Heathern, the sequel to Ambient and Terraplane, has been praised by William Gibson as a "savage urban baroque informed by a penetrating humanity ... his best so far!" Tautly written and appallingly funny, Heathern is a dystopian tale of corporate combat and media warfare in the fading years of our century. Thatcher Dryden, former drug kingpin and now leader of the megacorporation Dryco, intends to supply a waiting world with the Messiah it so desperately seeks. But Lester Macaffrey, a schoolteacher found performing miracles among the human flotsam of the Lower East Side, proves no more controllable than any Messiah. While Thatcher's minions scheme to sell the world salvation with a Dryco label on it, Thatcher's own mistress is strangely drawn to Macaffrey -- and begins to be transformed into something new and strange ... something that might change the world.
"Womack's fiction may be determinedly non-cyber, but, with its commitment to using SF as a vehicle for social critique, it definitely has a punky edge. William Gibson once said that he thought he was more interested in basic economics and politics than the average blue sky SF writer. That counts double for Womack, whose fiction is packed with grimly amusing social satire and powerful little allegories exploring urban breakdown, class war and racial tensions". --Jim McClellan (from an interview with Jack Womack, 1995).
Jack Womack is one of those writers who truly deserve greater name recognition than he receives. Anyone who is a William Gibson fan boy should readily recognize his name, as they seem to pal around quite often. Womack even made a cameo appearance in the Gibson documentary film “No Maps for These Territories”. He was “the other handsome fellow with the charming Southern accent riding in the backseat”, although I believe that the end credits saddled him with the oh-so-boring “Himself”.
‘Heathern’ is the third entry in Womack’s 'Dryco' series. The story is set in NYC circa 1998. Society has become frayed and the Army is in town to enforce martial law. The multi-national conglomerate Dryco appears to be pulling the strings behind all of these events. Before you laugh about the 1998 setting, it should be noted that Womack often plays in the alternate history side of the pool. Johanna, Dryco executive and narrator, is sent to investigate inner-city teacher Lester McCaffrey. Rumor on the street is that McCaffrey has done a few miracles and may even be a modern incarnation of the big JC. Dryco big wigs see this as yet another opportunity to do what big corporations do best, namely assimilate and exploit. Johanna starts to question her corporate allegiance as her friendship with Lester takes root. Lester is waiting for the other shoe to drop, as he is well aware that even a corporately sponsored messiah is not immune to the occupational hazards of that job. As a side note, Lester has the most interesting interpretation of the creation myth ever. I wish Womack would have expanded on that a little further.
Hmm…Jesus, socio-economic turmoil, corporate hijinks…and herein lies the rub as far as Womack’s popular appeal, in my opinion. He seems to have been marketed as a writer in the Sci-fi genre, but his stories are a little too vast for that sort of pigeon-holing. Womack uses elements of hard sci-fi, cyberpunk, and alternate history within his books, but possibly not enough to appeal to the readers who stick rigidly to their chosen genre. I’m saying this as a massive compliment, but unfortunately one enthusiastic tadpole does not make for a lucrative writing career. The man can turn a beautiful phrase, however, and I feel compelled to post some of my favorites (your mileage may vary).
“His smile resembled an old incision, a caesarian scar.”
“Forget? I tried. Though I’d housebroken compassion, I still wet the bed at night.”
““Guilty?” Thatcher repeated, as if learning the phonics of an unfamiliar word.”
“Sometimes I found photos of myself that I couldn’t recall being taken, shots where my color was grayed by distance and time, and I looked no more than a child hired for an ephemeral event.”
“The only Freud that I appreciate is schadenfreude.”
"Hard copy memories so transmogrify with time: notes fade until the words written are not so unreadable as incomprehensible; letters of love undergo a reverse metamorphosis, dropping their brilliant wings within safely sealed cocoons and emerging, if broken into, as something to crawl over the skin at night; only photographs, as those in more primitive cultures believed, catch a shard of the soul of the one photographed, nonetheless memorable only to those who were there at the time."
One of my few complaints about this book has to do with the cover art. My copy is an older paperback and the cover serves as an example of hideous, Sci-fi cheese. Whoever made that cover art decision deserves a severe beating for the lack of vision, or at very least a purple nurple and a wedgie. This cover is so bad that no one has ever even dared to post a picture of it on the Internet, at least according to Google.
Curious? Aw hell, I’ll do it then (all thanks go to HP for the graininess)…
Luckily, the trade paperback version that is currently available through Amazon appears to have much better cover art.
If any of the above jabbering, cheerleading, pirouetting, or monkey shines have convinced you to give Jack Womack a try, here are some final words from the man himself. In an author’s note on the final page of the book, he suggests reading the series in order starting first with ‘Ambient’ and then ‘Terraplane’. I’ve still never read the manual for the microwave, thus my excuse for jumping in with a review of the third book in the series. Womack goes on to promise that the (at the time) still unwritten books in the series “…will as ever tell of people who should have known better, and the worlds they make for themselves.” That is about the best definition of good fiction that I have ever run across.
The third book in Womack's Ambient series was not as interesting as the first two. It is set before the first two books, perhaps 20 years or so. It gives some background to the Drydens and Dryco corporation, and gives some clues to the beginning of the Ambients' religion. All of this is really only interesting if you are planning to read other books in the series. As a stand alone novel, it does not hold up as well as either of the first two books. Because the book is set earlier in the timeline, the language used in the dialogue has not yet mutated to the (to me) extremely interesting and fun to read language that characterizes the other books in this series.
Considerada como la novela más floja del ciclo Dryco, tras leerla no es difícil entender el porqué. El principal problema es el argumento y su desarrollo, el típico enredo gibsoniano que parece que se lo haya pergueñado el propio Gibson en una servilleta durante una larga sobremesa entre efluvios de pacharán, whiskey de Kentucky y orujo de hierbas. Porque lo que en un principio es una idea interesante, la construcción de un mesías como herramienta de control social en un mundo que va deslizándose a toda velocidad hacia la más desquiciada ley de la selva (idea que Womack retomaría y desarrollaría más tarde en "Elvissey" con mucho mayor acierto), acaba desechada en favor del típico enredo cyberpunk de escaso interés. Es más, me pasé toda la novela esperando que arrancase un argumento que la novela te está prometiendo continuamente para dejarte con un palmo de narices en una resolución entre absurda y nihilista; en el mundo psicopático gobernado por la corporación Dryco la única esperanza que se puede ofrecer a una población desesperada reside en tirarse por la ventana. Tampoco el desarrollo es que sea trepidante, básicamente es una escena tras otra de gente hablando en oficinas en un intento de cubrir el otro interés de la novela, la de explorar los entresijos del poder corporativo y su naturaleza psicopática, naturaleza que acabará extendiéndose a todo el universo Dryco. Y los personajes no son especialmente interesantes, Lester Macaffrey, "el Mesías" es prometedor pero acaba diluyéndose ante un argumento que no le brinda ninguna posibilidad. Incluso un personaje mítico en "Ambiente", Suzie Dryden, cerebro detrás del conglomerado Dryco, no es más que una araña callada y aburrida que lee el periódico mientras va tejiendo sus redes de kingpin corporativo entre bambalinas.
En la parte positiva me ha gustado el tono entre melancólico y fatalista de algunos tramos de la novela (a pesar de las pinceladas de humor negro siempre habituales en Womack). Como ocurre en todas las novelas de Womack, "Heathern" también se nos presenta escrita en primera persona, y Womack refleja con acierto la personalidad derrotada y deprimida de Johanna, la triste amante del tarado amo de Dryco, Thatcher Dryden. En este caso, estando la novela ambientada en un período anterior a "Ambiente" donde Nueva York aún no es un caótico sindiós mezcla de un día cualquiera en Bagdad y "Superjail!", Womack descarta el womackspeak en favor de una elaborada prosa que se sintoniza correctamente la quejosa voz de la protagonista pero que se da de ostias con los dos o tres despojos de tópicos cyberpunk que lastran la novela y que ya no funcionan como sí lo hacían en "Ambiente". Incluso hay ratos en los que se intuye que hay otra novela mejor ahí dentro, una especie de diario cotidiano del futuro sin esperanza de los próximos cinco minutos, quizá la semilla de "Random Acts of Senseless Violence" cuando Womack logró deshacerse del tic argumental gibsoniano. Y finalmente me ha resultado de extraordinario interés los apuntes sobre el origen y la naturaleza gnóstica de los universos de la serie Dryco (y del mcguffin de "Neuromante", si nos ponemos), que más tarde tomarán relevancia al converger en "Going Going Gone", la conclusión de la serie.
I wouldn't say Jack Womack is a great writer, but he is certainly an interesting one. There are certain technical weaknesses in the books of his which I've read so far, but at the same time these problems are not what I remember. And I do remember. Jack Womack novels stick with me. I remember them in much more detail than usual, and I'm not sure why. At the very least, the not knowing is interesting.
While there is lots to like, it's the ending of this particular book that's the big payoff. If a more naturalistic iteration of Philip K. Dick sounds like something that appeals to you, I heartily recommend. -- Also: if you've ever read *A Clockwork Orange* and liked it, I recommend Womack's *Random Acts of Senseless Violence* in the strongest possible terms. In fact, read that first.
Weak for DryCo is still strong for everyone else, and it blows the shit out of a ton of other dystopian novels, but this is kind of a weak entry in a very strong series, and chronologically coming after Random Acts of Senseless Violence means it entered into the World Ass-Kicking Finals on only one half of a single leg.
Not nearly as good as Random Acts of Senseless Violence but very interesting to get some more background on Dryco and the world. Also I really do love the language.
When I was about 15 or 16, I bought Quarantine II: Road Warrior for my 33 Mhz gaming beast PC [1], with box art hinting that I should not have been allowed to buy that game at that time:
You play a taxi driver in a dystopian "Escape from L.A."-like future in which you can roast pedestrians with your taxi's in-built flame-thrower with impunity (again, not really suited for a 15 year old). This "dystopian future without morals or structure but with lots of blood" seems to have been a big thing in the 90s: see Judge Dredd, RoboCop, Rogue Trooper, (in fact, most of the 2000 AD characters), it's also an aspect in some older Gibson books.
Womack's Dryco novels (and his I think unrelated but IMHO best "Random Acts Of Senseless Violence") are set in a very similar world - it's America of the not-so-distant future, society kind of works but has mostly collapsed, mega-corporations run the place more than politicians, and due to various reasons the law isn't exactly enforced, i.e., most of the characters are under threat of death and constantly kill themselves, without anybody blinking an eye. On most pages random bystanders die.
The first one, Ambient, was a bit too much over the top for me (for example, "board room meetings" are matches to the death by a companies' champion against the other companies' champions, and the losing company has its CEO's head cut off while the companies' ownership is being transferred to the winner). This third one, Hearthen, is a bit less extreme because it acts as a bit of a prequel - it's set before Dryco became the company running the USA, with some events of the first book (such as the AI, or Ambient's "big bad guy") being nicely foreshadowed. Therefore, most events described aren't that extreme as in the first one (but the great Ambients don't feature as much as in the first one).
The basic story is that Dryco is looking for a messiah so it can use him for their company PR, finds one who performs Jesus-like miracles and tries to hire him, he mostly goes along with it (without any real motivation except "my God(s) told me to"), there's a relatively believable "good" female main character, yet the story often just bungles around without really progressing. I guess it's good as a part of the series but doesn't work on its own, yet I liked the "less extreme"/"more quiet" aspects of it.
[1] IT HAD A TURBO BUTTON to slow down to 16 Mhz (else Theme Park would run too fast)
Even a lesser Jack Womack book is worth reading, and this novel set in the "Dryco" continuum is not up to the standards of "Ambient" or "Elvissey." The writing is as always piercing, poetic, brutal and dreamlike, but the story seems a bit lost at times. I am not sure when Womack wrote this, but it takes place before the events of "Ambient" and is as close as we are going to get, probably, to "The Secret Origin of Dryco." The narrator is an executive/mistress working for Thatcher Dryden, here firmly established as the active and megalomaniacal founder of Dryco (as opposed to the latter-day wackjob we meet in "Ambient.") He is obsessed with stage-managing a messiah and with endless corporate infighting, and the story bounces between the two threads. I feel like there were some missed opportunities here, opportunities that Womack tries his hand at again later in the far superior "Elvissey." If you are a completist or you just enjoy Womack for the uniqueness of style (and I qualify on both counts) then you should read this. Otherwise, stick with "Ambient," "Terraplane," and "Elvissey."
After the 5 bill-star romp of Random Acts of Senseless Violence, I was torqued to jump into my next Jack Womack book. Dop. Heathern is barely 3 bill-stars.
I like Womack's writing style and the whole post-apoc setup. The ending is good. But Heathern is mostly flat. Of the three primary characters, two are pretty boring. There's Thatcher, the crazed CEO/ruler of the world and our narrator Joanna, who spends most of the book whining about Thatcher... over and over again. Lester joins the book halfway through and finally speeds things up a bit. Not a lot, but a bit.
QOTD
"How do you sell a messiah, Thatcher?" Bernard asked. "Above cost," said Thatcher, laughing. "In the fastest way."
- Heathern
A good (enough) read. On to the next DryCo adventure: Ambient.
The Dryco world is back in "Heathern", this time a few years (or maybe 10) before the action in Ambient. We do learn some background of how Thatcher Dryden got to be who he is and where the computer in "Ambient" came from.
Overall I can't recommend this as a stand-alone book as the plot is really incomprehensible, dealing with fake and real Messiahs, backstabbing corporate espionage and other dystopian crap. I checked out before the last ten pages where all was "explained" and I found out I didn't much care. I hope I like the next one in the Dryco series...
This book kept me into it enough to finish it. I can't say much more than that that's positive.
I've been reading these chronologically to the world, because I read something saying "Random Acts of Senseless Violence" was amazing, and it was chronologically first RAoSV was damned amazing! I probably should have given it 5 stars instead of the 4 I gave it. Sadly, after reading this and Ambient, I just can't take this world anymore. Every book is a new main character told first person. That doesn't have to be horrible, but I can't get into these books after RAoSV. I give up after Ambient.
I've had this book on my shelves since I was in high school and for some reason it never called to me. Written in 1980 and foretelling a technocratic dystopian society not entirely unlike our own, it was a fascinating book to read now - perhaps more so than when it was published? Unfortunately I didn't know that this is the third book in series so I think I was a little bit lost regarding general background elements - the whole thing felt a little TOO opaque and mysterious to me at times, but that may well be because I haven't read the other books.
Could not penetrate this one. That may say more about my mental state at the time. I was selling our house, buying a new one, moving — in other words, supremely distracted. This book may have been too subtle for me at that moment. Or maybe it just wasn't my cup of tea. I have some respect for what the author was trying to do, but I found the story depressing and not at all engaging. I got about 3/4 of the way through and don't plan to finish it.
Jack Womack is putting Nostradamus to shame with wildly accurate predictions that don't need to be unencrypted to be understood and that aren't ambiguous and applicable to anything a bent mind can conjure a connection to. "Heathern" is ultimately a chapter in a millennium long tale of corporate greed, hubris and attempted crushing of humanity under a hobnailed cowboy boot-heal.
At least, I imagine old man Dryden in cowboy boots...
2.5 stars. Not as compelling as 'Random Acts of Senseless Violence', which had a stronger voice, and felt like there was a purpose. This one, I didn't connect with any of the characters, and the purpose of the whole thing felt rather flimsy.
Enjoyed the mood/setting/tone, good companion to 'Random Acts,' but the plot was a bit uneven and it was a bit unclear what was actually happening. As a world builder, though, Womack is great.
I didn't enjoy this one as much as the other two Womack books I've read. It's along the same premise, but it felt like 3/4 of the book was conversation and little occurred until the last 1/4.