Thursday, June 20, 2002
Title: Vurt
Author: Jeff Noon
Publisher:Pan
I guess with the name Vurt it is likely that Vurt is the first of Jeff Noon's Vurt novels. Though there are a number of stories in Pixel Juice, which refer to the vurt feathers, some of which may have led to the expansion that is Vurt, while some no doubt flesh out the idea further. The idea of vurt that is, the idea that vurtual reality is an interactive entertainment system which can be accessed by the use of feathers.
There are 5 types of feathers - each indicated by their colour. The first is blue, the legal type which most folk will use, filled with all sorts of nice fun and games. The next type is pink, pornovurt, filled with sexual fantasies, strictly adult vurt only. Then there is black which is like blue, only illegal, jail time if you get caught with black vurt. Which leaves silver feathers - the engineering feather, a tool used by the makers of vurt. Rarest of all feathers and the most risky is the yellow - while other colours come with an out, and exit if things get too much, yellows don't. If you are in a yellow its win or lose, life or death - win the game and you can exit, lose and you could end up dead.
Vurt is the story of Scribble and his friends, but mostly Scribble and how he lost his sister to vurt. Its a different world, between the hybrids and vurt - people can get lost in vurt, exchanged for vurt creatures. While in a yellow Scribble lost Desdemona for a vurt creature, since which he has been driven to find a copy of the feather and get his sister back.
With that Vurt is a the story of the breakdown of friendships causes by one event and how the characters deal with that. The whole vurt and hybrid thing is a backdrop; another idea used extensively is that there are five pure states - human, robo, dog, shadow and vurt - which can interbreed to provide hybrids. By being background it doesn't interfere with the plot, but gives a rich environment. It also means it is already all in place for when it does actually become important to the plot.
RVWR: PTR
June 2002
