[brian at permeable.com: ciphers review]

[Paul DiFilippo]

    ================= Begin forwarded message =================

    From: brian at permeable.com (Brian Clark)
    To: andywatson at earthlink.net (Andy Watson), ac038 at osfn.rhilinet.gov
    Subject: ciphers review
    Date: Sat, 30 Aug

    
    >X-Sender: kadrey at mail.well.com (Unverified)
    >Mime-Version: 1.0
    >Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 20:55:40 -0800
    >To: bcclark at igc.apc.org
    >From: kadrey at well.com (Richard Kadrey)
    >Subject: ciphers review
    >
    >FYI, my review for Wired:
    >
    >
    >Waiting for the End of the World
    >
    >In his first novel, Ciphers, Paul Di Filippo reaches in and pulls Thomas
    >Pynchon out of his hat.
    >
    >What's Ciphers about? Well, there's a being who manifests himself for an
    >intellectual mud wrestling session with Bodhidharma, only to end up with a
    >karmic groin pull by Buddha's big proselytizer. Then there's Cy, who works
    >in a Boston record store. He doesn't like his job. Cy's girlfriend
    >disappears. But not before he realizes that he can absorb information
    >through the UPC codes on products.This periodically sends him off to a
    >place that's sort of a Jungian swamp from which numbers come. And Cy
    >realizes he can communicate with the numbers...And there's a shady company
    >called Wu Labs where they're brewing something like "semiotic AIDS"...
    >
    >The point is that the story isn't the point, but if you desperately need a
    >plot summary here it is:  boy meets girl; boy loses girl; boy gets
    >information theory; boy gets girl; time and space are obliterated.
    >
    >Like Pynchon's best work, the story is just the vehicle by which you are
    >taken on a long, strange journey through history, the future, rock & roll,
    >love and data, data, data. But Ciphers isn't merely a Pynchon pastiche or a
    >bag of artboy tricks. Ciphers takes chances and comes out with mega-kicks
    >for both your brain and heart. -Richard Kadrey
    >
    >Ciphers, by Paul Di Filippo: US$16.95. Permeable Press: 2336 Market Street
    >#14, San Francisco, CA 94114-1521. On the web:
    >http://www.permeable.com/perm/permeable.html
    >
    >
    >
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    >Richard Kadrey
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    >
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