Dervish Is Digital [Paperback]

Pat Cadigan (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: HUMANITY PRESS/PROMETHEUS BK (1995)
• ASIN: B000SMUE7E
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Alice in Cyberland, October 19, 2001

By 

Kevin Wohler (Lawrence, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dervish Is Digital (Hardcover)

In Pat Cadigan's previous novel, Tea from an Empty Cup, she introduced readers to Doré Konstantin, a homicide detective tracking down a murder leading to AR (Artificial Reality). In Dervish is Digital, Cadigan returns to the world of AR, where everything is a lie and must be accepted as such. Konstantin, too, is back, heading up the TechnoCrime division, a job that is more like purgatory than actual hell, but nevertheless not her life's dream.

If Tea was cyberpunk mixed with Eastern mysticism, one must sum up Dervish as cyberpunk with a healthy dose of Lewis Carroll. This is not so much a mystery novel as a trip through the looking glass. As Konstantin chases her elusive white rabbit, the reader is not asked to understand what is going on, but to hang on and enjoy the ride. Unfortunately, the ride has little dimension to it, feeling flat and unimaginative.

While I immensely enjoy Cadigan's writing, this book left me cold. The story did not have the grit that I have come to expect in Cadigan's worlds. (Maybe because I recently finished her excellent collection of short stories, Patterns.) This novel felt like an unfinished story in many ways. It is as if the characters and plot had been put into place, but without the scenery. Sure, there are weird moments aplenty in Dervish, but it is all the same kind of glitter that we saw in Tea. There is nothing here that suggests this story is taking us someplace new. If anything, the AR world becomes as monotonous to the reader as it has become to Konstantin.

While Konstantin makes repeated metaphors of carnival rides, the book is anything but. A strange trip, to be sure, but never real. The story seems forced, and the situation seems hollow. Even the end of the novel leaves the reader feeling cheated somehow.

If this is a reflection of Cadigan's own feelings about cyberpunk, perhaps she should move on to something that excites her before she (and the reader) dies of ennui. Pick up Synners again for a truly great cyberpunk story.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rollr coaster ride of the future, June 29, 2001

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dervish Is Digital (Hardcover)

Detective Dore Konstantine runs the three-person Techno Crime, AR (Artificial Reality) Division. Though swamped with work, as the net has become a copyright nightmare, Dore would not mind if they could win one once a while. Proof is difficult at best to find and justice is a cyber thought of the mundane realm.

However, Dore is stunned when designer Susannah Ell claims her former spouse wealthy Hastings Dervish is stalking her via artificial reality. Stalking is a real world dangerous dilemma, not a cyberworld problem. Susannah wants Dore to make Hastings stop preferably by arresting him. A disbelieving Dore knows the world of cyberspace is filled with lies, misinformation, and deadly illusion. In this place, Dore seeks the truth amidst the cesspool of AR while Japanese police peer Goku believes her target is working the Hong Kong casinos. Is that in the real world or the artificial world? Either way, Dore is going to learn just how clever and dangerous Dervish really is.

The return of Dore Konstantine, cyberspace police officer, is a joyful event for those readers who relish something quite different in their police procedurals. Like with its predecessor (see TEA FROM AN EMPTY CUP), DERVISH IS DIGITAL is a wild ride that never slows down for a moment even when the readers enter AR, a place that seems more authentic than our reality does at times. Talented Pat Cadigan takes the police procedural into places that few, if any, has gone before.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting future view, confusing plot, October 8, 2001

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dervish Is Digital (Hardcover)

Police Lieutenant Dore Konstantin is a cyber-cop. Her job, to track artificial reality and track down the criminals who reside there. The problems--artificial reality is a tricky place, nothing is really illegal there, and some very nasty people seem to live there.

One of the nastiest just might be Dervish. According to his ex-girlfriend, Dervish has switched places with an artificial intelligence, actually becoming digital. Certainly his powers over cyberspace seem far stronger than any human should be able to afford.

Konstantin finds herself out of her league and seeks help, but in cyberspace, who can you trust.

Author Pat Cadigan provides an interesting forecast of how both the web and criminal society may merge as well as pinpointing some of the problems our police will have to face. Unfortunately, Konstantin is just a little too helpless and a little too confused. Even the final resolution rings a little hollow--what, exactly, did Konstantin do to bring about this resolution?

DERVISH IS DIGITAL makes for interesting reading, but it just drips with promises that aren't quite explored.