read. The main contention is the invention of putting sockets into people's heads to allow them to experience and manipulate the datelines (read: internet) more directly... the result of which, or something similar, is what Gibson and Scott and their friends are basically examining. So from a 'getting started' perspective I found this book really awesome, and in lots of other ways too.
Cadigan takes the 'cast of thousands' approach, using multiple perspectives (although always in third person) to show lots of different dimensions and angles to the story. There were times at which this was a bit confusing, but on reflection I wonder if this wasn't done intentionally. There were quite a few chapters which shifted perspective where the new character could have been one of several, and it's only revealed whose story we're reading after a page or so. This contributed to the fairly frenetic feel that the entire book indulges in, which is largely appropriate given the madness that ensues in the second half of the story. It's also very nice because the variety of characters and their individual stories give wonderful perspective and insight into different aspects of the story. Which I liked.
The world Cadigan has created is simultaneously a bit dated - it was published in 1991 - but, once some of the terms are translated, also quite recognisable. She talks of datalines and how people get their news; that's basically souped-up data retrieval services and massively hyped up RSS readers that do the work for you. And then they use the sockets initially to rev up rock music videos, which is just such an hysterically funny idea that the sheer bizarreness just carried me away giggling and happily belief-suspended. Also, there's a lot of drug use. Which is perhaps neither here nor there, but also certainly adds to the manicness.
The plot revolves around the introduction of sockets and what that might mean for society, with a whole lot of corporate hijinkery and espionage and hackery as well. There's a father/daughter relationship that pops up every now and then - not something you see every day in this sort of futuristic novel - as well as, somewhat surprisingly when you see the characters, a love story that's not very romantic in one way, but actually really is sweet in a fierce I'll-deck-you sort of way. Plus a load of bizarre and whacked friendships and enmities that go a long way towards populating this world with dysfunctional but quite entertaining characters.
This was my first Cadigan novel. I'll be coming back for more. (In fact I have Tea from an Empty Cup sitting on my shelf....)
July 29, 2016
This was the pick of the month for the #LadyVaults on #MagicalSpacePussycats and so, naturally, I read it. It was my first foray into Cyberpunk, and it was MiNdBeNdInG! This was written during the early stage of the web, and yet it is jammed full of new ideas, and ideas which really have happened. A story filled with hackers and VR, simulations and big bad corporations...definitely a little scary when compared to our world, but also very imaginative!
One element which I did like about this was the sheer amount of female characters. A lot of the time I read books by male authors when reading SFF and I think over time that has made me accept the 'token' women in the story more than I should. This book, being written by a lady, has about a 50/50 split of male/female characters, and that alone was truly refreshing.
I will say if you want to dive into this it is probably going to be a challenge for you if it's your first Cyberpunk (like me) but if you push on it does have some very cool moments. I definitely enjoyed reading this and the experience it gave me, coming waaay out of my comfort zone. Overall a 3.5* from me.
*** If you want to hear spoiler-y discussion of this book it will be featured in Magical Space Pussycats Podcast Ep. 3 which should go up next week, so keep a look out for that :D ***
One element which I did like about this was the sheer amount of female characters. A lot of the time I read books by male authors when reading SFF and I think over time that has made me accept the 'token' women in the story more than I should. This book, being written by a lady, has about a 50/50 split of male/female characters, and that alone was truly refreshing.
I will say if you want to dive into this it is probably going to be a challenge for you if it's your first Cyberpunk (like me) but if you push on it does have some very cool moments. I definitely enjoyed reading this and the experience it gave me, coming waaay out of my comfort zone. Overall a 3.5* from me.
*** If you want to hear spoiler-y discussion of this book it will be featured in Magical Space Pussycats Podcast Ep. 3 which should go up next week, so keep a look out for that :D ***
July 24, 2025
We zijn niet vies van een flinke dosis cyberpunk en begonnen in de Franse Alpen gretig aan Synners van Pat Cadigan, dat god-weet-hoe op onze radar verschenen was.
Synners verkent de koppeling tussen het menselijke brein en de computerwereld en speelt zich af in het Los Angeles van begin jaren '90 dat na een grote aardbeving deels verloedert is. Mensen gebruiken dagdagelijks iets wat erg op het internet lijkt en kunnen met haptische pakken en hoofdschermen ook toegang krijgen tot een virtuele wereld. In die context volgen we enerzijds een groep hackers die zich gretig uitleeft in de digitale én de echte wereld: feestjes worden live-gestreamd en de videocultuur neemt het helemaal over van live-muziekconcerten. Anderzijds volgen we de grootindustrie die de mogelijkheden van die digitale revolutie schaamteloos ten gelde wil maken.
Het implanteren van poorten in mensen hun brein moet hen rechtstreeks toegang geven tot de virtuele en digitale wereld en voor een ongekende revolutie zorgen, maar al snel loopt het helemaal mis.
Synners bouwt vlot op en sleept je genadeloos mee in de groezelige, coole setting van de ondergrondse hackers en ontwikkeld een spannende, goed uitgewerkte en doordachte plot. De meeste personages blijven moeiteloos overeind en de onderlinge relaties zijn geloofwaardig en goed met het verhaal verweven.
Waar het hem een beetje schort is in de afwikkeling van de plot: die sleepte langer aan dan we wensten en vergde een behoorlijke inspanning. Geen spijt dat we dit gelezen hebben, maar 100 bladzijde korter en een plot die net wat meer geaard was, had ons een pak meer bevallen.
Synners verkent de koppeling tussen het menselijke brein en de computerwereld en speelt zich af in het Los Angeles van begin jaren '90 dat na een grote aardbeving deels verloedert is. Mensen gebruiken dagdagelijks iets wat erg op het internet lijkt en kunnen met haptische pakken en hoofdschermen ook toegang krijgen tot een virtuele wereld. In die context volgen we enerzijds een groep hackers die zich gretig uitleeft in de digitale én de echte wereld: feestjes worden live-gestreamd en de videocultuur neemt het helemaal over van live-muziekconcerten. Anderzijds volgen we de grootindustrie die de mogelijkheden van die digitale revolutie schaamteloos ten gelde wil maken.
Het implanteren van poorten in mensen hun brein moet hen rechtstreeks toegang geven tot de virtuele en digitale wereld en voor een ongekende revolutie zorgen, maar al snel loopt het helemaal mis.
Synners bouwt vlot op en sleept je genadeloos mee in de groezelige, coole setting van de ondergrondse hackers en ontwikkeld een spannende, goed uitgewerkte en doordachte plot. De meeste personages blijven moeiteloos overeind en de onderlinge relaties zijn geloofwaardig en goed met het verhaal verweven.
Waar het hem een beetje schort is in de afwikkeling van de plot: die sleepte langer aan dan we wensten en vergde een behoorlijke inspanning. Geen spijt dat we dit gelezen hebben, maar 100 bladzijde korter en een plot die net wat meer geaard was, had ons een pak meer bevallen.
December 7, 2025
Synners is a classic cyberpunk novel from 1991, set in future Los Angeles where a new brain socket technology allows people to plug directly into virtual reality. The main characters, a motley group of outlaw hackers and corporate sellouts, attempt to survive the chaos this unleashes. I was much less impressed with Synners than Fools, another of Cadigan's sci-fi novels. Fools has a fairly taut and controlled narrative while Synners is sprawling and long-winded. I guess sprawl is appropriate to the LA setting. In fact, I think the background details were my favourite parts. Notably, Cadigan correctly predicts that data-driven car routing software will not improve LA's terrible congestion problems. The narrative is held together by various frequently-repeated snappy phrases, notably Change For The Machines. I found some of these more effective than others. The treatment of AI didn't really work for me, although I can imagine it having more impact when the book was first published. I found the horror (especially body horror) elements of the socket tech were stronger. Overall, though, I wished Synners was shorter and more focused on fewer characters. The ensemble aren't developed enough to become truly interesting and the plot meanders.
February 24, 2017
I did not get very far with this one. I found Cadigan's writing extremely irritating. I felt like she was trying too hard to be cool, down with the kids. The story is about tattooed druggie hackers who listen to rock music and go against a big corporate record label, or something.
At the start of chapter 2, one character (who is of course very cool) is in court, wondering whether she will be found guilty of anything and charged. The speculation concludes with:
'Fuck it, what difference did one more charge make, anyway? The fines would clean her out and then some, one more garnishment on her wages, so-fucking-what. All she cared about now was getting back on the street'
Later, she wonders what her BFF Mark is doing:
'But the best question was what the fuck was Mark doing there all on his own without a word to her. She and Mark were in it together, always had been. They'd been in it together in the beginning, and when Galen had bought most of the video-production company out from under the Beater, and they'd been in it together when Galen had let the monster conglomerate take EyeTraxx over from him, and they were supposed to be in it together the day after tomorrow, when they were due to show up for their first full day working for the monster conglomerate.'
Cadigan is so fucking cool that she italicises the word 'fuck'.
I gave up at page 36. Not my thing.
At the start of chapter 2, one character (who is of course very cool) is in court, wondering whether she will be found guilty of anything and charged. The speculation concludes with:
'Fuck it, what difference did one more charge make, anyway? The fines would clean her out and then some, one more garnishment on her wages, so-fucking-what. All she cared about now was getting back on the street'
Later, she wonders what her BFF Mark is doing:
'But the best question was what the fuck was Mark doing there all on his own without a word to her. She and Mark were in it together, always had been. They'd been in it together in the beginning, and when Galen had bought most of the video-production company out from under the Beater, and they'd been in it together when Galen had let the monster conglomerate take EyeTraxx over from him, and they were supposed to be in it together the day after tomorrow, when they were due to show up for their first full day working for the monster conglomerate.'
Cadigan is so fucking cool that she italicises the word 'fuck'.
I gave up at page 36. Not my thing.
August 21, 2015
I have often joked at work that I can't wait for the day when I can just plug in and let my company use my brain-power while I entertain myself with a book. It's a fun thought, but Synners explores what that might really be like. What if we could get information out of our heads as easily as thinking? What if we could experience things virtually by inputting sensory information directly into our brains? For Gina, Gabe, and Visual Mark the invention of "sockets" in conjunction with brain mapping lets that happen. At first they use it to create immersive "movies" and music videos, but soon it becomes clear how much they have to "change for the machines", a phrase used by several characters to describe their feelings about technological advances.
The three main characters, each a creator of virtual reality entertainment, have different reactions to sockets. Gina is the least accepting of the technology. She is already used to chasing Visual Mark around in real life, pulling him out of drugged stupors and trying to steer him in productive directions. She long ago gave up the idea of them as a couple, but still sees their lives as permanently and intimately twined. She receives sockets to try to maintain her connection to Mark when the large corporation they work for decides they are giving Mark sockets whether she comes along or not. Her relationship to the sockets is adversarial. Though she creates music videos when needed, she makes no effort to soften the impact of her thoughts. If they want a fall in the video, she makes sure it is a terrifying fall.
Mark is on the far other end of the spectrum. He has always been extremely creative and used drugs as a way to temper his own thoughts. Now that he has sockets he abandons his body and learns to use the technology around him as his senses and limbs. He can finally get his visualizations out of him in all of their glory.
Gabe is somewhere in between. Before the sockets he spent most of his time with virtual companions in a virtual world he'd cludged together and which mutated in unexpected, but desirable, ways. He was used to his companions and the technology he had to interact with them. He turned out just enough work to stay employed. When sockets made the technology he was used to obsolete, he had a hard time adjusting. They promised him that it would be easier to create virtual scenarios, after all, it only took a thought, but he found it hard to master his own thoughts. He used to fit so comfortably into the world he had created. The creation of the world, once catalyzed did not require his intervention, just his participation. After the sockets he stood in his own way when creating things that required his concentration. The sockets demanded that he be the ever-present master of his imaginings.
What is interesting about these characters as a set, especially to the reader who may live to see such technologies, is that they are all middle-aged. They have history and complications that younger characters do not. They remember when virtual reality and brain manipulation technologies were in their infancy and those of their generation that were going to wash out already have. They are survivors who don't spend their day blissed out on their own brain implants or slaves to their datafeeds. The stratification of society into mindless consumers, renegade innovators, ultrapowerful elites, and survivors, is a hallmark of cyberpunk. In a lot of cyberpunk books, the hero is one of the renegade innovators, i.e. hackers, but Cadigan chose the survivors instead and it makes the characters more relateable.
'Ah. I thought you looked like you needed, um, change for the machines.' Gabe shrugged self-consciously; he could feel the entire common room watching.
The man's smile was unexpectedly broad and sunny. 'That's a good way to put it. How did you know? [...] My whole life has been, "Okay, change for the machines." Every time they bring in a new machine, more change.'
-Synners (SF Masterworks edition) pg 105
Cadigan also has a way with words that twists the reader to see things in a new light. For example, the phrase "change for the machines" which is echoed throughout the book was first introduced in a scene shortly after Visual Mark's small music video production company was acquired by Diversification Inc, a huge conglomerate. He wanders into an employee meet-and-greet to use the coffee vending machine and after a while of patting himself down Gabe offers him "change for the machines". Mark immediately latches on to that phrase and has a private epiphany about the nature of humanity as it relates to immersive technology. The reader is privy to the slow unfolding of this epiphany.
This isn't the only example of the beauty of Cadigan's writing, but it is the most easily encapsulated. I originally picked up this book because I heard Cadigan speak on a panel at Lonestarcon 3 (that year's Worldcon). Now I can't wait to reread Synners and then tear through everything she's published hoping to absorb just a little of the magic into my own writing.
The three main characters, each a creator of virtual reality entertainment, have different reactions to sockets. Gina is the least accepting of the technology. She is already used to chasing Visual Mark around in real life, pulling him out of drugged stupors and trying to steer him in productive directions. She long ago gave up the idea of them as a couple, but still sees their lives as permanently and intimately twined. She receives sockets to try to maintain her connection to Mark when the large corporation they work for decides they are giving Mark sockets whether she comes along or not. Her relationship to the sockets is adversarial. Though she creates music videos when needed, she makes no effort to soften the impact of her thoughts. If they want a fall in the video, she makes sure it is a terrifying fall.
Mark is on the far other end of the spectrum. He has always been extremely creative and used drugs as a way to temper his own thoughts. Now that he has sockets he abandons his body and learns to use the technology around him as his senses and limbs. He can finally get his visualizations out of him in all of their glory.
Gabe is somewhere in between. Before the sockets he spent most of his time with virtual companions in a virtual world he'd cludged together and which mutated in unexpected, but desirable, ways. He was used to his companions and the technology he had to interact with them. He turned out just enough work to stay employed. When sockets made the technology he was used to obsolete, he had a hard time adjusting. They promised him that it would be easier to create virtual scenarios, after all, it only took a thought, but he found it hard to master his own thoughts. He used to fit so comfortably into the world he had created. The creation of the world, once catalyzed did not require his intervention, just his participation. After the sockets he stood in his own way when creating things that required his concentration. The sockets demanded that he be the ever-present master of his imaginings.
What is interesting about these characters as a set, especially to the reader who may live to see such technologies, is that they are all middle-aged. They have history and complications that younger characters do not. They remember when virtual reality and brain manipulation technologies were in their infancy and those of their generation that were going to wash out already have. They are survivors who don't spend their day blissed out on their own brain implants or slaves to their datafeeds. The stratification of society into mindless consumers, renegade innovators, ultrapowerful elites, and survivors, is a hallmark of cyberpunk. In a lot of cyberpunk books, the hero is one of the renegade innovators, i.e. hackers, but Cadigan chose the survivors instead and it makes the characters more relateable.
'Ah. I thought you looked like you needed, um, change for the machines.' Gabe shrugged self-consciously; he could feel the entire common room watching.
The man's smile was unexpectedly broad and sunny. 'That's a good way to put it. How did you know? [...] My whole life has been, "Okay, change for the machines." Every time they bring in a new machine, more change.'
-Synners (SF Masterworks edition) pg 105
Cadigan also has a way with words that twists the reader to see things in a new light. For example, the phrase "change for the machines" which is echoed throughout the book was first introduced in a scene shortly after Visual Mark's small music video production company was acquired by Diversification Inc, a huge conglomerate. He wanders into an employee meet-and-greet to use the coffee vending machine and after a while of patting himself down Gabe offers him "change for the machines". Mark immediately latches on to that phrase and has a private epiphany about the nature of humanity as it relates to immersive technology. The reader is privy to the slow unfolding of this epiphany.
This isn't the only example of the beauty of Cadigan's writing, but it is the most easily encapsulated. I originally picked up this book because I heard Cadigan speak on a panel at Lonestarcon 3 (that year's Worldcon). Now I can't wait to reread Synners and then tear through everything she's published hoping to absorb just a little of the magic into my own writing.
September 21, 2019
I really wanted to like the book. The characters were good. Cadigan manages to avoid needless exposition, trusting her readers to puzzle the pieces together. Cadigan could also foresee many of the developments of the Web impressively.
But none of that really compensates for the fact that Synners was so boring. I was reminded a lot of the movie Interstellar: at first the story seemed interesting and had good if not new ideas, but then it gets bogged down and the ending degenerates into a pile of sentimental woo-woo.
Synners was twice as long as it should've been. Cadigan has writing skill, but she doesn't seem to really know how to "kill her darlings", as they say. This book is filled with darling moments that should've been cut.
But none of that really compensates for the fact that Synners was so boring. I was reminded a lot of the movie Interstellar: at first the story seemed interesting and had good if not new ideas, but then it gets bogged down and the ending degenerates into a pile of sentimental woo-woo.
Synners was twice as long as it should've been. Cadigan has writing skill, but she doesn't seem to really know how to "kill her darlings", as they say. This book is filled with darling moments that should've been cut.
September 10, 2019
(3,5/5) Es un libro muy interesante, probablemente más leído con la perspectiva del tiempo, pero como novela más bien fallida. Creo que la complejidad de la propuesta se le va de las manos. Me parece recomendable para los aficionados a la ciencia ficción y da para una buena discusión. Los personajes son geniales.
October 10, 2024
Read this for the first time years ago. I brought it up in a discussions so I should shelve it. Every time I read it, it feels more prophetic.
‘Ah. I thought you looked like you needed, um, change for the machines.’ Gabe shrugged self-consciously; he could feel the entire common room watching.
The man’s smile was unexpectedly broad and sunny. ‘That’s a good way to put it. How did you know?’
Gabe had the sensation of going over a mental speed bump. ‘Excuse me?’
‘My whole life has been, “Okay, change for the machines.” Every time they bring in a new machine, more change.’
January 6, 2014
What if the tech revolution, instead of being made by start-up and college geeks, was driven by MTV-era creatives? That's essentially Cadigan's premise in this cyberpunk classic. It's impossible, obviously, not to read this 1991 novel with 2014 eyes, but I suspect that simply enriched the experience (particularly as I find cyberpunk mostly irritating as a rule). It's why a lot of this review will focus on the future-vision of Cadigan.
Cadigan got some things spot on - the concept not only of built in traffic-warning GPS stands out, but even more so for the prediction that it would always get you the info just too late to do anything about it. The sense of an ever-connected life - a staple of the genre - seems much less surprising than it did in the 1990s.
But the more interesting thing is probably the fundamental differences. Mostly the assumption that what would drive technology was the entertainment industry, people's desire for spectacle that would move them, draw them in, enable them to connect with each other more deeply. And that this would be fueled by the drug-addled, vision-inspired world of video creation, which end up replacing even "Old Hollywood".
Instead, it seems to me, while communication and connection have driven a lot of our technology in the last decade, it has been less immersive forms - text-based communication that doesn't rely on synchronicity to be effective; communication that enables us to chat lightly with a wide range of people - not the kind of tech that lets you get (literally) into your lovers head. Similarly, our entertainment industry has gone for more superficiality - cheap swelling-music emotional moments and lots of eye candy explosions - not the kind of dizzying, emotive, complex sequences Cadigan envisages. I'm not sure what that means about who we've become, but Cadigan's vision gave me a different way of looking at it.
Of course, Cadigan wasn't predicting the future, she was writing a novel. And it's a great read. As mentioned above, this isn't my preferred genre, and I'm absolutely not a video music geek either, so I'm a tough audience. Like a lot of sf, the book asks a lot at the beginning, introducing a large cast with whiplash speed, alongside a new slang dialogue. The ebook would really have benefited from Amazon's x-ray feature, letting you quickly look up characters, but it wasn't set-up. I found myself searching for names to remind myself of who was who for roughly the first 30%, when it all comes together and the pace picks up in a pretty absorbing way, and I started to tear through. There were slow bits - the video sequences in particular, but mostly it was a pretty simple story well told, and I enjoyed it to the end. Can't ask more than that.
Cadigan got some things spot on - the concept not only of built in traffic-warning GPS stands out, but even more so for the prediction that it would always get you the info just too late to do anything about it. The sense of an ever-connected life - a staple of the genre - seems much less surprising than it did in the 1990s.
But the more interesting thing is probably the fundamental differences. Mostly the assumption that what would drive technology was the entertainment industry, people's desire for spectacle that would move them, draw them in, enable them to connect with each other more deeply. And that this would be fueled by the drug-addled, vision-inspired world of video creation, which end up replacing even "Old Hollywood".
Instead, it seems to me, while communication and connection have driven a lot of our technology in the last decade, it has been less immersive forms - text-based communication that doesn't rely on synchronicity to be effective; communication that enables us to chat lightly with a wide range of people - not the kind of tech that lets you get (literally) into your lovers head. Similarly, our entertainment industry has gone for more superficiality - cheap swelling-music emotional moments and lots of eye candy explosions - not the kind of dizzying, emotive, complex sequences Cadigan envisages. I'm not sure what that means about who we've become, but Cadigan's vision gave me a different way of looking at it.
Of course, Cadigan wasn't predicting the future, she was writing a novel. And it's a great read. As mentioned above, this isn't my preferred genre, and I'm absolutely not a video music geek either, so I'm a tough audience. Like a lot of sf, the book asks a lot at the beginning, introducing a large cast with whiplash speed, alongside a new slang dialogue. The ebook would really have benefited from Amazon's x-ray feature, letting you quickly look up characters, but it wasn't set-up. I found myself searching for names to remind myself of who was who for roughly the first 30%, when it all comes together and the pace picks up in a pretty absorbing way, and I started to tear through. There were slow bits - the video sequences in particular, but mostly it was a pretty simple story well told, and I enjoyed it to the end. Can't ask more than that.
November 23, 2016
This cyberpunk winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award takes a while to get going as the group of disparate characters are established amongst a tech-heavy world in a near-future where everyone is increasingly reliant on their technology. Given that this was written and published back in 1992, before many of our current technological gismos were in current use, Cadigan’s world is eerily prescient. I felt very at home with much of her near-future predictions, which is a tad worrying when considering how it all ends.
When there is a number of main characters, there are always the one or two who particularly chime – for me, these were Gina, who hooked up with the video star Visual Mark twenty-something years ago and is still drifting in his wake as he becomes increasingly lost to his videos and drug-taking. Though she is still a name to contend with, as her daredevil stunts in Mark’s videos have earned her respect throughout the industry. She sings off the page with her cynical, acidic asides and her gritted passion for what she believes in. The other character I really loved is poor old Gabe, the typical artist-turned-corporate-wage-slave, who makes advertisements, while wishing he did almost anything else. To allay his boredom and sense of futility, he regularly escapes into a classic game using a hotsuit to enable him to virtually interact with the two main characters in the game.
This is one of the main attributes of cyberpunk – not only to pull the reader into a high-tech, near-future world, but also into cyberspace where reality exists in the interface between humanity and machines. And the best of this genre takes you there, immersing you into an altered landscape, where memes and symbols take on different meanings that the reader completely accepts.
Therefore when it all starts kicking off, two-thirds of the way through this one, Cadigan’s virtual world sings off the page in a blend of poetry and prose as she depicts her characters’ rich inscapes with complete conviction. This is why I am prepared to slow down my normal reading rate for this particular genre and pay attention – because the rewards are so very satisfying when it is done well. Needless to say, the climax is beautifully handled, and the final third of the book was difficult to put down as the plot continues gathering momentum during the ongoing crisis and humanity attempts to fight back. And in this genre, there is no guarantee of a ‘happy ever after’ ending.
I finally put the book down, aware of coming back to the present from a long way away – always the mark of a master worldbuilder. So while Synners takes time to get going, my advice with this one is to persevere – it’s worth it.
9/10
When there is a number of main characters, there are always the one or two who particularly chime – for me, these were Gina, who hooked up with the video star Visual Mark twenty-something years ago and is still drifting in his wake as he becomes increasingly lost to his videos and drug-taking. Though she is still a name to contend with, as her daredevil stunts in Mark’s videos have earned her respect throughout the industry. She sings off the page with her cynical, acidic asides and her gritted passion for what she believes in. The other character I really loved is poor old Gabe, the typical artist-turned-corporate-wage-slave, who makes advertisements, while wishing he did almost anything else. To allay his boredom and sense of futility, he regularly escapes into a classic game using a hotsuit to enable him to virtually interact with the two main characters in the game.
This is one of the main attributes of cyberpunk – not only to pull the reader into a high-tech, near-future world, but also into cyberspace where reality exists in the interface between humanity and machines. And the best of this genre takes you there, immersing you into an altered landscape, where memes and symbols take on different meanings that the reader completely accepts.
Therefore when it all starts kicking off, two-thirds of the way through this one, Cadigan’s virtual world sings off the page in a blend of poetry and prose as she depicts her characters’ rich inscapes with complete conviction. This is why I am prepared to slow down my normal reading rate for this particular genre and pay attention – because the rewards are so very satisfying when it is done well. Needless to say, the climax is beautifully handled, and the final third of the book was difficult to put down as the plot continues gathering momentum during the ongoing crisis and humanity attempts to fight back. And in this genre, there is no guarantee of a ‘happy ever after’ ending.
I finally put the book down, aware of coming back to the present from a long way away – always the mark of a master worldbuilder. So while Synners takes time to get going, my advice with this one is to persevere – it’s worth it.
9/10
July 29, 2014
In many ways this book simply reinforced my opinion that I don't really like "cyberpunk". Apparently another of the leading beacons of the sub-genre and another that I have broadly not liked.
The story contains an interesting premise and explores what might happen (and go wrong) when the brain and cyberspace become too closely connected. But there were several things about the way this was executed that I didn't like.
For one thing, there was a large number of (not particularly memorable) characters with shifting POV's. Not unusual in and of itself and I don't normally mind but when you are left for a page or two each time before the narrative makes it clear which character it has shifted to it just gets frustrating. This was exacerbated perhaps by fact that many of the characters didn't have much depth. Indeed, one wonders why there were so many characters in the narrative and how necessary they all were.
I had some issues with plausibility as to the way the threat came about and spread around; it just didn't seem very convincing to me. I can't really talk too much about it though for fear of spoilers.
The book feels dated and not because of the the author's failure to predict how the future would turn out but more stylistically. It feels very much like a book from the late 80's/early 90's and reminds me of why I never really liked much SF from the time.
Some people will enjoy this, particularly those of you who like the sub genre, but if you're not already keen I doubt this will do much to turn you on to it
The story contains an interesting premise and explores what might happen (and go wrong) when the brain and cyberspace become too closely connected. But there were several things about the way this was executed that I didn't like.
For one thing, there was a large number of (not particularly memorable) characters with shifting POV's. Not unusual in and of itself and I don't normally mind but when you are left for a page or two each time before the narrative makes it clear which character it has shifted to it just gets frustrating. This was exacerbated perhaps by fact that many of the characters didn't have much depth. Indeed, one wonders why there were so many characters in the narrative and how necessary they all were.
I had some issues with plausibility as to the way the threat came about and spread around; it just didn't seem very convincing to me. I can't really talk too much about it though for fear of spoilers.
The book feels dated and not because of the the author's failure to predict how the future would turn out but more stylistically. It feels very much like a book from the late 80's/early 90's and reminds me of why I never really liked much SF from the time.
Some people will enjoy this, particularly those of you who like the sub genre, but if you're not already keen I doubt this will do much to turn you on to it
June 5, 2016
Synners is a whirlwind of stream of consciousness sensory overload and 90s aspirational hacker slang. What it loses to inscrutability it more than makes up for in atmosphere. I'm a sucker for early cyberpunk and am certainly guilty of giddily tweeting out passages about memes or Never Going Off-line but it's okay because this book doesn't take itself too seriously.
In addition to being a fast-paced proto-vaporwave romp, Synners does address some interesting themes about AI, consciousness, and humanity that were reflected in other contemporary media like Ghost in the Shell.
If you like cyberpunk, give this one a shot.
In addition to being a fast-paced proto-vaporwave romp, Synners does address some interesting themes about AI, consciousness, and humanity that were reflected in other contemporary media like Ghost in the Shell.
If you like cyberpunk, give this one a shot.
September 27, 2014
What might happen when the human brain interfaces directly with a network of powerful computers? Entertainment, of course, but something far beyond MTV, something that places the viewer in the experience, with maybe an LSD or Ecstacy filter, everything enhanced, time and space manipulated...
What effects would that have on the human brain? What would those effects do to the system?
The answer is far more than I could have imagined, and it's not healthy.
What effects would that have on the human brain? What would those effects do to the system?
The answer is far more than I could have imagined, and it's not healthy.
July 1, 2017
Whilst this is undeniably cyberpunk and its view of the future is very much one from the early 90s (I kept feeling surprisingly nostalgic in the midst of all the horror) this is definitely different in tone. Whilst many of the other works of the time are more reminiscent of action movies, full of nudity and violence, this is much more considered and exploratory. It doesn't lack for explosive events but has a strong character focus and solid world building which really marks it out.
November 13, 2019
I haven't read a ton of old cyberpunk, and what I read of Gibson's work blurred together and I read too long ago to remember decently. After reading this I feel the Wachoskis definitely read this before working on the Matrix. Definitely worth a read for people into this genre.
September 22, 2019
loved this book so much i wrote my master's dissertation on it - i think that's review enough for now.
August 21, 2017
Tengo idea de escribir algo más largo para C, pero como minirresumen, diré que es un libro sorprendentemente noventero y a la vez actual, con muchas ideas interesantes que adornan una trama a veces algo cliché, pero como en muchos casos, no se sabe si porque una idea original se ha copiado de aquí o porque ya era cliché cuando se escribió.
April 14, 2026
Vibes of the book were amazing.
The story could’ve definetely used another draft. Bloated, convoluted and too many characters.
The author took the advice “show dont tell” seriously. Because she barely explains anything. I had to look up chapter summaries just to understand what I read.
The epilogue was really good and made it a 3/5 instead of a 2/5.
I wanted to love it because of its importance in the cyberpunk genre. But alas…
December 3, 2017
In the not-too-distant future, the world is a morass of internet-based TV shows and corporate greed. The people best-equipped to survive in this world are those who synthesise content for the net: synners. The arrival of sockets, cybernetic implants which allow people to directly interface with computers through their minds, marks a major change in society and technology, and what it means to be human. But when something goes wrong, it falls to one group of synners - outcasts, failures and data junkies - to save society, fix the net...and discover that intelligence itself can be synthesised as well.
Synners is the third novel by American SF author Pat Cadigan. Originally released in 1991, it was a late-breaking novel in the cyberpunk movement, championed by the likes of Bruce Sterling, William Gibson and Neil Gaiman. It won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and has been enshrined in the Gollancz SF Masterworks range as one of the all-time defining works of science fiction.
Synners is interesting for coming towards the end of the cyberpunk movement, at least before subsequent books like Jeff Noon's Vurt and Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon began taking it in very different directions and the movement was subsumed more into science fiction as a whole. It's also interesting for coming during the earliest days of the internet as we know it, so at least some terminology (laptops, email, virtual reality) rings true, unlikely earlier cyberpunk whose invented terms now feel very dated. Like most cyberpunk authors Cadigan missed mobile phones, but it oddly doesn't feel as archaic in this book. Cadigan is more interested in how technology and being networked impacts on the human condition and the methodology for accessing the net is less important. It is impressive how many other things she got right: satnav systems which actually don't really help anyone get anywhere, hackers uploading viruses to the net just for giggles and self-driving vehicles all feel pretty much on-point at the moment.
More impressive is how the novel feels like it's subverting cyberpunk itself. The Los Angeles of Cadigan's future America is, well, pretty much Los Angeles today, maybe slightly bigger and dirtier but certainly not the Los Angeles of Blade Runner. There's nary a mirrorshade or ill-advised superskyscraper (in an earthquake zone!) in sight and cyborg cops smashing down doors and firing massive guns are notable by their absence. But growing corporate power and tech companies acting like they are above the law and pressurising baffled politicians who can't see beyond the next election into giving them carte blanche to do whatever the hell they want without regard for the consequences for society and the economy have never felt more appropriate.
Cadigan's prose mixes poetry with hard-edged science fiction descriptions of hardware and software. They are sequences of people immersing themselves in the net and drugs which come across as lucid fever dreams. The novel also delights in the mundane: one of the most important viewpoint characters, Gabe, has marriage problems and a changeable relationship with his daughter, Sam. There is a frustrated air of rebellion in many characters, who take drugs and listen to loud music but no-one really cares any more, certainly not the government which is now wholly in the pocket of corporate interests.
Synners has some sins (syns?). The novel is slow to come together, taking a hundred pages to assemble a large cast of viewpoint characters (possibly too many; Gina, Gabe, Sam emerge as the main viewpoints and the novel may have benefited from dropping some of the secondary viewpoints). The scattershot opening makes the world feel grounded and realistic, but the lack of focus makes it hard to work out what's going on. But about a quarter of the way into the book starts to coalesce and the last quarter has the pedal fully to the metal as a global crisis erupts and only our "heroes" - the most dysfunctional bunch of hackers and artists you could ever hope to meet - can save the day.
Synners (****½) is a smart and grounded cyberpunk novel that gave the genre a final shakedown, stole its wallet and told it go and do something more interesting. Not the easiest of reads (especially at the start) but one that more than rewards the effort.
Synners is the third novel by American SF author Pat Cadigan. Originally released in 1991, it was a late-breaking novel in the cyberpunk movement, championed by the likes of Bruce Sterling, William Gibson and Neil Gaiman. It won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and has been enshrined in the Gollancz SF Masterworks range as one of the all-time defining works of science fiction.
Synners is interesting for coming towards the end of the cyberpunk movement, at least before subsequent books like Jeff Noon's Vurt and Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon began taking it in very different directions and the movement was subsumed more into science fiction as a whole. It's also interesting for coming during the earliest days of the internet as we know it, so at least some terminology (laptops, email, virtual reality) rings true, unlikely earlier cyberpunk whose invented terms now feel very dated. Like most cyberpunk authors Cadigan missed mobile phones, but it oddly doesn't feel as archaic in this book. Cadigan is more interested in how technology and being networked impacts on the human condition and the methodology for accessing the net is less important. It is impressive how many other things she got right: satnav systems which actually don't really help anyone get anywhere, hackers uploading viruses to the net just for giggles and self-driving vehicles all feel pretty much on-point at the moment.
More impressive is how the novel feels like it's subverting cyberpunk itself. The Los Angeles of Cadigan's future America is, well, pretty much Los Angeles today, maybe slightly bigger and dirtier but certainly not the Los Angeles of Blade Runner. There's nary a mirrorshade or ill-advised superskyscraper (in an earthquake zone!) in sight and cyborg cops smashing down doors and firing massive guns are notable by their absence. But growing corporate power and tech companies acting like they are above the law and pressurising baffled politicians who can't see beyond the next election into giving them carte blanche to do whatever the hell they want without regard for the consequences for society and the economy have never felt more appropriate.
Cadigan's prose mixes poetry with hard-edged science fiction descriptions of hardware and software. They are sequences of people immersing themselves in the net and drugs which come across as lucid fever dreams. The novel also delights in the mundane: one of the most important viewpoint characters, Gabe, has marriage problems and a changeable relationship with his daughter, Sam. There is a frustrated air of rebellion in many characters, who take drugs and listen to loud music but no-one really cares any more, certainly not the government which is now wholly in the pocket of corporate interests.
Synners has some sins (syns?). The novel is slow to come together, taking a hundred pages to assemble a large cast of viewpoint characters (possibly too many; Gina, Gabe, Sam emerge as the main viewpoints and the novel may have benefited from dropping some of the secondary viewpoints). The scattershot opening makes the world feel grounded and realistic, but the lack of focus makes it hard to work out what's going on. But about a quarter of the way into the book starts to coalesce and the last quarter has the pedal fully to the metal as a global crisis erupts and only our "heroes" - the most dysfunctional bunch of hackers and artists you could ever hope to meet - can save the day.
Synners (****½) is a smart and grounded cyberpunk novel that gave the genre a final shakedown, stole its wallet and told it go and do something more interesting. Not the easiest of reads (especially at the start) but one that more than rewards the effort.
May 12, 2017
Pat Cardigan wrote Synners back in 1991, before we’d all visited the Matrix, played with Player1, or frittered away our lives in Better Than Life--basically, before we’d virtually jacked in and absorbed cyberpunk expandio ad absurdum into into our collective (sub/un)conscious. So following Cardigan’s 16-bit version of “The Future Is All in Your Head” feels a lot like reading Dracula and wanting to yell “He’s a vampire, you idiots!” as the Harkers and Van Helsing blinkeredly puzzle over what in the world made those marks on Lucy’s throat. Of course the Big Bad Corporation is going to abuse technology! Of course the slick lawyer is evil! Of course the ragged band of (I’m extrapolating here, but with good cause) malodorous, poorly socialized hackers is going to save the herds of sheeple and normies from the consequences of their blind entertainment-consumerism! None of that is new--actually, few of the broad strokes were new when Cardigan was writing it--which means that the only hope is for a familiar tale told well.
Which this one isn’t. Other reviews mention that it takes a long time to get going--testify, brothers and sisters! They have also mentioned that it features far too many far too uninteresting protagonists--amen and amen! Middle-aged flameouts, burnouts, and sellouts of various stripes do not make for fascinating company, even for this middle-aged reader. I couldn’t work up enough interest in any of them to wade through the tedious setup. Perhaps the last third manages to strike some sparks from this wet tinder, but I confess I never got that far. My free time is too rare to waste on blather.
Poorly written, repetitive, uncreative blather at that. There are enough F-bombs in the first few chapters to annihilate every major city on Earth. Even if you don’t mind the profanity in and of itself, it crowds out all the other verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and nouns that could have expressed more ideas more colorfully and specifically. Over-reliance on a single word (however fun to say when we’re in that “let’s use that curse word we know” phase) flattens and stifles. Unfortunately, Cardigan has the habit of using a few dull terms as a crutch. “Drunk,” along with “sex” and “crazy,” boasts one of the longest collections of colorful synonyms in the English language. But in Cardigan’s voice, high, spritzed, tozzled, soused, baked, fried, flying, and all their wilder cousins boil down to just one inelegant word: “toxed.” Same with “porn.” Everything on the various (static and uninteresting) digital feeds is “porn”--disaster, medical, travel, food, etc., etc. And “very,” “extremely,” “totally,” “definitely” (add your own force multiplier here) is “stone.” Possibly “stone home.” Instead of taking the time to create a fleshed-out slang, or even to throw out a few evocative phrases to hint at the unheard existence of a post-apocalyptic cant, Cardigan comes up with a handful of examples and uses them to death. Toxed on stone slang porn, if you will.
But I did smile at “Dr. Fish,” the hacker/virus combo that leaves helpful, Surgeon-General style messages on fast-food drive-in order screens and other such benevolent-paternalist shenanigans. One star for the good doctor.
Which this one isn’t. Other reviews mention that it takes a long time to get going--testify, brothers and sisters! They have also mentioned that it features far too many far too uninteresting protagonists--amen and amen! Middle-aged flameouts, burnouts, and sellouts of various stripes do not make for fascinating company, even for this middle-aged reader. I couldn’t work up enough interest in any of them to wade through the tedious setup. Perhaps the last third manages to strike some sparks from this wet tinder, but I confess I never got that far. My free time is too rare to waste on blather.
Poorly written, repetitive, uncreative blather at that. There are enough F-bombs in the first few chapters to annihilate every major city on Earth. Even if you don’t mind the profanity in and of itself, it crowds out all the other verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and nouns that could have expressed more ideas more colorfully and specifically. Over-reliance on a single word (however fun to say when we’re in that “let’s use that curse word we know” phase) flattens and stifles. Unfortunately, Cardigan has the habit of using a few dull terms as a crutch. “Drunk,” along with “sex” and “crazy,” boasts one of the longest collections of colorful synonyms in the English language. But in Cardigan’s voice, high, spritzed, tozzled, soused, baked, fried, flying, and all their wilder cousins boil down to just one inelegant word: “toxed.” Same with “porn.” Everything on the various (static and uninteresting) digital feeds is “porn”--disaster, medical, travel, food, etc., etc. And “very,” “extremely,” “totally,” “definitely” (add your own force multiplier here) is “stone.” Possibly “stone home.” Instead of taking the time to create a fleshed-out slang, or even to throw out a few evocative phrases to hint at the unheard existence of a post-apocalyptic cant, Cardigan comes up with a handful of examples and uses them to death. Toxed on stone slang porn, if you will.
But I did smile at “Dr. Fish,” the hacker/virus combo that leaves helpful, Surgeon-General style messages on fast-food drive-in order screens and other such benevolent-paternalist shenanigans. One star for the good doctor.
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