Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Spectra (1991), Edition: First Edition
Description
Welcome to the Best of the Masterworks: a selection of the finest in science fiction - What does it mean to be human when you're part of the machine? Synners are synthesizers - not machines, but people. They take images from the brains of performers, and turn them into a form which can be packaged, sold and consumed. They don't use the net, they are the net. Everything is automated. Everything is synthetic. But when the technology starts to fail, the terrifying question remains: what is a human? Winner of the 1992 Arthur C. Clarke Award, Synners was Pat Cadigan's early stories, and cemented her place in the core of the cyberpunk movement, and has even inspired academic works. Lauded for her complex characters and plots, and seen as a stalwart of feminist SF, Cadigan has gone on to win another Clarke and a Hugo for subsequent works. - 'Racingly told, linguistically acute, simultaneously pell-mell and precise in its detailing' - The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 'Ambitious, brilliantly executed . . . Cadigan is a major talent' - William Gibson 'Pat Cadigan is the undisputed Queen of Cyberpunk' - The Fantasy Hive… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member RobertDay
I came late to this seminal text of hard-core cyberpunk, which was perhaps a shame. Written in 1991, the technology is now quite outdated, as is the social landscape it exists within. Hip kids unsling laptops from their shoulders to get down to some serious hacking before heading off to a
Where this novel suffers is in the structure. For about the first half of the book, we keep switching pov character, and there appears to be around twelve such characters, with walk-on others. Plot attrition does reduce this a bit, but when a character I didn't recognise got namechecked around page 405 - in the middle of the denouement - I couldn't tell if this was someone who'd been namechecked already or a genuinely new name. And I found myself empathising with one character, a middle-ranking executive, only to find by the time the plot kicked in, that he was not actually one of the Good Guys. We're not helped by Cadigan not naming the pov character in new chapters until we're a couple of pages in.
Yet once the plot takes off, about half-way in, events move slickly towards a crisis and then a resolution, as a rogue AI gets loose in the datasphere. And I found that a lot of events in the first half of the book fell into place in the second half. But I do wonder how many people would have lasted that long.
One of the other things that saves the book is the language, which is accomplished enough to keep me reading through the difficult bits. And there are occasional flashes of humour which are welcome relief to all the weirdness going on.
Possibly a book which would benefit from a re-read.
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hit-and-run rave. Still, the relationship people have with their tech is quite prescient, as is the corporate skulduggery in attempting to monetise the new technology and how it all goes badly wrong.Where this novel suffers is in the structure. For about the first half of the book, we keep switching pov character, and there appears to be around twelve such characters, with walk-on others. Plot attrition does reduce this a bit, but when a character I didn't recognise got namechecked around page 405 - in the middle of the denouement - I couldn't tell if this was someone who'd been namechecked already or a genuinely new name. And I found myself empathising with one character, a middle-ranking executive, only to find by the time the plot kicked in, that he was not actually one of the Good Guys. We're not helped by Cadigan not naming the pov character in new chapters until we're a couple of pages in.
Yet once the plot takes off, about half-way in, events move slickly towards a crisis and then a resolution, as a rogue AI gets loose in the datasphere. And I found that a lot of events in the first half of the book fell into place in the second half. But I do wonder how many people would have lasted that long.
One of the other things that saves the book is the language, which is accomplished enough to keep me reading through the difficult bits. And there are occasional flashes of humour which are welcome relief to all the weirdness going on.
Possibly a book which would benefit from a re-read.
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LibraryThing member Jinjifore
Probably my favorite of Cadigan's books. I was fascinated by Mindplayers, and Synners didn't disappoint me. It's been a long time since I've read it, but I still vividly remember large parts of it, something I can't say about many books I read fifteen years ago. I love her bright, punchy style of
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narrative, and the way that the characters move so believably through their own world. It's always a temptation, I think, to stop and explain what's going on when one enters such a different world, but Cadigan managed to introduce her world through her characters, letting the reader learn as the characters learned. Still a favorite after all these years. Show Less
LibraryThing member scroeser
I want to play this and 'Snowcrash' as a double show every weekend.
LibraryThing member thorswitch
I remember reading this book when it first came out. (The date on my LT entry shows "2001," but I'm not sure why - it was the early 90's at the earliest when I read it.)
It was the first techno/cyber book I'd read, and it was at about the same time I was discovering the online world. One thing I
The characters were interesting and even some of the ones who seemed a bit "out there" were relatable, and the story was compelling. I was very interested in seeing how things were going to come out, and it was definitely one of those books that's kind of hard to put down.
Another reader commented on how its been interesting watching some of the phrasing Cadigan used or ideas she presented have actually become a part of our landscape, and I have to agree. Anytime I hear someone talking about "food porn" or "war porn" or anything of that nature, I'm reminded of "Synners." It's the same with seeing how the net is being used to bring us more and more personalized content, and watching us add all these flat-panel TV and computer screens to our home.
There are only a few books that I've read that I remember with any kind of clarity 5 or 6 years after having read them. Hell, there aren't that many I remember clearly 5 or 6 *months* after reading them. Yet "Synners" is one I read in the early 90's and here, roughly 15 years later, it's one that keeps coming back to mind. I don't know how available it is, but if you can find it, I'd recomment checking it out.
It was the first techno/cyber book I'd read, and it was at about the same time I was discovering the online world. One thing I
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particularly liked about it was that even though I didn't have a lot of technical knowledge or experience, the books technical aspects were written clearly enough that I didn't have any trouble following the story. The characters were interesting and even some of the ones who seemed a bit "out there" were relatable, and the story was compelling. I was very interested in seeing how things were going to come out, and it was definitely one of those books that's kind of hard to put down.
Another reader commented on how its been interesting watching some of the phrasing Cadigan used or ideas she presented have actually become a part of our landscape, and I have to agree. Anytime I hear someone talking about "food porn" or "war porn" or anything of that nature, I'm reminded of "Synners." It's the same with seeing how the net is being used to bring us more and more personalized content, and watching us add all these flat-panel TV and computer screens to our home.
There are only a few books that I've read that I remember with any kind of clarity 5 or 6 years after having read them. Hell, there aren't that many I remember clearly 5 or 6 *months* after reading them. Yet "Synners" is one I read in the early 90's and here, roughly 15 years later, it's one that keeps coming back to mind. I don't know how available it is, but if you can find it, I'd recomment checking it out.
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LibraryThing member Pool_Boy
I liked the story to this book. I was particularly impressed with with how spot on a lot of what happened has crept in to society today (given when the book was written). Nice premise and all.
But it took me forever to get in to it. I found that there were far too many characters and the initial
I'd still recommend it as I really liked the story (and the pacing) in the latter half of the book especially.
But it took me forever to get in to it. I found that there were far too many characters and the initial
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weaving of the story lines so confusing that I would have to go back and read sections I had already read over again just to keep things straight. Part of my problem, I know, is that I am a slow reader and I tend to read in snippets of just 5 pages or so.I'd still recommend it as I really liked the story (and the pacing) in the latter half of the book especially.
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LibraryThing member moontyger
I, quite frankly, adore this book. It is incredibly, utterly brilliant, even more so when you realize it was written in 1991 and yet was amazingly prescient. I only wish more people wrote cyberpunk like Cadigan does. Highly recommended if you like cyberpunk at all.
LibraryThing member knownever
Boring. Muddy multiple viewpoints. It's been fodder for queer and post human theorists as Cadigan has a stated feminist politics and there are, mostly elliptical, references to a gay relationship between two of the characters (maybe the only one in cyberpunk?). The relationship between Keely, a
On a closing note, "Art" the rock and roller who comes to exist only in the virtual world and who helps the other characters by causing digital havoc is pretty much Russel Brand only more earnest....so, you know, the book's what-does-it-mean-to-be-human philosophizing is totally hard to take seriously.
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hacker (but of course!), and his boyfriend, Jones, who is addicted to killing himself and being revived by a set of electrical and hormonal implants was the only thing I cared about when I read the book. I would bookmark the segments from Keely's POV (Jones is conspicuously absent from the novel) and read those through as almost a short story, skipping over the rest. Plus, the corporate captivity and forced drugging he undergoes after a major hack backfires and he gets placed in corporate-supervised "probation" was very spicy to me at 15.On a closing note, "Art" the rock and roller who comes to exist only in the virtual world and who helps the other characters by causing digital havoc is pretty much Russel Brand only more earnest....so, you know, the book's what-does-it-mean-to-be-human philosophizing is totally hard to take seriously.
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LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher
The most remarkable thing about Synners was that I was only very occasionally reminded that it was published in 1991. It's not a perfect prediction of the cyberpunk future, but it's still pretty damned close, and as a critique of the intersection of technology and capitalism, it's still pretty
As a novel, I thought it was a little too unfocused to be perfect - there are a lot of characters, a lot of viewpoints, and a lot of meandering that doesn't really serve the plot. As a matter of fact, there is no clear plot until nearly halfway through the book, and I found it pretty heavy going until the last hundred pages. Once it picked up, it was perfectly serviceable, but it's a better example of fascinating worldbuilding than of pure storytelling.
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dead-on.As a novel, I thought it was a little too unfocused to be perfect - there are a lot of characters, a lot of viewpoints, and a lot of meandering that doesn't really serve the plot. As a matter of fact, there is no clear plot until nearly halfway through the book, and I found it pretty heavy going until the last hundred pages. Once it picked up, it was perfectly serviceable, but it's a better example of fascinating worldbuilding than of pure storytelling.
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LibraryThing member StigE
This is a bit of a toughie to read. It is longer than it needs to be, and I am still on the fence as to whether the length was warranted for a bigger satisfaction at the conclusion or just indulgent. There's a lot of new words and concepts and very little hand-holding in this book, and coupled with
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a lot of points of view and rapid scene changes this makes for a read that requires the reader to pay attention. There's some amazing scene setting in here and it is one of the cyberpunk books that seem the least dated, despite being packed to the brim with new technological ideas and concepts. The fashion bits and the intense flirting with drugs places this solidly within 80s Cyberpunk, but otherwise it is pretty timeless and the media is almost uncannily precise.
This is a must read for cyberpunk fans, a maybe read for sci-fi fans and a maybe not for the rest.
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LibraryThing member sussura
Any cyberpunk library collection needs to include Pat Cadigan's Synners. And a potato clock.
LibraryThing member brakketh
Amazing world-building and a fascinating consideration of impacts of human-machine interfaces. Lots of fun too.
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
Yes this hasn't dated incredibly well in parts but the idea of a virus that causes strokes with people connected with a network is interesting and a logical offshoot of what could happen if someone hooks someone else up to a network without all the safety precautions. And while some of the tech has
Sadly I think this would have sung to me if I had read it along with the other Cyberpunk books and while playing Cyberpunk the roleplaying game regularly, but it fell flat for me.
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dated some of the concepts and ideas are still fresh.Sadly I think this would have sung to me if I had read it along with the other Cyberpunk books and while playing Cyberpunk the roleplaying game regularly, but it fell flat for me.
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Subjects
Awards
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 1991)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Winner — 1992)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1991
Physical description
6.8 inches
ISBN
0553282549 / 9780553282542