Little Heroes

by Norman Spinrad

Paperback, date?

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Genres

Science Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Hunter Publishing+inc (date?), Unknown Binding

Description

Norman Spinrad, acclaimed author of BUG JACK BARRON and CHILD OF FORTUNE, has create an extraordinarily powerful novel of sex, rock and revolution driven by a relentless 4/4 beat.It is the near future. Tens of millions now live in the streets. The City teems with Uzi-toting enforcers, kibble-munching streeties and wire heads plugged into the latest electronic high.And somewhere along the line, rock and roll has lost its soul - or rather sold it to a megacorporation that churns out synthesized hits with all the passion of the market research reports that dictate their demographic parameters.From the highest towers of the corporate world to the sex-and-thrill bars, to the death-infested streets, an explosion is about to take place."The Spinrad of BUG JACK BARRON is back with a vengeance. LITTLE HEROES is ferocious and funny, street smart and heartfelt."-William Gibson"LITTLE HEROES is written with wisdom, human warmth, astonishing insight, sophistication and the master touch. Norman Spinrad is a major literary figure of our time. It's a rare pleasure to read this engaging mind."-Timothy Leary"Vintage Spinrad. A novel which mourns the death of rock and roll - and celebrates its rebirth."-Michael Moorcock… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member cabridges

"Little Heroes" suffers big-time from Spinrad's habit of letting his plot get away from him and romp through fifteen or sixteen chapters while restating the same precepts over and over again. Fortunately, his characterization and dialogue are such that you don't care.

It's the near-future, and the

music industry is tanking. They're looking to cut costs and a big one is the overhead for the actual musicians. Obvious answer: eliminate them. The technology is good enough that a perfect human-looking star can be synthesized, but so far they haven't created one with any juice. Enter Gloriana O'Toole, the Crazy Old Lady of Rock and Roll, and the two techno-dweebs they assigned to her, Bobby and Sally. Together -- with the help of some wizard wire that gives them the equivalent of safe and controllable acid trips -- they manufacture a rock and rol star. Problem is, the best rock and roll stars tend to attack authority. Like, say, the music industry...

And, this being a Norman Spinrad novel, that's the smallest part of the plot. There's also Paco and Karen and Larry and the Reality Liberation Front and Dojo and a lot of wheeling and dealing and an uprising of the newly wired drug culture and... there's a lot, and it all mixes together. The characters zoom back and forth into each other and much philosophy, sex, and rock and roll occurs.

I think the book would have been improved greatly with about sixty pages trimmed out, but it still remains one of the ones I reread every few years, and like his other books Spinrads speculative predictions are scary-close.

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