Ce roman d’Isaac Asimov, inédit en français, appartient au cycle de Trantor. Dans l’Empire galactique décli­nant, les despotes de la planète Tyrann contrôlent de nombreux mondes, dont la Terre. Biron Farrill, le fils d’un de leurs principaux opposants qu’ils ont assassiné, échappe de peu à un attentat et réussit à quitter la Terre. Il y est aidé par son vieux maître, Sander Jonti et, en compagnie de la jolie Artémisia, gagne alors Lingane, une planète où s’organise la résistance contre Tyrann. Là, il découvre que le chef des opposants et l’auteur de l’attentat qui faillit lui coûter la vie sont un seul et même homme : Sander Jonti. Comment parviendra-t-il à dis­tinguer ses amis véritables de ses ennemis ? Lui reste-t-il une chance de sauver sa vie et d’anéantir les maîtres de Tyrann pour venger son père ?

Il est certain que cela va devenir un "collector", pensez-donc une nouvelle de SF dans l'emballage de la "Série noire". L'intrusion de la SF dans la SN n'est pas nouvelle mais avec Maurice Dantec, c'est la première fois qu'elle prend autant d'importance. Dans cette nouvelle “édifiante”, Dantec s'autoparodie et parodie les genres SF et policier. Nous sommes en 2045. Un spécialiste en informatique qui s'est baladé sur le Net, a fait de la prison et travaille comme détective privé pour une boite privée est chargé par un vieil ami de faire une fausse carte d'identité pour une jeune femme née dans l'espace et nantie de pouvoir spéciaux. La jeune femme poursuivie sème la panique dans un quartier de Paris et notre héros se fait arrêter. Rien de bien nouveau sous le soleil, mais le texte pourrait être intéressant s'il était traité de manière fine. Hélas notre écrivain qui dispose d'une culture d'apparence phénoménale en profite pour nous livrer tous les clichés, tous les poncifs, tous les trucs éculés qui firent les beaux jours de la Série Noire… sans la moindre touche d'humour et avec des leçons de philo, de morale, de politique qui, incorporées aux situations vécues par le héros, sont d'un ridicule fini… On a le sentiment de lire les dialogues du doublage d'un western années 50 où il fallait faire avec un accent ou des expressions stéréotypées. Pourquoi avoir laissé passer un tel texte qui, sans vraie analyse, présente une société dont on ne voit que les flics, les truands et quelques marginaux style années 70, société apocalyptique sans raison; un texte qui semble avoir été écrit pour rendre hommage à la Série Noire, à la SF, et parler de l'ex-Yougoslavie (par ordre d'apparition)? Il reste à à espérer que l'auteur se soit fait plaisir… et que les lecteurs n'aient pas pris pour argent comptant cette piteuse imitation de William Gibson.

Warning: Although this the action of this book is set on Mars, it could just as easily have taken place in one of the desert communities around Los Angeles. The real action takes place inside the minds of the characters. If you're looking for all the external trappings of interplanetary Sci-Fi, you will be deeply disappointed. Approach it with an open mind, and you will be richly rewarded. What happens when one of the most powerful men on the planet Mars finds that real-estate speculators are intent on gobbling up the remote and seemingly worthless Franklin D Roosevelt mountains? Naturally he wants to find out why. A casual conversation with a psychologist followed by a chance encounter with a master repairman leads to one of those Dickian leaps: Since (1) autistic children do not respond to others because they are living in the future, (2) just build a machine to slow down time and (3) maybe even use it to go back in time and retroactively post a claim on the land before the speculators do. Well, the mechanism works, in a way. The speculators were proposing to build giant apartment blocks to help relieve overcrowding on polluted Earth. The autistic boy, Manfred Steiner, sees much further, however, to the time the apartment block would become a warehouse for the sick and dying, a "tomb world," of which he himself is a denizen. Manfred's visions have a way of bending the reality of those around him; he persistently retreats to a vision of reality as "gubble" -- entropy seen as large wormlike constructs that underlie reality, leading to pure "gubbish." MARTIAN TIME-SLIP is one of my favorite Philip K Dicks. (The problem is that I like all 15 or so I've read more or less equally.) Reading Philip K Dick tends to bend your sense of reality much as Manfred Steiner does. And one can't help looking over one's shoulder for a few hours after reading him. I see Dick as not so much a science fiction writer as a creator of disturbing and eerily plausible futures.

Предыстория событий, описанных в повести Дмитрия Глуховского «Метро 2033». Написана поклонниками данного произведения Дмитрия. Спорные вопросы развития сюжета согласовывались с Дмитрием. Помимо прочего, сие произведение было любезно упомянуто уважаемым Д.Г. в его интервью журнала «Компьютерра» (http://www.m-e-t-r-o.ru/interview.pdf).

The first thing you notice when reading Eastern Standard Tribe is that it suggests a methodology that Doctorow follows when building his novels: identify and research a cool new idea, add more and more cool bits to that idea, and then build that into a story. In Down and Out the cool idea was reputation-based economies, and in Tribe it's a new kind of social group emerging that chooses to abandon its local standard time to live and work in stop with another more desirable one... Damien Broderick, in a recent review, coined the rather amusing term "blogpunk," which seems to very much apply to Doctorow's work. It refers to the tendency of writers of online journals to accumulate fascinating factoids and then share them amongst themselves. And, to an extent, you can see that in Tribe. The novel's background is full of cool things — cars running on lard and such — but it's just that, background. At its heart, Tribe is a witty, sometimes acerbic poke in the eye at modern culture. Everything comes under Doctorow's microscope, and he manages to be both up to date and off the cuff in the best possible way. — Jonathan Strahan, Locus Magazine

Warning: Although this the action of this book is set on Mars, it could just as easily have taken place in one of the desert communities around Los Angeles. The real action takes place inside the minds of the characters. If you're looking for all the external trappings of interplanetary Sci-Fi, you will be deeply disappointed. Approach it with an open mind, and you will be richly rewarded. What happens when one of the most powerful men on the planet Mars finds that real-estate speculators are intent on gobbling up the remote and seemingly worthless Franklin D Roosevelt mountains? Naturally he wants to find out why. A casual conversation with a psychologist followed by a chance encounter with a master repairman leads to one of those Dickian leaps: Since (1) autistic children do not respond to others because they are living in the future, (2) just build a machine to slow down time and (3) maybe even use it to go back in time and retroactively post a claim on the land before the speculators do. Well, the mechanism works, in a way. The speculators were proposing to build giant apartment blocks to help relieve overcrowding on polluted Earth. The autistic boy, Manfred Steiner, sees much further, however, to the time the apartment block would become a warehouse for the sick and dying, a "tomb world," of which he himself is a denizen. Manfred's visions have a way of bending the reality of those around him; he persistently retreats to a vision of reality as "gubble" -- entropy seen as large wormlike constructs that underlie reality, leading to pure "gubbish." MARTIAN TIME-SLIP is one of my favorite Philip K Dicks. (The problem is that I like all 15 or so I've read more or less equally.) Reading Philip K Dick tends to bend your sense of reality much as Manfred Steiner does. And one can't help looking over one's shoulder for a few hours after reading him. I see Dick as not so much a science fiction writer as a creator of disturbing and eerily plausible futures.

Marid Audran has become everything he once despised. Not so long ago, he was a hustler in the Budayeen, an Arabian ghetto in a Balkanized future Earth. Back then, as often as not, he didn’t have the money to buy himself a drink. But he had his independence. Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1990.

El Budayén, los bajos fondos de una ciudad árabe anónima, está construido al lado del cementerio, y quien se interna en sus callejones lo hace consciente del peligro que corre: ni sus habitantes —prostitutas, proxenetas y traficantes de drogas— ni la policía se preocupan demasiado si un desconocido aparece acuchillado y tirado en la esquina. Tal es el ambiente en el que se ha criado Marîd Audran, un hombretón que nunca ha necesitado llevar armas y que es respetado en su independencia. Pero nadie podría haber imaginado la pesadilla en la que se convertiría su vida después de que un extraño muriera asesinado por alguien conectado a un módulo de James Bond… Una novela vertiginosa, en la que se dan cita los logros de la informática, la novela negra y la ciencia ficción.

En otros tiempos era un buscavidas callejero de los bajos fondos conocidos como el Budayén. Ahora, Marîd Audran se ha convertido en aquello que más odiaba. Ha perdido su orgullosa independencia para pasar a ser un títere de Friedlander Bey, aquell-que-mueve-los-hilos, y a trabajar como policia. Al mismo tiempo que busca la forma de enfrentarse a sí mismo y al nuevo papel que le ha tocado adoptar, Audran se topa con una implacable ola de terror y violencia que golpea a una persona que ha aprendido a respetar. Buscando venganza, Audrán descubre verdades ocultas sobre su propia historia que cambiarán el curso de su propia vida para siempre. Un fuego en el Sol es finalista del Premio Hugo 1990.

In a decadent world of cheap pleasures and easy death, Marid Audrian has kept his independence the hardway.  Still, like everything else in the Budayeen, he’s available… for a price. For a new kind of killer roams the streets of the Arab ghetto, a madman whose bootlegged personality cartridges range from a sinister James Bond to a sadistic disemboweler named Khan.  And Marid Audrian has been made an offer he can’t refuse. The 200-year-old “godfather” of the Budayeen’s underworld has enlisted Marid as his instrument of vengeance.  But first Marid must undergo the most sophisticated of surgical implants before he dares to confront a killer who carries the power of every psychopath since the beginning of time. Wry, savage, and unignorable, When Gravity Fails was hailed as a classic by Effinger’s fellow SF writers on its original publication in 1987, and the sequence of “Marid Audrian” novels it begins were the culmination of his career. Nominated for Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1987. Nominated for Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1988.

Rydell is on his way back to San Francisco. A stint as a security man in a Los Angeles convenience store has convinced him his career is going nowhere, but his friend phoning from Tokyo, says there's more interesting work for him in Northern California. And there is.

Turner, mercenaire, « aide » les transfuges des multinationales à déserter leur poste. Cette fois, il a pour mission de récupérer le cerveau de la biotechnologie de Mass-Neotek.

Marly, acheteuse d’art à Paris, est engagée par un milliardaire excentrique afin de retrouver l’origine de mystérieuses et fascinantes créations apparues subitement sur le marché.

Bobby, ou Comte Zéro, jeune et intrépide pirate de logiciel, opère dans les faubourgs de la Conurb. Il va se laisser entraîner par sa curiosité dans les dédales du cyberspace.

Le cyberspace, c’est l’univers artificiel des réseaux informatiques, le monde qui était déjà celui de Neuromancien. Et c’est là que leurs destins vont se croiser. Mais ils ne seront pas les seuls.

Turner, corporate mercenary, wakes in a reconstructed body, a beautiful woman by his side. Then Hosaka Corporation reactivates him for a mission more dangerous than the one he’s recovering from: Maas-Neotek’s chief of R&D is defecting. Turner is the one assigned to get him out intact, along with the biochip he’s perfected. But this proves to be of supreme interest to certain other parties — some of whom aren’t remotely human.

Bobby Newmark is entirely human: a rustbelt data-hustler totally unprepared for what comes his way when the defection triggers war in cyberspace. With voodoo on the Net and a price on his head, Newmark thinks he’s only trying to get out alive. A stylish, streetsmart, frighteningly probable parable of the future and sequel to Neuromancer.

Niminated for Locus and BSFA Awards in 1986.

Nominated for Hugo and Nebula awards in 1987.

Gibsonowska wizja przyszłości, nowoczesna i przerażająca prawdopodobna. Od czarnego rynku oprogramowania i zuchwałych kowbojów klawiatury, którzy planują wielkie skoki i rzucają się wgłąb systemów…

Przez snobistyczną kulturę świata sztuki, gdzie prawdziwy geniusz kryje się niczym ścigana zwierzyna… do elitarnego kręgu korporacyjnych technokratów.

Amazon.com

The author of the ground-breaking science-fiction novels Neuromancer and Virtual Light returns with a fast-paced, high-density, cyber-punk thriller. As prophetic as it is exciting, Idoru takes us to 21st century Tokyo where both the promises of technology and the disasters of cyber-industrialism stand in stark contrast, where the haves and the have-nots find themselves walled apart, and where information and fame are the most valuable and dangerous currencies.

When Rez, the lead singer for the rock band Lo/Rez is rumored to be engaged to an "idoru" or "idol singer"–an artificial celebrity creation of information software agents–14-year-old Chia Pet McKenzie is sent by the band's fan club to Tokyo to uncover the facts. At the same time, Colin Laney, a data specialist for Slitscan television, uncovers and publicizes a network scandal. He flees to Tokyo to escape the network's wrath. As Chia struggles to find the truth, Colin struggles to preserve it, in a futuristic society so media-saturated that only computers hold the hope for imagination, hope and spirituality. – This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description

The New York Times bestselling author takes readers to 21st-century Tokyo after the millennial quake–where something violently new is about to erupt...–This text refers to the Paperback edition.

A jövő század kaotikus világában a kontinenseket uraló magakorporációk küzdelmének dzsungelében magára marad egy lány.

Azaz majdnem.

Mert a Cyberspace-ciklus harmadik kötetében sem az élet, sem a halál sem a holnap fogalma nem olyan egyértelmű amilyennek az első pillanatban látszik…

Une nouvelle macroforme est apparue dans le Conurb : l’aleph. Un gigantesque empilement de biopuces capables de reconstituer tous les savoirs, toutes les données de l’univers. Un fantastique instrument de pouvoir !

Tous les pirates de cyberspace sont à sa recherche. Mais qui le détient réellement ? Bobby, un génie du logiciel ? Dame 3Jane, l’héritière clonée de l’empire Tessier-Ashpool ? Ou Angie, vedette de cinéma, fille du savant Mitchell, le célèbre créateur des biopuces ?

L’enjeu est de taille ! Ils l’ignorent encore mais celui qui, au risque de sa vie, saura se rendre maître de l’aleph possèdera les clés d’un monde nouveau, un monde au-delà de l’humanité…

Powieść Mona Liza Turbo jest przez krytykę uważana za jedną z najlepszych książek autora Neuromancera. Wejdźmy w niezwykły świat Gibsona — liryczny i zmechanizowany, erotyczny i brutalny, posępny i podniecający — gdzie wielonarodowe korporacje i stechnicyzowani przestępcy walczą o władzę, przenosząc się w generowane komputerowo universum zwane cyberprzestrzenią. W tym świecie pojawia się Mona, dziewczyna o mętnej przeszłości i niepewnej przyszłości. Życie prowadzi ją po kursie kolizyjnym ze światowej sławy gwiazdą Sense/Netu, Angie Mitchell. Angie od dzieciństwa potrafiła włączyć się do cyberprzestrzeni, nie używając do tego komputera. Teraz do wnętrza cyberprzestrzeni wiodą nici intrygi mającej na celu jej porwanie. Spiskiem kieruje widmowa jaźń, która ma swoje plany wobec Mony, Angie i całej ludzkości. A w tle kryją się potężni Yakuza z japońskiego podziemia przestępczego…

Ich przywódcy bezlitośnie posługują się ludźmi dla osiągnięcia własnych celów (a przynajmniej tak im się wydaje).

Case, a kozolcowboy, az adatmezők magányos vándora magára haragította megbízóit, s ezért a hibáért képességeinek legjavával kellett fizetnie. Azóta üzletel, a fennmaradásért küzd a XXI. századi Japán alvilágban, ahol a pénz szava törvény, a könnyelműség büntetése pedig gyors, kíméletlen halál...

Oto brama w niezwykły świat Gibsona — mechaniczny, lecz przepełniony uczuciem, żyjący seksem, gwałtem i pieniędzmi, mroczny, podniecający jak narkotyk.

Świat walczących o władzę ponadnarodowych korporacji, których pracownicy są niewolnikami i wolnych hackerów, podróżujących po sztucznym, bezgranicznym Wszechświecie wnętrza komputera — cyberprzestrzeni — gdzie szaleństwo i śmierć mierzy się w nanosekundach. Case był jednym z najlepszych, lecz nawet on popełnił błąd.

« Science-fiction à court terme qui explore les retombées des technologies de pointe, notamment l’informatique, dans tous les aspects de la vie quotidienne. Ambiance marquée par la culture rock et flirt fréquent avec le polar. »

Cette citation tirée du catalogue Présence du futur illustre parfaitement l’univers cyberpunk dont Neuromancien, premier livre de Gibson, est l’oeuvre fondatrice.

Récompensé dès sa sortie par les prix Hugo, Nébula et P K Dick, ce roman se passe entre Hong Kong, Atlanta et Londres.

Chase est un ancien pirate de la matrice, cet univers qu’il définit comme « une hallucination consensuelle ». Après la destruction de son système nerveux par un de ses employeurs, il survit désormais grâce à l’alcool et aux drogues et trempe dans plusieurs trafics d’organes et de matériel informatique. Alors qu’il s’apprête à franchir le point de non retour dans cette spirale d’autodestruction, il se voit offrir une nouvelle naissance : la possibilité de retourner dans la matrice « pour l’exultation désincarnée » qu’elle procure, « le corps, c’est de la viande »..

Immaginate un futuro alla Bladerunner, non molto lontano dal nostro presente, un mondo di cupa delinquenza e di elevata tecnologia, di droghe e computer, di traffico nero di organi umani, di trapianti e di sfrenata ricchezza, di popolosi quartieri dove si aggira il più torbido sottobosco umano, un mondo di cyborg e di tetre strade notturne, di fatiscenti metropoli illuminate da un cielo grigiastro per le colorate luci al neon e gli ologrammi dei locali malfamati.

In questo mondo si muove Case, che un tempo era stato il miglior “cow boy” d’interfaccia, un uomo che con la mente riusciva a entrare e muoversi nell’incredibile mondo delle matrici dei computer, nel cosiddetto “cyberspace”, dove la sua essenza disincarnata frugava nelle banche-dati delle ricchissime corporazioni che dominavano la Terra e rubava le informazioni richieste dai suoi mandanti. Ma poi Case aveva commesso il classico errore, aveva cercato di rubare anche ai suoi mandanti, di tener per sé parte del bottino. E, scoperto, era stato vittima di un destino cui avrebbe preferito la morte: il suo sistema nervoso era stato danneggiato in maniera tale che non avrebbe più potuto entrare nel misterioso e bellissimo mondo del “cyberspace”. Ma forse Case aveva ancora un’altra possibilità, e stava soltanto a lui sfruttarla a dovere.

Un romanzo magnifico e avvincente, che unisce in maniera splendida un’accurata estrapolazione sociale e tecnologica a una incredibile serie di personaggi dipinti con maestria e con uno stile vivido e immediato, da un nuovo scrittore che ha già conquistato il pubblico d’oltre oceano e si avvia a diventare uno dei nuovi “grandi” della fantascienza mondiale.

Vincitore dei premi Nebula e Philip K. Dick in 1984.

Vincitore del premio Hugo in 1985.

Rok 2005, dwa siostrzane stany NoCal i SoCal powstałe w miejscu dawnej Kalifornii. Minione tysiąclecie pozostawiło nielicznych ocalałych i oszołomionych mieszkańców. Berry Rydell pracuje teraz dla łowcy nagród; Chevette Washington pod wpływem nagłego impulsu kradnie niewinnie wyglądające okulary. Jest to produkt bardzo zaawansowanej technologii. To, co przez nie widać, może uczynić człowieka bogatym lub martwym.

Amazon.com

The author of Neuromancer takes you to the vividly realized near future of 2005. Welcome to NoCal and SoCal, the uneasy sister-states of what used to be California. Here the millennium has come and gone, leaving in its wake only stunned survivors. In Los Angeles, Berry Rydell is a former armed-response rentacop now working for a bounty hunter. Chevette Washington is a bicycle messenger turned pick-pocket who impulsively snatches a pair of innocent-looking sunglasses. But these are no ordinary shades. What you can see through these high-tech specs can make you rich–or get you killed. Now Berry and Chevette are on the run, zeroing in on the digitalized heart of DatAmerica, where pure information is the greatest high. And a mind can be a terrible thing to crash.

From Publishers Weekly

Gibson's cyberpunk thriller set in a near-future L.A.–a two-week PW bestseller–depicts the hunt for virtual reality glasses containing classified data.

Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description

2005: Welcome to NoCal and SoCal, the uneasy sister-states of what used to be California. Here the millenium has come and gone, leaving in its wake only stunned survivors. In Los Angeles, Berry Rydell is a former armed-response rentacop now working for a bounty hunter. Chevette Washington is a bicycle messenger turned pickpocket who impulsively snatches a pair of innocent-looking sunglasses. But these are no ordinary shades. What you can see through these high-tech specs can make you rich–or get you killed. Now Berry and Chevette are on the run, zeroing in on the digitalized heart of DatAmerica, where pure information is the greatest high. And a mind can be a terrible thing to crash...

Gibson új regénye a XXI. század első évtizedébe, egy neurománc — ciklusnál közelebbi jövőbe vezet. Hősei egy széthullóban lévő világ információfogyasztó polgárai, akik gyorsan élnek, de nem lehetnek sem gyorsabbak, sem okosabbak a mindenütt jelenlévő számítógépeknél…

Книга о виртуальной реальности. Главный герой Хэн стремится всеми силами выплыть из бедности благодаря компьютерной игре.