1993,  AvoNova/Morrow

     I know I’ve discussed the difference between reviewing an ebook and a paper book before. It seems I have a  penchant for reviewing paper books long after their “shelf life” and so from that aspect, it’s a pointless exercise. That’s assuming, of course, that you’re reviewing the book in order to raise its visibility or otherwise call attention to it. Since Red Dust was published in 1993 and, so far as I can tell, has no ebook edition, that really doesn’t apply. So why do it? Because I like to think about what I read, and I think best when I’m writing things down. So I do. 

   Red Dust was written at a time when readers and pundits in the genre were constantly announcing the death of Cyberpunk. Remember cyberpunk? A literary movement centered around “street” uses for technology, specifically computer power. Arguably launched by William Gibson’s Neuromancer and precursed (Love that word. Love the sound of it and its obvious double-meaning. And if it’s not a word, it damn well should be) by John Brunner’s The Shockwave Rider, among others. Once any literary movement is announced, there’s always a cadre that immediately starts gathering ’round the guillotine, waiting for its inevitable death. Continue reading →