[Historical note: I posted this to USENET in 1988. I was 21, working my way through college, and more-than-happy that I had access to USENET, something like a world-wide BBS. If there was something like Facebook or Twitter in 1988, it would have been USENET. My USENET feed (we downloaded USENET posts over modem before reading them) came from a nearby consulting firm who was hooked up to the backbone of what was then the Internet. I could post something to USENET in Houston and within 24-48 hours people in California or New York would be able to read the post. I was still getting my journalism degree and posting stuff like this to USENET sans editor, so there might be > 1 typos. And yes, I’m posting this with full USENET headers just because I want to show off that I ran a USENET host from an AT&T 3b1 in my home in 1988. :-]<\/p>\n
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\nXref: utzoo alt.cyberpunk:257 rec.arts.sf-lovers:10844
\nPath: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!nuchat!flatline!erict
\nFrom: erict@flatline.UUCP (eric townsend)
\nNewsgroups: alt.cyberpunk,rec.arts.sf-lovers
\nSubject: _Metrophage_ by Richard Kadrey, a review, no spoilers, ~long.
\nMessage-ID: <359@flatline.UUCP>
\nDate: 3 Feb 88 05:29:49 GMT
\nOrganization: flatline in Houston(Montrose, really), Tx.
\nLines: 97
\nKeywords: metrophage, kadrey, review, cyberpunk<\/p>\n
Okedoke, I knocked _Metrophage_ off in a day and a half between classes,
\nso this should be pretty compleat as it’s fresh on my mind.<\/p>\n
First off, some comments about Richard Kadrey. I heard\/saw him speak
\nand read at Armadillocon 87 in Austin, Tx. At the time, I was very
\nimpressed. Kadrey’s a former resident of Houston, now living somewhere in
\nCa. He looks and acts like people I hang out with: surfer\/neo-punk haircut,
\nearrings, hardcore\/thrash\/punk\/tough clothes, but reads William S. Burroughs
\nand radiates an intense intrest in tech\/pol\/philo\/everything.<\/p>\n
So anyway, I listen to him on a panel that headlined the likes of Bruce
\nSterling and Lew (“The Whiner”) Shiner.
\n“So he gets on neat panels at cons,” I thought, “but who the hell is
\nthis guy that looks like he should be skating with me in downtown Houston
\nabout 3 am?”
\nWell, I gave in and went to his reading. Wow. The feeling I got was a
\ncombination of those I had when I first read _Naked_Lunch_ and
\n_Neuromancer_. “This guy’s tough,” I remember thinking, “then again, these
\nare just some short descriptive stories that rag on pols…”
\nAfter he finished reading, he or Shiner The Whiner mentioned Kadrey’s
\nforthcoming book, _Metrophage_.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to the other day when I found a copy of _Metrophage_ in
\nthe bookstore. I sped-read to finish _Infernal_Devices_ so I could
\nstart _Metro_.<\/p>\n
Wow. Edited by Terry Carr. Intro by Rudy Rucker. He still
\nkeeps good company. He also includes thanks to Brian Eno, Robert Fripp,
\nThrobbing Gristle and Tangerine Dream “who supplied the soundtrack.”
\nThen an opening quote from a song by Tom Waits. Ok, so he knows a lot
\nof esoteric buzz-word bandnames..
\n(There’s a good bio of Kadrey by Rucker that goes into Kadre’s artistic
\nbackground, including his interests in surrealism and dadism.)<\/p>\n
Ok, Ok, I’ll get on with the book review…<\/p>\n
_Metrophage_, even though it borrows from the soon-to-be-overused
\ntheme of central-character-is-a-smuggler-‘1 percenter’-run-afoul-of
\nhuge-organizations, is surprisingly fresh and interesting. Kadrey
\nwrites with a style that reflects a knowledge of street life, drugs,
\nW.S. Burroughs-genre-literature and a keen sense of political\/social
\nphilosophy.<\/p>\n
There are some great lines and allusions in this book — from little
\nthings to show off his intellegence\/esoteric-ness (a band named
\n‘Taking Tiger Mountain’) to some good anarchist theory.<\/p>\n
Our ‘hero’ is “…Johnny Qabbala, drug dealer, ex-Committee for Public
\nHealth bounty hunter, and self confessed loser…”. How can you not
\nlike him? Johnny’s well thought out and quite believable even though he’s
\nfrom an almost overused stereotype. He has faults, skills, and that
\nreal sense of no-direction that I think everybody must experience at
\ntimes. His only desire seems to be to live again with his two
\ngirlfrieds Sumimasen and Ice and to not do very much other than exist.
\nWell, we all know what happens to down-on-their luck drug dealers in
\nthe near-cyberpunk-future who just want to be left alone, right?<\/p>\n
Now the hard part. How do I review the book w\/o giving away anything?<\/p>\n
_Metrophage_ is about power and politics seen from the view of someone
\nthat has a great dislike for anything remotely resembling any sort
\nof political goings on. Johnny seems almost uncapable of understanding
\npolitics on any other level than ‘it sucks’. Ice, on the other hand, is
\ngetting involved in nation-(world?)-wide revolution, while Sumi just exists…
\nIt’s a book about politics, love, people and being insignifigant.<\/p>\n
It’s also a showcase for Kadrey’s ability to write. From hearing
\nhim speak and reading _Metrophage_ I get the feeling that Kadrey understands
\nsurrealism on a level far above that of mere mortals. He can write
\nwhat others can only hope to see put on canvas by their own shaky,
\nskillless hands. I have the feeling that Kadrey could write about
\nhigh school basketball and make it almost this interesting.<\/p>\n
Buy and read this book. In my opinion, it’s easily in the top
\n%2 of experimental science fiction, enjoying the company
\nof Gibson and Jeter. This is fiction that someone *not* into
\nscience fiction could still enjoy — a quality that very little
\nscience fiction has, or ever will have.<\/p>\n
I have this eery feeling that somewhere out there, Richard Kadrey will
\nsoon read this and either laugh at me or send me some sort of instant-death
\nemail-bomb.<\/p>\n
(In case Kadrey’s out there… Remember Austin, Tx? The black-leather
\n jacketed skater sitting in the front row at your reading and your panel
\n upset because you picked on Houston? My friends and I heckled
\n Sterling and Shiner whenever they stopped talking long enough to make it
\n possible… I didn’t think you would remember… harf.)
\n—
\n“Occult symbols include … the ‘peace’ symbol and the Jewish ‘Star of David'”
\n — From the Back In Control Handbook
\n“$20,000 a year is a small price to not have to talk to our kids”
\n — Jello Biafra, commenting on the “Back in Control” program
\nGirls play with toys. Real women skate. — Powell Peralta ad
\nJ. Eric Townsend ->uunet!nuchat!flatline!erict smail:511Parker#2,Hstn,Tx,77007<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[Historical note: I posted this to USENET in 1988. I was 21, working my way through college, and more-than-happy that I had access to USENET, something like a world-wide BBS. If there was something like Facebook or Twitter in 1988, it would have been USENET. My USENET feed (we downloaded USENET posts over modem before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.flatline.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.flatline.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.flatline.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.flatline.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.flatline.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.flatline.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306,"href":"http:\/\/www.flatline.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions\/306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.flatline.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.flatline.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.flatline.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}