The internet is filled with things. Here is one of them.
"Ambient," a novel by Jack Womack2023 Sep 15
Somewhere around eighteen years old I was for the first time mindblown by the expansive and horrific beauty of William Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive). I found the narrative confusing but the imagery sublime. Now, at forty, I understood more but feared the impact would be lesser. Fortunately, my fears were wrong; the books hold up – they continue to be just as amazing as they ever were. As a bonus, these new editions contain a more-recent note from Gibson himself. For some reason, he spends most of the note lamenting the total absence of cell phones from the world he created. Take it from me, Gibson: their absence wasn't felt.
Also, one of the three books contains another foreword, or afterword, or note or something by author Jack Womack, where Womack concedes what an honor it is for a schmuck like him to even be mentioned in the same sentence as Gibson, and how some generous critic back in the 80s put Gibson's debut, Neuromancer, on the same list as his own debut, Ambient. I forget the rest of what Womack wrote (I could go back and re-read it, or... :man_shrugging:), and I've never heard of his book (nor, based on its lack of popularity online, have many people in the last thirty years), but this was enough of an endorsement for me to jump right into Ambient.
And wow, was Ambient a big fat fist in the face. Nothing like Gibson's Sprawl books – except maybe in their cynical deconstruction of the society and time which spawned them. Ambient is not an easy book to read. It's very slow to start, it's dense with two entirely different homebrewed lingoes, its internal consistency is questionable, and it's so casually brutally vulgarly violent. And yet... it's depictions of a New York City ruled by the nonchalantly cruel moguls of anarcho-capitalism are so vivid, so visceral, it's an image I will long remember. Do I endorse the book? (Does anyone care if I endorse the book?) Sure, go out and read it. Get yourself teethkicked.
Ambient's scant reviews are mixed and full of comparisons not to Neuromancer, but to Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, a story with which I am familiar only via Kubrick's film. I do love me some Kubrick (my bedroom is decorated with – amongst other items, I'm not a psychopath – a framed theatrical poster for Dr. Strangelove) but most mentions of Clockwork are accompanied by tired explanations of how the movie and novel are different things, and their creators different people. And so now I begin flipping the pages of yet another violent, lingo-heavy romp through dystopia.
Somewhere around eighteen years old I was for the first time mindblown by the expansive and horrific beauty of William Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive). I found the narrative confusing but the imagery sublime. Now, at forty, I understood more but feared the impact would be lesser. Fortunately, my fears were wrong; the books hold up – they continue to be just as amazing as they ever were. As a bonus, these new editions contain a more-recent note from Gibson himself. For some reason, he spends most of the note lamenting the total absence of cell phones from the world he created. Take it from me, Gibson: their absence wasn't felt.
Also, one of the three books contains another foreword, or afterword, or note or something by author Jack Womack, where Womack concedes what an honor it is for a schmuck like him to even be mentioned in the same sentence as Gibson, and how some generous critic back in the 80s put Gibson's debut, Neuromancer, on the same list as his own debut, Ambient. I forget the rest of what Womack wrote (I could go back and re-read it, or... :man_shrugging:), and I've never heard of his book (nor, based on its lack of popularity online, have many people in the last thirty years), but this was enough of an endorsement for me to jump right into Ambient.
And wow, was Ambient a big fat fist in the face. Nothing like Gibson's Sprawl books – except maybe in their cynical deconstruction of the society and time which spawned them. Ambient is not an easy book to read. It's very slow to start, it's dense with two entirely different homebrewed lingoes, its internal consistency is questionable, and it's so casually brutally vulgarly violent. And yet... it's depictions of a New York City ruled by the nonchalantly cruel moguls of anarcho-capitalism are so vivid, so visceral, it's an image I will long remember. Do I endorse the book? (Does anyone care if I endorse the book?) Sure, go out and read it. Get yourself teethkicked.
Ambient's scant reviews are mixed and full of comparisons not to Neuromancer, but to Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, a story with which I am familiar only via Kubrick's film. I do love me some Kubrick (my bedroom is decorated with – amongst other items, I'm not a psychopath – a framed theatrical poster for Dr. Strangelove) but most mentions of Clockwork are accompanied by tired explanations of how the movie and novel are different things, and their creators different people. And so now I begin flipping the pages of yet another violent, lingo-heavy romp through dystopia.