Customer Reviews

Synners

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Pat Cadigan's Synners is an interwoven chronicle of three main characters: Gabe, Sam, and Gina. Gabe is an advertising agent for Diversifications, Inc. and Sam, his daughter, is a hacker. Gina is a synner (creator of the near-future rock videos) whose company was bought out by Diversifications, Inc. Drugs that help with depression have been reinforced by implants provided at "feel-good clinics". Diversifications, Inc. has discovered a plan for a new implant that provides prerecorded dreams that can be accessed for entertainment. Gina's coworker, Visual Mark, has been selected as the experimental subject because of his exceptional visual imagination.

Synners uses familiar Cyberpunk concepts such as global computer networks, direct computer linkups to the brain, enhanced recreational drugs, young hackers and a modified form of rock music. This story revolves around the introduction of new technology, such as implants to treat depression and brain sockets to enhance entertainment. It also revolves around what happens when new technology begins to do the unexpected.

Synners is presented at a perfect pace and is told in a multi-threaded style, where the characters intertwine with each other. The character development and plot are written with elaborate detail, but the theme is very simple. This book is very entertaining, even though concentration and close attention are needed in order to understand what is happening. I enjoyed this book very much and highly recommend reading it.

I'm not a huge sci-fi fan, but I like good stories. This is a fine story. I admire Cadigan's ability to have several stories going at once, a ton of characters interacting, and still keep it interesting and fun. I recommend her other novels Mindplayers and Fools. They aren't as funny, but the plots are intrigueing and complex. Cadigan is a very original writer, and I love reading her work.

Synners by Pat Cadigan is a profoundly written book by any standards. It is considered a Cyberpunk book, but it can be enjoyed by anyone who likes a challenging mystery-type novel also. She uses many different, deep characters in so many different settings that it can tend to be confusing, but she also does an excellent job of tying them all together in the end. This novel requires a lot of thought and perception, but it grabs you from the very first page. Cadigan uses nameless characters and a unique setting to create an ambience of mystery around the entire book.

Synners is set in the future and is mainly based on this close-knit group of hackers that use information sent to them by a friend to stop a big business from creating implants and inserting them into people of all types, including young children. This business, Diversifications, says it will be used to stop learning and mental problems but everyone is quite wry of this new development. The problem is that this big business wants to use music videos to promote them. This is a problem because then it would reach too many people, even people who had no need for them. Synners gives you a very person-friendly technological atmosphere and tons of action.

Cadigan uses this plot to bring in an intriguing and very technology based theme. She also uses an element of mystery into the book to grab and keep the readers attention. Synners is a great read for anyone who is the least bit interested in technology and mystery. Cadigan does a great job of keeping the book interesting. If you do chose to read this book make sure you are ready for a confusing ride through the minds of many different characters and character-types.

I picked up this book after reading one of Cadigan's short stories in a cyberpunk compilation, and I was thoroughly impressed by it. The way it immerses you in the character's thoughts is especially appealling. And it's one of the only books I've ever read that has a soundtrack to it... sort of... without giving anything away, I'll tell you to make sure you have a copy of George Thorogood's "Who Do You Love" and Lou Reed's "Coney Island Baby" handy, and it'll make your reading experience that much more immersive. Also, it wouldn't hurt if you bring some "change for the machine".

Well, it looks like I am a minority here. Yes, that's right, I really didn't enjoy this book. To be honest with you, I only got to the page 200. I consider myself a sci-fi fan. I've read (and loved) all Stephenson's books, Philip K. Dick, Nylund, Bruce Sterling, and many others. There are very few authors that I don't like, and thinking about it, that was my mistake. A lot of people compare Cadigan with Gibson, and Neuromancer was one book that I really couldn't get through.

The problem with Synners in my opinion is that it tries to do too much at the same time. Timeline is confusing, the characters are introduced a dozen at a time, and after 200 pages there was a lot of descriptions about not so important situations and very little was told about the plot and how the different threads related to each other. Characters are very poorly developed. Visual Mark, who is supposed to be important, has no clear identity, and other characters that could be interesting, like the boy who could read and learnt Chinese, are just forgotten.

There are a few cool ideas in this book. The brain sockets and the whole idea about hi-tech music industry are interesting concepts, but they are just not enough when compared to the silly ideas like the nonsense hit and run, the exaggerated drug apologies and things like that man with the `graphic changing' cape, etc.

Bottom line, I wouldn't recommend this book.

Pat Cadigan's "Synners" - excellent, highly complex, cyberpunk sci-fi by an author I now very much want to read more of. Perspective switches between different characters in different narratives and I'm sure I missed a lot by only reading this in bits interspersed with a lot of other things. Synners are those who take imagery from the brains of others and turn them into a consumable form through a new form of surgical cuber modules. The idea is similar to that I first saw in one of William Gibson's "Kings of Sleep", one of the short stories in the Burning chrome collection, or the performers with cybered creative skills in Joan D. Vinge's "Cat's Paw", but "Synners" takes the idea further, developing it into a complex plot with a sideline of studies in Self and Consciousness.

I read Synners around 1993. It was borrowed from friends of friends, and so I returned it. When I finally got around to looking for it, it was out of print. I was happily surprised to learn it was republished, so it was a good Christmas gift.

Pat Cadigan weaves a multi layered mystery of when flesh meets technology and people lose themselves into their own created reality. While the main characters of Gabe, Gina, and Sam dominate the story, other characters are developed at a good level, such as Gator, Fez, Mark, and Art. They are not 2d characters. The use of everyone's viewpoints, even down to the use of language in the way they think and talk, is refreshing. She also captures via words such things as travelling through the wire and drug induced hallucinations.

While this book is 10 years old and may feel a bit dated in sci-fi terms, it still feels very relevant to our society as computers and digital technology invade our lives and change the ways we communicate and relate with each other thru the wires.

Still love 'Synners' after re-reading it this weekend. Why are Cadigan books so difficult to find? I love her wit, the covoluted story-telling, the characters, you name it - maybe more cerebral and satisfying than Gibson

It is interesting to see the language Cadigan was using in this book, circa 1990 : war porn, food porn, etc., being used in exactly the same way now.

A cyberpunk ahead of her time, for sure. Apart from that, an interesting tale of what happens when things go bad in a network sense, especially if you are too closely connected, particularly organically.

While her books never blow you away, it seems, she is consistently good, and real.

[...]

I'll have to admit that Synners was my first step into the world of cyberpunk fiction. Perhaps that's why this book had such a profound effect on me. Cadigan weaves the cyberpunk culture with a post-earthquake Southern California, in a mix that has everything from high tech, to AI, to compelling characters. After reading this book, I can't hear the phrase "Change for the machine" without getting a chill down my back.