ALT.SF4M

  Idoru

   • s******j@**.com
     14/10/1996 00:00:000 UTC

     _Idoru_ by William Gibson

     Set around 2010, in the same future as _Virtual Light_, _Idoru_ follows
     a

     few days in the lives of two americans drawn to Japan to investigate the

     rumored engagement of "Rez," an aging but still famous rock star, to a

     japanese "idoru": a virtual pop music star.

     Laney, a flaky "quantitative analyst" whose neurons were mussed with by

     an experimental drug a decade earlier, is hired by Blackwell, an
     australian

     ex-con who heads Rez's security team. The hulking, scarred, and rather

     scary man is convinced that his boss is being hoodwinked into this odd

     union, and wants Laney to use his ability to dredge masses of data for

     "nodal points" and find out what's really going on. (Rydell, hero of

     _Virtual Light_, and the geeky japanese kid who hung out with Skinner

     both appear briefly; the latter hangs out with Blackwell in his

     continuing quest to figure out what's happening to society. Rydell is a

     rent-a-cop, his fifteen minutes of fame long gone.)

     Chia Pet McKenzie is a drooling fan girl member of the Seattle chapter
     of

     Rez's fan club. She is elected by the other members (whom Chia has never

     seen outside of virtual environments) to fly to Tokyo and meet with the

     members of the Tokyo chapter in hopes of getting the true dirt on Rez's

     wedding plans. On the way she meets Maryalice, a wacked out gangster's

     moll, an "otaku" teenager who helps run a creepy postmodern / archaic

     refuge in cyberspace, and assorted Russian and american toughs.

     This is a strange, slow, but intriguing book. One chapter of _The Stars

     my Destination_ has more action than all of _Idoru_, but the sizzling

     descriptions of near-future Tokyo and the virtual environments where
     some

     of the characters spend most of their lives keep things moving.

     --

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       • y******d@p******y.com
         18/10/1996 00:00:000 UTC

         Okay...this isn't going to be a full out review, just my

         impressions of what I thought was a rather good book.

         If you find a copy of this, ignore all the King Arthur crap

         on the front and back cover. This is not the same old

         cheezy pretentious Arthurian Legend wanna be...

         NO! It's an entirely new kind of cheezy pretentious

         Arthurian legend...

         Instead of ye Merlyn the wizzard and the beautiful

         Guenivere we've got an apparantly well researched

         and finely detailed historical-fiction account of the

         last days of the Roman Empire in Britain as seen

         through the eyes of Gaius Publius Varrus, Primus

         Pilus to General Caius Britannicus and one of the

         few survivors of the breach of Hadrian's wall.

         (How's that for a run on sentence ;)

         Anyways...If you like historical fiction, and/or decent

         depictions of military life, this is a good book for you.

         Personally, I found Publius' quest for the fabled 'sky-

         stone' which produced the 'iron which is more than

         iron' (ie. steel) to be a bit much sometimes, as was the

         erratic characterization of some of the secondary

         characters. Overall, however, if you are a fairly tolerant

         reader, I'd say that this is a good book for you to pick

         up. It is, by far, the best historical-fiction/historical-fantasy

         I've seen since Guy Gavirel Kay's _The Lions of Al-Rassan_

         Just my .02

         Jill

         -Archaeology: More than just a hole in the ground.

         J*******o@p******y.com

         Jill Rappaport