Ambient [Hardcover]

Jack Womack (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in a future New York City that seems like a horrible amalgam of A Clockwork Orange's London, modern-day Beirut and Germany during the Thirty Years' War, this thriller, Womack's first novel, does not live up to its ambitious theme. In 21st century Manhattan, a good portion of the citizenry consists of freaks engendered by a nuclear accident on Long Island. The freaks, or "ambients," of the title still retain a sense of community missing everywhere else in the world, however. Civic authority, such as it is, lies in Dryco, a conglomerate that controls the government. But things are falling apart inside Dryco. CEO Dryden Jr. believes that founder Dryden Sr. is destroying the company's solvency by speculating in Bronx real estate. Dryden Jr. persuades O'Malley, the novel's protagonist, to assassinate his father. The attempt misfires, and O'Malley must scramble to save his own life. Womack cites, and thus invites, comparison with A Clockwork Orange. But while Burgess used similar material to make serious fiction about connections between violence and dehumanization, and good and evil, the violence here merely titillates, and the tale is emp-ty of moral resonance and meaning.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

. . . a wonderfully inventive world . . . -- The New York Times Book Review, Stephen Dobyns --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 259 pages
• Publisher: Grove Pr; 1st edition (March 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555840825
• ISBN-13: 978-1555840822
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,640,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Vividly Rendered Vision of Hell on Earth, January 23, 2006

By 

Lukas Jackson (Los Angeles, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ambient (Jack Womack) (Paperback)

"Ambient" was assigned reading in my science fiction class at UC Santa Cruz 10 years ago. Expecting something like Asimov or Heinlein, I was unable to wrap my head around the seeming gibberish and put the book down quickly.

I've returned to it now and it remains a difficult read, as most of the novel is written in a future slang a la Clockwork Orange. Womack also chooses to vividly render his future world rather than go for quick, easy action. And what a world it is: a tiny elite controls everything, cavalierly exterminating those of the lower classes for dropping books at the bookstore, or hunting them down on their estates. This world is light years beyond Gibson in darkness and grittiness, and I found myself wondering if a society with such an absolute disregard for human life could exist.

If you are new to Womack's work, I would recommend "Random Acts of Senseless Violence." It is the first in the Dryco series chronologically and brings the reader gradually into the futurespeak and nihilistic chaos, presented in the form of a young girl's diary as New York collapses and burns around her. It is more powerful because it shows the transition period, making Womack's future that much more real.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Like "Clockwork orange" with a cyberpunk feel., July 3, 2000

By 

Mar Calpena (Barcelona, Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ambient (Jack Womack) (Paperback)

This is not an easy book to read. It contains a lot of violence, both physical and moral, combined with a very poetic language, which makes it reminiscent at times of mr Burgess great "Clocwork orange". However, you shouldn't expect a copy of that. "Ambient"'s hero is concerned with different subjects to those of Alexander de Large, and this story will be enjoyed by those who feel there's a certain amount of cliches in most cyberpunk novels nowadays and want to read something new. This is a book which makes you think, and that altogether makes it both dangerous and seductive

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wry and confronting future tale about buisness., June 27, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Ambient (Jack Womack) (Paperback)

Jack Womack's first book is an introduction into his future vision of the United States. In the wake of a massive sharemarket collapse and currency re-valuation most of everything is owned by one massive corporation, Dryco.The position at the top of Dryco is fought over by the Old Man, Thatcher Dryden, who founded the emipre, and his middle-aged son. Family security guard Seamus O'Malley is caught in the middle of their machinations and is hopelessly in love with one of his employer's mistresses.Womack is at his best when he writes casually about the atrocities that are an everyday event on the streets of New York, where all the action takes place. Language, culture and the importance of life itself have all been turned upside down and Womack brings it to life with color and black humour.