(Note: this is the second part of a review of Denno Coil. The first part can be read here.)
It was slightly embarrassing last week, when I sat down to write a post about the Denno Coil art book I picked up in Tokyo, when I realised I’d never actually finished reviewing the series. In fact, it had been so long since I penned the first part, that I had to go back and re-read it to see exactly what i had said:
So we’re here. Finally.
Actually, we arrived about 48 hours ago, after what seemed like a week of travelling. Hellish. But, of course, with hindsight completely worth it. Shinjuku is everything all the cliches say it is – Akira, Bladerunner and Neuromancer all rolled into one, but somehow weirder for not actually feeling that futuristic. Or at least, it’s a kind of retro futuristic, a reminder of the that 80’s cyberpunk vision that it inspired but never quite happened anywhere else. Like all sci-fi, they got some things wrong. Example? Well, it seems damn near impossible to find any public Wi-Fi round here. But why would you need it when everyone’s had 3G capable phones for over ten years?
Whilst surfing over the weekend, I stumbled over a quote from sci-fi author Ken MacLeod. Now, I haven’t read any of MacLeod’s stuff for years, and it never struck me as being amazing, but this quote (apparently from his novel ‘The Cassini Division’) hit a chord with me.
(The technological singularity)…is the rapture for nerds.
Genius. I’ve been searching for a way of summing up my discontent with contemporary singularity theory, and all the time MacLeod had hit the nail right bang on the head.
Here we go…the first 2000 odd words of my latest story ‘Paparazzi’, hopefully for your enjoyment. Let me know what you think in the comments section…
I can’t put the full thing up yet because of the aforementioned possible publishing deal, but if you want to read more or are interested in publishing it yourself, let me know.
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A couple of people have asked me about the image at the top of the site…it’s actually a photo I took while in holiday in Marrakesh last July. We were looking for the Museum of Modern Art I believe, when I spotted this apparently dumped pile of old, busted TVs stacked on top of a random roof, looking like an abandoned set from a Mad Max movie..
OK… so I said I’d post one of my stories up, but I’ve had to put that on hold for a little while. Actually looks like I might have some interest from a publisher (!), so until the details of that have all been sorted out I can’t put anything up, for obvious reasons. But stay tuned…
