Mad Professor: The Uncollected Short Stories of Rudy Rucker (Paperback)

~ Rudy Rucker (Author) "OLD age is all about killing time..." (more)
Key Phrases: server hotel, vibrating plane, quantum foam, Magic Pumpkin, San Francisco, San Jose (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Much cyberpunk SF is grimly noir in depicting future-shocked people trapped by their limitations, but in this collection of 19 laid-back yarns, Rucker (Mathematicians in Love) finds human dilemmas much too important to take seriously. "Jenna and Me," for example, co-written with his son Rudy Rucker Jr., shows President Bush's daughter brain-wiped by agents of the "conspiracy elite," but eventually becoming the unwitting focus for an alien invasion that may remake humanity for the better. "Junk DNA," a collaboration with Bruce Sterling, depicts the accidental benefits of unprincipled commercial exploitation of bioscience. Other stories emphasize extreme physical transformation, positive or negative results of thought experiments, and cheerful horniness. While readers who want rigorously developed plots or characterization may be disappointed, those who can groove on something like a collaboration between Italo Calvino and Jimmy Buffett will find themselves grinning and humming along. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

Often cited as one of the original cyberpunk pioneers, Rucker has channeled his groundbreaking ideas and yen for mathematics into almost 30 volumes of fiction and cerebral nonfiction over as many years. His latest book of stories finds him in fine form, extrapolating number theory into madcap tales about quantum elves and lotto-playing programmers. Five of the 13 pieces are collaborations with other notable sf veterans, such as Bruce Sterling and John Shirley. In "2+2=5," written with Terry Bisson, two nursing home-bound seniors zero in on breaking the world counting record. "Cobb Wakes Up" recounts the fate of a long-dead robot inventor resurrected as a conscious computer program. In perhaps the volume's most satirical entry, "The Men in the Backroom at the Country Club," aliens infiltrate Rucker's former home base of Lynchburg, Virginia, and meet their unlikely nemesis in the form of the town's religious zealots. A delight for both Rucker devotees and sf fans who prefer that their fiction be a little zany. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 301 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press (December 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560259744
• ISBN-13: 978-1560259749
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #876,805 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mad Professor: The Uncollected Short Stories of Rudy Rucker, May 29, 2007

By	Howard Hastings "hghastings" (San Francisco Bay Area) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Another enjoyable and oftimes thought provoking book by Rudy Rucker - being a collection of short stories this is an easy read. For fans of the "Ware" novel series, "Cobb Wakes Up" is set in that worldview.

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your money, July 24, 2008

By	ancientdruid1424 "ancientdruid1424" (Baton Rouge, LA USA) - See all my reviews

Just not very good. Not really science fiction. Undisciplined and an acquired taste. Not very logically constructed. If you like David Brin or Larry Niven or Alastair Reynolds, you won't like Rudy Rucker as an author.