Customer Reviews

Dervish Is Digital

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

 

 

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.

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

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.

Dervish is Digital is one of my favorite sci fi books. Itis classified by some as "cyberpunk." I don't really know what that genre means, but I recommend Dervish for anyone who enjoys a fast-paced, technology-heavy, mystery story. Konstantin, the main character, is a woman all women can relate to. Tough yet sensitive, aware of her flaws, she is human and engaging.

The world Cadigan created is mesmerizing. Nothing is what it seems. Her imagination is so fertile, her descriptive writing skills so honed, that you squirm with delight at each new incantation. This book is a puzzle, and not a breeze-through read, but it is immensely intriguing and has a smashing, powerful ending.

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Picked this one up at the libe, after seeing a favorable comment somewhere. This will be an unusually disorganized "review", since I took some notes, browsed around online (finding nothing worthwhile), then witlessly returned the book before writing it up. So you'll be getting what was truly memorable...

Anyway, this is a sequel to Tea from an Empty Cup (which I haven't read), and is further hijinx in VR (here AR), which to my great relief doesn't include the (to me) odious Post-apocalyptic Noo Yawk Sitty (sic, and sicker). This one involves one Hastings Dervish, who is stalking his ex in cyberspace, and running Lt. Konstantin of the AR Police around in circles in the bowels of the casinos of digital Hong Kong. It's an sfnal police procedural, and a nice one.

Very crisp writing. Lots of lovely one-line zingers -- I'd quote you some, if I still had the book... "He morphs, he torques, he crawls on his belly like a reptile..." -- his ex, re the elusive Dervish, from a scribbled note to myself.

The ending is one of those where the book just stops, which actually works pretty well here. And the book is blessedly short. Recommended.

Incidentally, my fave Cadigan of all time is the wonderfully creepy short, "Roadside Rescue". Wham, bam, SLAM. Reprinted often, and worth looking for.

Happy reading--
Pete Tillman

Once again Pat Cadigan shows why she is one of our finest science fiction writers in this elegant Chandleresque cyberpunk thriller. Lieutenant Dore Konstantin from "Tea From An Empty Cup" returns to help Susannah Ell, who insists she's being stalked by her ex-husband, Hastings Dervish. At first it seems like a rather implausible accusation since Dervish is one of the world's richest men. Yet Konstantin finds herself soon in a wild, rollercoaster ride through AR (Artificial Reality) contending not only with Dervish, but also with Goku, a Japanese policeman, looking for juvenile sexual AR deviants in Hong Kong. Those yearning for an exciting cyberpunk thriller will not be disappointed with Cadigan's latest novel.

Not bad, but not as good as the first novel, Tea From an Empty Cup. This is pretty much a stretched novella, I presume. The book is more of the same theme, exploring the problems of policing virtual worlds, especially when they can be in any country at any time. Then those doing the policing have to work out what is a crime, to start with.

Cadigan is a writer of enormous talent. In this book she shows her talent for realistic characters, vivid description, and out-of-this-world settings. On top of all that, I'd have to rate her dialogue as some of the best out there - she's funny, and will engage you at every turn.

Unfortunately, this book came off as being rather convoluted. The ending was especially difficult to follow. It was wonderful to read, mind you, but plot-wise I have absolutely no idea what happened. There also seems to be an overall lack of action, which isn't always a bad thing, but here it leaves a distinct sense that something is missing.

Bah! What an uninteresting piece of garbage. I have not failed to finish a book in about four years. This tripe will now reset the timer. The characters are flat, the plot absurd, the action stilted. I made it to page eighty-four, and that is that! Actually the best part of the book, up to where I gave up, concerned an arms deal gone bad. Even there, the writing was poor.

I found this book very disappointing. There was too little action and too much psychoblather, particularly toward the end. The main plot involving Dervish was never explained. The book just seemed to end. I felt I had wasted my time with it.