Customer Reviews

Little Heroes

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An enjoyable read, a bit reminiscent of Lloyd Biggle Jr.'s "The Tunesmith," but with a more ambiguous and perhaps realistic ending, and with the added characterization and details possible with a novel. The scary part for me, as an out of work programmer, is Spinrad's prescience from the mid-1980s--2002 is looking a lot like the world of _Little Heroes_. Pass the kibble, will ya?

I read this book many years ago and remember scoffing at the idea of a hologram replacing the flesh and blood music idols we all like to read about in the gossip columns. Well I was reminded of it just today when a friend mentioned that they are flocking to see performances by a holographic signer in Japan. As yet the technology isn't there, but it won't be long...five years, ten years maybe, and all of the elements described in this book, possibly including electric stimulation of the brain (stim) as an addictive substance will be a reality. I would once have said read this book as a good trip through the imagination, now I say maybe it should be read as a roadmap to our future.

This book was overall disappointing. Some really interesting story ideas and plots were rendered almost unreadable by a wordy telling that came off as immature. The overuse of foul language and sex didn't fit the storyline and seemed to have been written by a fifteen-year-old. Descriptive sections were far overdone in a way that almost made this a skim read for me. My overall rating is 'disappointing' as I would have liked a more concise, mature treatment of the storylines of the virtual rock stars and the underground conspiracy. It even could have included a bit more exposition as to how the national situation occurred. Bottom line, not recommended.

A new kind of rock star and the electronic revolution, brings the powers that be to their knees, defenetly a book to read.