Customer Reviews

Ambient

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"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.

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

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.

Its pretty rare that I don't finish a book, unfortunately this was one of those cases. If I missed anything like a dramatic change in prose style (I stopped halfway through the book) then I apologise.

I found the positioning of 'Ambient' to be (as other reviewers have mentioned) an attempt at lying somewhere between cyberpunk and Burgess's classic Clockwork Orange. However in terms of actual implementation, the prose irritated me beyond all belief. The characters speak like drunken yodas. Don't get me wrong I'm fully in favour of taking dialects to the extreme to make a point in literature (Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh being an exemplary example) but I found page after page of this annoying doublespeak too much to bear.

When other reviewers say "this is a hard book to read" they are damn right. For me the return on investment wasn't worth it.

A shocking and sobering view of urban decay taken the whole way into the future. One of the best Womack books there are! Right up there with 'Random acts of senseless violence'

"Ambient" is William Gibson's cyberpunk vision cloaked in a future English quite akin to Burgess' in "A Clockwork Orange". Womack's daring, original prose is coupled with his stark, bleak vision of a future United States in which New York City has virtually succumbed to urban rot and environmental degradation, resembling a vast maximum security prison under martial law by the United States Army. Overseeing most of the economy is Dryco, a private firm run by Thatcher Dryden, an avaricious, insane version of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. The story is narrated by Seamus O'Malley, Dryden's security guard, who lusts after Avalon, Dryden's girl Friday. This is a provocative, difficult novel to read, but one which brilliantly shows Womack's ample literary talents.