Mindplayers (Gollancz SF Collectors' Edition) [Paperback]

Pat Cadigan (Author)

Book Description

Series: Gollancz Sf Collectors' Editions | Publication Date: September 28, 2000

Allie Haas only did it for a dare - the kind of dare you know is a mistake but you do it anyway because it's Mistake Yime. But putting on the madcap that Jerry Wirerammer has 'borrowed' was a very big mistake. The psychosis itself was quite conventional, a few paranoid delusions, but it didn't go away when she took the madcap off. Jerry did the decent thing and left her at an emergency room for dry-cleaning but then the Brain Police took over. Straightened out by a professional mindplayer, Allie thinks she's left mind games behind for good but then comes the fazer: she can either go to jail as mind criminal or she can train as a mindplayer herself...

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Pat Cadigan was born in 1953 in Schenectady, New York and grew up in Massachusetts, attending the University of Massachusetts. She moved to England in 1996. Her other books include Synners, Fools (both of which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award) and Patterns.

Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Orion Publishing; New edition edition (September 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575071362
• ISBN-13: 978-0575071360
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,915,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cutting edge cyberpunk, 20 years ahead of its time., September 26, 2000

By 

Laurie Bee (Lauriespace - the centre of the Universe!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mindplayers (Mass Market Paperback)

This is Pat Cadigan's first novel, featuring Deadpan Allie (love that pun! - rock on, Cadigan). Cadigan had developed the character in stories written in the eighties. The book was published in 1987.

Seen the film The Cell, where Jennifer Lopez is inside the head of a psycho? Well, Cadigan got there over 20 years ago with Deadpan Allie, who goes into the heads of various people with some pretty crazy things going on in there, and tries to heal them.

Cadigan does a great job of knitting together the stories she wrote earlier in the eighties about Allie, and giving the whole novel a structure and an overall story arc. Allie is another of those street-smart, tough and funny women characters that Cadigan does better than anyone else. If you ran into her 'tec, Dore Konstantin in Tea from an Emtpy Cup, you'll know what I'm talking about.

This book has been out of print for quite a while, and this new trade paperback edition from Gollancz is a nice looking piece of work. It's great to see the book back in the bookstores, and I for one will be going out to replace my battered and well-read Bantam paperback copy with one of these nice yellow-jacket jobs.

Pat Cadigan is right up there with William Gibson and Bruce Sterling among the founders of cyberpunk. Is cyberpunk dead? No way! Read Mindplayers and find out how alive and kicking it is.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reading!, March 15, 2002

By 

D. Thompson "beaglelover" (Newark, DE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mindplayers (Mass Market Paperback)

Pat Cadigan's MindPlayers was one of the first "sci-fi" books I read, and I fell in love with it. All the characters have their own unique quirks and personality traits, but my favorite two characters were the twins, Dolby and Dolan. Each time I read Mindplayers, I find something that I missed the last time I read the book. The creative aspects of the characters is the best part of the story. It is noteworthy that almost every character within the book has an altered appearance; no one seems to be as they were at birth. Onionheads are especially interesting, although they get only a mention. Pat Cadigan has had to endure television and movie ripoffs of some of the details within Mindplayers, but this book remains a classic and the first of its kind.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pat Cadigan is Awesome, July 28, 2004

By 

L. Mintah "Author of the Heart" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mindplayers (Mass Market Paperback)

Mindplayers is one of the best books I have ever read, sci-fi or otherwise. Pat Cadigan has a brilliant imagination. She tries her best to keep up with it. Her writing is a bit haphazard, but very good overall. Mindplayers is set in the future, where Mindplay has changed society for better or worse. Differing degrees of Mindplay require professionals to assist those engaging in it. One of these professionals is Deadpan Allie (love that play on words). Allie is a former layabout who has been recruited to become a professional Mindplayer. The strange characters she meets and weird situations she is in mesmerize the reader. There is also a lot of philosophy for the reader to chew on.

Recommended for sci-fi/fantasy fans. No graphic sex or violence. I also recommend Dervish is Digital, another sci-fi treasure by Cadigan.