Realware [Mass Market Paperback]

Rudy Rucker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2001

It's 2054...and Phil Gottner doesn't know where his life is.His girlfriend is hooked on merge, a drug used in "bacteria-style" sex. His father has just been swallowed up by a hyperspatial anomaly that materialized from a piece of art. And at the funeral, Phil meets and falls in love with Yoke Starr-Mydol, an elusive young lovely visiting from the moon. But his ardent pursuit of the resisting Yoke is leading Phil to suspect that there is more to his father's absorption than he originally surmised; that it is linked somehow to an alien presence at the bottom of the sea, and to the mind-over-matter-enabling gift they are freely dispensing to an irresponsible human race. And now Phil and Yoke have been cast into the unlikely roles of saviors, as they rush to solve the mystery of the overly generous Metamartians and their hungry fourth-dimensional god, Om, before humanity achieves its long-anticipated destiny and obliterates itself completely.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Philip K. Dick Award-winner Rucker (Software; Wetware; Freeware) concludes his satirical SF "Ware" tetralogy with this homage to Edwin Abbott's Victorian classic Flatland. Phil Gottner's discovery that his father has apparently been swallowed whole by a "wowo," a multidimensional holographic toy, is the first event in a series that will change his life, and Earth, forever. Phil breaks up with his girlfriend to follow exotic Moon-born Yoke Star-Mydol to Tonga, where she meets a group of aliensDMetamartians from MetamarsDliving deep underwater in the Tonga Trench. It turns out that Yoke's mother, Darla, and a woman named Tempest Plenty were also swallowed by a multidimensional creature on the Moon several months ago. The Metamartians explain that the hungry entity is really their god, Om, who reaches into three-dimensional space to capture humans for study. The gift of an "alla" from Om and the aliens allows Yoke to create anything she can visualize using "realware," based on the advanced science of direct matter control. Soon enough, the secret of the alla spreads to others on Earth and predictable problems ensue. Meanwhile, Phil is captured by Om and reunited with his father, as well as with Darla and Tempest Plenty, somewhere in the fourth dimension. Rucker's cheerful ingenuity with biotech gadgetry and applied mathematics is in direct contrast to the book's simplistic plot and resolution. Readers familiar with the previous novels in the series will enjoy the inside jokes, but newcomers may find the lighthearted story lacking in dimension. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Another in Rucker's series--they're related through concepts and in style, irreverence, eccentricity, and cutting-edge scientific speculation--following Freeware (1997). This one unfortunately arrived far too late for a full review. In 2054, Phil Gottner's life is turning strange: among other things, his father been gobbled by a hyperspace anomaly and is presumed dead. At the funeral, he meets the stunning Yoke Starr-Mydol, a visitor from the Moon. Among the further complications: alien visitors--they call themselves Metamartians--bearing a gift, an alla, which confers the power of mind over matter. Are the aliens and the disappearance of Phil's father linked? What of the godlike being that calls herself Om? As crazy and as stimulating as ever. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Eos (HarperCollins); Reprint edition (April 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380808781
• ISBN-13: 978-0380808786
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,456,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for fans but..., July 10, 2001

By 

cyberBeach - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Realware (Paperback)

After reading Rudy Rucker's Software, Wetware et al, this book is a must have/must read. But I found it a bit of a letdown compared to the others. I kinda had the feeling that Rudy was trying too hard to "be a better *writer*", like maybe he took a writing course and it ruined him <grin>. The ideas stop coming around 1/2 way through the book, and the rest gets to be "she went here, he did this, she did that, blah-blah...". His previous books left me with a lot of ideas and images that I can never forget... ice-cream trucks that steal and freeze your head, cosmic rays that encode alien personalities... but from this one, mostly I remember being unpleasantly stuck in bubble.

I loved the others in the series but this one fell flat for me. Still, if you've read the others you have to read this one too.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed ..., September 30, 2000

By 

Timothy J. Oconnell "That Guy Tim" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Realware (Paperback)

While the first three novels in this series were enjoyable books, Realware falls a little short. The book, while still marginally readable, has a glaring flaw - unadulterated sappiness.

Rudy has managed to craft what could be "the feel-good cyberpunk novel of the year." (The movie version will probably be appearing shortly on Hallmark theatre.) Everybody's happy, cleaning up, and falling in love. However, little of it is really convincing.

The pop-tart romance between Phil and Yoke is barely believable ("What's your name? I Love You!") There's just too little evidence of chemistry for them to have gone that far as fast as they did. Phil also utters the phrase "clean and sober" so often that it feels like you're reading a piece of high school anti-drug propaganda.

Phil's constant espousing on how great life is ("Thank you God for making the world!") is nauseating at first, but then shifts into overdrive after his trip into the 4th dimension. At that point, Realware could almost be classified as a religious novel. Everybody gets to talk about their death experiences, how they discovered that souls are shaped like butterflies, how happy they were to look in the face of God, etc.

Couple all that with a poorly-executed deus ex machina ending, and you have the trappings of a substandard science fiction novel. Some people will still probably enjoy it - most likely those that had no previous experience with this series. Those who are expecting another book like the first three will likely walk away disappointed.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Rudy Rucker's NICE book - Beaver Cleaver, Clean & Sober, September 22, 2000

By 

William Eric Limbach (Pocatello, Idaho United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Realware (Paperback)

Nice, yeah, like warm milk and chocolate chip cookies. (Rudy, what were attempting? did you get what you wanted? what your editors wanted?) This book doesn't have the insane edge, like his earlier three books of the same series (Software, Wetware, Freeware), as well as, Hacker & the Ants. I've read all these other books at least 3 times each and own numerous copies of them. I think they are great reads and have given copies out to friends for years to turn them onto Rucker. But this latest? It ends with a wonderful double wedding and everyone lives happily every after. Yucch! Too Wholesome. I get the impression that Rucker was trying for a "Caledcott" award winner. Vapid & insipid, as accused above? Yes, I'd have to agree. I'm still a Rucker fan. But this one tastes like baby pablum.