Headcrash

What more can I add about this super cool and classic novel? Im very happy I read this.

Bruce Bethke managed to write a mostly unfunny novelization of three or four Dilbert strips. The book was relevant for some two weeks, I guess, and they were gone before the hardcover edition saw the light of day (perhaps the reviewers at the publishing house read the manuscript at that time?). The protagonist is an unmitigated, weapons-grade J.E.R.K. with the declared IQ of two million and the tested one around minus ten. Other characters rustle when moving around - theyre paper, not even cardboard. The reality of 2005 is more like June 3, 1994, with snazzy car names. All in all, forget you saw this book. Buy something else, a Coke, a burger, anything would be healthier - even a pack of untipped Gauloises. The environmental impact would be smaller, too.

Headcrash started out slowly for the first chapter, which was devoted to establishing the nerdy thought processes of the narrator. After that, it kicks into high gear and never lets up. Set in 2005, the plot is kind of a funny version of Neal Stephensons Snow Crash (without the Sumerian mythology) crossed with Jay McInerneys Bright Lights, Big City, with some doses of William Gibsons Neuromancer. The narrator works as a tech-nerd at a huge corporate conglomerate, with a horrible boss, gets fired, and is approached to cause some havoc at his former employers information database. Much of the novel is set in a virtually real Internet -- and for once, an author writing about virtual reality does NOT resort to the if you die in here, you die in reality trick. Bethke pays homage along the way to an impressive collection of pop culture: The Godfather, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Sesame Street, Brave New World, and Doom and other first person shooter games among others. He takes aim at political correctness (theres a law against Ethnic Humor).

Its anarchic, somewhat uncontrolled, and rather free-form. The ending is weakly executed, relying on a deus in machina that isnt really hinted at anywhere earlier in the text. But apart from that, this has got to be the funniest SF novel of the decade. Bethkes portrayal of humourless and politically correct corporate culture, and the hive-like working conditions endemic in the software business, is spot-on; he also exhibits a very un-american talent for irony and sarcasm (which seems to have flown right over the heads of some of the other people whove posted reviews here). Put the two together and you get an explosive, anarchic comedy of errors set against a backdrop that will give software engineers everywhere a shudder of deja vu.

Bruce Bethke is one of the founders of the cyberpunk genre and the man who invented the term cyberpunk itself. I love his short story of the same title which started it all! Headcrash was his first novel and its a crazy ride through the early days of cyberpunk. Many authors and readers take the genre extremely seriously, some even see it as a political movement--which is, of course, total nonsense. Others believe cyberpunk is dead while some purists dont want to touch anything that was written after 1990. In Headcrash Bruce Bethke makes fun of this in a hilarious way. The book is a parody of the most common cyberpunk tropes and he even makes fun of the term cyberpunk itself. At a certain point in the story, the hero of the book, a hacker named Max Kool is introduced to several secret groups in cyberspace. There are cryopunks, cipherpunks, ciderpunks...and the worst of them all: the cyberpunks. This is clearly a very loving slap on the hand to those who complain theres not enough punk in cyberpunk... Sadly, this wonderful book is out of print and hard to come by. But if you can find it somewhere secondhand, I highly recommend giving Headcrash a shot. Its brilliant and a must-read for all cyberpunks!

This is the funniest cyberpunk novel I have ever read. This book takes a crack at evrything from political correctness to whacked out religion. Some parts are so funny you have to stop reading because of the tears in your eyes!

One of my favorite books ever. I keep hoping they put it on the Kindle marketplace but they havent yet.

If you like sarcastic comedy then Headcrash is the book for you. I must say at times the comedy got a little annoying, but it kept me chuckling. Bethke did a great job of keeping his audience entertained. I thought the book was very interesting, and one of the best cyberpunk books I have ever read. Headcrash was one of the more believable futuristic novels if you dont count the talking bears, and dolls at the end. Headcrash can be compared to Snowcrash only in Snowcrash the characters could die in virtual reality, and in Headcrash virtual reality is what it was meant to be, a place to escape with out really getting hurt, or was it? The protagonist in Headcrash, Jack, a.k.a Pyle, alias MAX_KOOL, was fired from his job, and was hired in virtual reality to steal files for another virtual user, Amber. The plot takes an exciting twist when Eliza, the assumed bad guy suddenly isnt so horrible. Through out the whole book you are left wondering who are these virtual characters in real reality? If you want to know, you have to read the whole book to find out. I must say the ending was very surprising, and kept me hoping there would be a sequel coming soon. On a scale of 1 to 5 stars, one being the lowest, five being the highest I would give Headcrash 4 stars. I didnt give this book the full five stars because some parts of the book I found to be a little predictable and some parts were a little idiotic, but over all it was very entertaining, and you didnt have to sit down with a dictionary to get through the book. It was written in a very clear manner, as was Bethkes short story Cyberpunk. Unlike many other cyberpunk books that jump from scene to scene, and have too many characters to keep track of, such as Slant, Headcrash flowed nicely, and the characters were well developed, and clearly separable.

I enjoyed Snowcrashed as a parody of Snow Crash and cyberpunk books. I do not share other reviewers opinion that it is better than those other books. In fact, Headcrashed will only make sense if you have read those other books.

This is the official notice that cyberpunk isnt really dead, but maybe it should be. An excellent send up of both the oh so cool cyberpredators and their heartless corporrate foes. Dilbertesque management humor meets cyberpunk and neither side wins. Highly recommended.