Headcrash

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.

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!

A light hearted and much needed satire of a genre obsessed with being deadly serious. Someone had to write a book like this eventually, and Im glad Bethke did it. The plot is well constructed, the ending is intriguing, and the story itself is loaded with so much comic fodder and food for thought that Ive found myself re-reading this book several times, often without even intending to. Should be on every SF fans bookshelf.