Customer Reviews

Bad Voltage (Signet)

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

 

 

For peoples who read this book an loved the storyplace, i've good news... Many of the characters of this book are real. Yes, Chtulu, Toxic, Olric... are real niknames of real peoples, living in paris. Most of the events in 'bad voltage' are based on real naughty thing they've done late 80's. I told about this book last sunday with Chtulu. We met in the catacombs were i'm used to go a few time per year. He told me that they didn't really care about this american guy who used to go with them when they went to 'hack' Paris underground. And one or two year later this guy whent back to USA, they received this book and then understund johnatan was a writer !

isn't this incredible ? that's true.

I was given this book in college as part of my further education into "all things cyberpunk" (it being the 90's, when many people believed cyberpunk was our future if not already or present). Since that one read, I can't get the characters and situations out of my head. Now, more then 10 years later, I've read dozens (hundreds?) of cyberpunk books but I had to go back and read this one again.
Don't get me wrong, this is not the best book ever written. A lot of it reads like those trashy novels you pick up at the airport because the cover art looked interesting. Despite that, or maybe because of it, this book manages to contain the essence of cyberpunk like few books can. Drugs, music, class conflict, mega-corps, youth, and technology are all represented here.
Snow Crash and Neuromancer are much better written books but, if you're looking for raw cyberpunk, you need to add this book to your collection as well.

So you think William Gibson & Bruce Sterling are the only ones writing truly revolutionary "cyberpunk" sci-fi ? Think again ; this 1989 offering from Jonathan Littell is a brilliant novel which works within the genre and yet simultaneously manages to achieve its own distinct style. The novel's brilliance is evident in all its aspects ; from the generically non-traditional European setting, to its strong characterisations, its fast paced plot line and it's sheer street "cred" :-). Last but not least, Littell seems a lot less preoccupied with describing every detail of the advanced technology his characters make use of than Gibson. He concentrates instead on character development & reader empathy, and this makes "Bad Voltage" considerably more accessible to the "average" or first time (cyberpunk) reader than Gibson's "Neuromancer" will ever be...

This is easily the best cyberpunk book I have ever read! (and I've read 'em all :) What makes the book so great? it's unique mix of cyberpunk injected with huge amounts of 'hipness' and 'attitude'... awesome! I have always presumed the name 'Jonathan Littell' must be a pseudonym as this talented author has never released another book.

The last time I saw this book must have been 19 or 20 years ago, but it was so memorable that when I came across a copy in a used book store I bought it immediately. Gibson and Sterling are similar, but this is not a copy of anybody else. Read it, in the unlikely instance that you can find one.

The summary says it all. If you are into cyberpunk, add this book to your collection.

I first read this book in 1990 and it's still my all-time favorite book in the cyberpunk genre!

..because it rips off just about every notable story in the genre, from Gibson's <u>Neuromancer</u> all the way through Rudy Rucker's <u>Software</u> and into <u>A Clockwork Orange</u>. The fairest thing that I can say about the novel is that it takes an unusual approach for the genre, which is to say that it is told from the point of view of a just-post-adolescent urban spelunker in France, and music figures very heavily into the storyline. That aside, there really isn't very much original material in this novel. It puts a slightly different spin on the references that are in place, but if you're looking for something completely new, this certainly isn't it. In good conscience, I can't recommend this book to anyone unless you really want a whirlwind introduction to some of the better, and certainly more notable works in the genre of cyberpunk.