Monday, July 20, 1998
Title: Freeware
Author: Rudy Rucker
Publisher: Avon
Rucker's inclusion in the classic anthology "Mirrorshades: A Cyberpunk Anthology" (Edited by Bruce Sterling) should mark him as one of the greats. At the least, it lends him a certain amount of credibility - enough to make me approach this book with interest.
Despite being the third book in this storyline, Freeware is the first Rucker book I have come across. Even then this one is an import - leading me to suspect that it is possible he is not printed in Britain. If this is the case, it may make his works difficult to find - though I'm sure your local comic/book store will have some kind of import section .
Set in the year 2053, Freeware deals with the interaction between humans and moldies; moldies being an intelligent technology-based "lifeform" evolved from technologies introduced in the previous books "Software" and "Wetware". I suspect that this book is easy enough to follow without having read the previous stories, but I feel that I may have been more comfortable reading this one after the others.
On the whole I found the book to be disappointing - never seeming to gain any compulsion or real interest on my part. The book was light and easily written making it accessible and humorous - the characters mostly easy going "stoners" and "surfers". However, I believe the retro fifties Californian Americana was one of the factors that I found to be grating.
As most good speculative fiction should be,Freeware is full of ideas giving it a tech edge that is valid and is interesting. From the use of jargon to references to hard math, there is a rich technology to this world. New smart plastic technologies allow direct interface with computers and communications without wires or jacks or other penetrative tech. Fast food - regenerating meats in cloning tanks - ranging from Beef to Wendy - Wendy being a brand name human flesh.
In the end this is a reasonable enough book, easy to read and reasonably enjoyable. But as I say not as engaging as I would have hoped, and certainly not as "great" as I had expected.
RVWR: PTR
July 1998
