Headcrash

Delightful take on the whole cyberpunk genre. Particularly amusing to me, because I went to work at the IRL inspiration for Monolithic Diversified Enterprises and I worked for a Director who kept a laser-cut, transparent aluminum model of one of his products from his work in the Sanguinary Tech-Systems Division on the credenza in his office.

HeadCrash by Bruce Bethke is a cyber-satire with a great mix of action, plot and humor. Jack Burroughs, the protagonist, is a computer nerd who works for an exceptionally large corporation by day, and by night on the Internet as the too-cool Max_Kool. But, when Jack is fired, he takes up a job as a free-lance cyber-mercenary. The action and hilarity ensues from there including hand-to-hand combat with seven-foot virtual Vikings, Nazis, and cross-dressing mob girls. Bethkes writing style is so entertaining and fluid that you dont ever want to put down the book. This book is like a cyberpunk version of the movie OfficeSpace, but unlike most other cyberpunk books, HeadCrash does not take itself seriously in the least. This comes as a refreshing change to anyone who has read many cyberpunk novels, but despite that, I would recommend this book to anyone (with the exception to young children, if you get my drift).

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

The book is worth your time!! It is on my shelf next to Microserfs and Snowchrash. The ending lives up to the title--it stops and you want more.

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

Neal Stephenson meets Alfred Bester and the result is quite wonderful. I read at least half of it out loud to my <long suffering> girlfriend. A *great* summer read.

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).

My, how things change, and how they stay the same. Headcrash brings us the story of one Jack Burroughs, a sysadmin for a multinational conglomerate, who keeps his day job only because it finances his excursions into cyberspace, where in virtual reality he is cool dude MAX_KOOL instead of a nerd. Unfortunately, due to internal politics and the innate inability to keep his mouth shut at inopportune moments, Jack loses said day job. Thus unemployed, he plunges head first -- or butt first, as the case may be -- into his virtual world, eventually taking on a commission to do a little cyberpiracy in exchange for a considerable remuneration. The fact that hell be looting the database of his former employer has nothing to do with his acceptance of the job. Nope, nothing at all. Written in 1995 and taking place in 2005, the storyline is somewhat dated and improbably technologically advanced from the perspective of 2011. Not being a gamer, I cant say whether the virtual reality environment as depicted here is realistic or even possible. The story moves at a frenetic pace, with hardly a break to catch ones breath. Regardless, its great fun, full of inside geek jokes and pop culture references. And seriously, how can you not like a book that begins: C:DOS C:DOS RUN RUN, DOS! RUN!

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.

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.