Customer Reviews

Tea From An Empty Cup

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First of all, Pat Cadigan at her worst is better than 95% of the science fiction authors out there. With that said, this debacle, "Tea from an Empty Cup," could use a little help. What is so disappointing for me is that the general themes of this book rely so heavily on well-established cyberpunk convention. Apocalyptic cityscapes, artificial realities, and this Gibsonesque "Japanese-ness" all have been explored in more unique ways before this book. While much of the book travels this old territory, SOME of the ideas are quite good. Cadigan is at her best when exploring the nature of identity and its fallibilty in regards to technological communities - it's what she did in both "Synners" and "Fools" (both of which are better, more substantive books than this one). This book is a mild success on that front, but it fails to give us a new context in which to put it - to suss out all of the ramifications of her theories. I think this text had the potential to be much more dangerous and interesting if she had made these matters more relevant and focused, possibly by building the world of the text around her actual plot instead of this "plug-and-play" environment that has been used countless times before. Using tried tropes of the cyberpunk field is not a way to get past the work of setting up an environment that the book could actually benefit from. In fact, Cadigan would do well to try and shed herself of the "goddess of cyberpunk" moniker that she's apparently trying to keep. Cadigan is an amazing talent, a great storyteller - if she ever builds us a world as variegated as her plots and the technology being utilized, and tries to keep it relevant to modern-day readers, she's going to turn cyberpunk on its head.

It's a quick read at a short 250 pages or so. If you've read and enjoyed her other work, you'll probably be satiated. Worth reading if you've got a hankering to toy with notions of identity, but not if you've only got time for the truly revalatory.

Reading Tea from an Empty Cup, you get the ominous feeling that Pat Cadigan is starting to really believe her own hype, or that she has spent too much time surrounded by academic sycophants telling her she's the embodiment of feminist cyber-cool.

This is a shame, because while she has not yet written a really satisfying novel, and has never actually justified the status she has, she was at least full of ideas, and willing to play with them.

Cadigan's Empty Cup is indeed full of nothing and not in the Zen way that she implies. It is a slim novel made up of cliche, racial sterotypes, and outdated previously fashionable cyberpunk tropes. Every character and and idea seems familiar from somewhere else. It has nothing new to say, not does it shed new light on old subjects.

Particularly sad are the Japanese characters and themes - so we haven't got beyind the Japan of Zen, tatami and bunraku, have we? Just mentioning a few Japanese names and terms doesn't indicate understanding, and Cadigan's Japanese-ness seems to come from a tourist guide. Maybe that's the point, but I don't think so.

Please Pat, start again, ignore the academics, and give us something more substantial. You only get two stars because at least you can write!

OK, so the bulk of the reviews here don't seem to favour Cadigan's Tea from an Empty Cup. Don't let them dissuade you. Cadigan's novel is a fine read for a variety of reasons. First, it turns key cyberpunk images upside down (notably Japan's fall from dominance) while sticking to Cadigan's interest in subverting identity. Second, it is one of the few cyberpunk-inspired texts that actually considers the function of race vis-a-vis artificial realities (Gibson's Rastafarians in Neuromancer don't count since they don't access cyberspace). Third, it introduces characters that re-appear in her follow-up Dirvish is Digital. I've read the UK edition of Dervish (which doesn't get published in North American until July) and it seems Cadigan will be returning to the ambiguous ending of Tea in a future novel (the Yuki figure reappears twice in Dirvish). So, it'd be best to read Dirvish immediately following Tea as the material moves forward. Yes, Cadigan's writing style has changed, but whose hasn't after 15 years writing sf? All in all, an enjoyable read that has more going on underneath the surface than has previously been credited. Enjoy.

I read this book in one sitting -- yes, it's short, but it also had enough narrative drive to compel me to finish it right away. A good story, but I had the feeling the author was capable of more, and the customer comments seem to confirm that impression. (I'm pretty tired of the trend in "literary" science fiction where AR has to be married exclusively with things Japanese as well. What's the point of being in the future if we can't have a little innovation?) Still, it reads well, and isn't nearly as confusing as the plot summaries seem to indicate. Unfortunately, Cadigan's other novels appear to be out of print.

This book is cool. It is one of the most cool books I've ever read. But it isn't anything else. Cadigan is unable to completely craft a world where her cyber-prophetic story can fully develop: the book is way too short to allow both a storyline and a world picture with as large a scope as attempted.

Now, this is not a bad book. Not by any standards. But it doesn't have the edge of believability that Neuromancer had, nor does it have the kind of ultra-quick completely compelling, innovative style of Snow Crash. It lacks a distinct quality to make up for its shortness.

I think I understood the ending. After spending the bulk of the novel exploring a Virtual Reality that is peopled by shallow holiday seekers defined by self-gratification, and that is only accessible through an incredibly intrusive and commercialized interface, we finally come to the ending. For the first time in the novel we meet characters who try to create something wholly new and original in the Virtual Reality. And they do it by sacrificing their egos, and their claim to individual gratification in favor of a communal creation.

With her new novel, Tea from an Empty Cup, Pat Cadigan reaffirms her position as the "Queen of Cyberpunk." Combining computers, artificial reality, and a post-Apocalyptic dystopia, Cadigan weaves a story of murder, intrigue, and false identities.

The story follows two women: a young, Japanese girl named Yuki, and a homicide detective named Konstantin. While neither story seems connected at first (and both seem completely unrelated to the opening prologue), Cadigan manages to use both points of view to give the reader a larger sense of the whole.

In Yuki's story (entitled "Empty Cup"), she follows her missing friend's trail to an exotic mystery woman named Joy Flower. Joy hires her as an assistant, but when Yuki checks in to her new living quarters, she finds an artificial reality hotsuit and headmount waiting for her. Scared, but curious, she plugs into AR and discovers that she is wearing the guise of her missing friend, Tom Iguchi.

Meanwhile, in another story ("Death In The Promised Land"), a homicide detective is investigating the apparent murder of man who was plugged into artificial reality when his throat was slit. The staff at the AR parlor is less than willing to help, but Konstantin dons a hotsuit and headmount and heads into the strange AR world of post-Apocalyptic Noo Yawk Sitty to hunt down the murderer of Tom Iguchi.

Cadigan does an amazing job of weaving the two plotlines together, titling and numbering each chapter after its respective story. While she bounces back and forth between Yuki and Konstantin, she allows the reader to quickly see that these stories are related, growing closer together by the end of the novel. Threading through the story is an underlying foundation of Japanese culture and mythology, which becomes integral to the story behind the story.

The world Cadigan creates is filled with a wonderful understanding of the Internet and the online community. In her AR world, players are warned that everything they hear must be considered a lie, as people adopt different names and different faces to suit their needs. At one point, Konstantin helps a child find her way home, only to find herself entrapped by the child who attempts to blackmail her. Is the child really a child, or an adult wolf using a sheep's disguise?

More fascinating is the subtle descriptions that show the real world from which people flee into artificial reality. Japan has been destroyed by earthquakes and covered by the sea. Real-life television shows like "Police Blotter" upstage and interfere in police work. And there is a chilling refrain reminding us about horrible places like D.C. where "life is so cheap there, it's a whole different world."

In addition to great storytelling, Cadigan also provides the reader with strong female characters in Yuki and Konstantin. While the women have issues with the men in their lives (with Yuki it's Tom, with Konstantin it's her ex-husband), they both are consciously aware of their bad relationships and desire to move on. Yet, Yuki finds herself driven to find Tom despite his lousy treatment of her, while the detective constantly hears her ex's voice needling her shortcomings.

Tea from an Empty Cup is a wonderful return by Cadigan, who has not published a novel in years. Despite the fact that much of the story is rooted to Japanese culture, it does not make the overall story inaccessible. In fact, it allows the reader to slowly discover its importance as the story progresses.

One warning though, this story, like much of cyberpunk fiction, can be difficult to follow because of its technical aspect and vocabulary. Those who work or play with computers will be more likely to grasp the imagery of the novel more readily than someone who is not plugged in to the online community.

I think Cadigan's writing echoes the artificial world in which her characters exist. It is only as difficult as the reader demands, because those involved aren't looking for easy answers. For those willing to take the time to learn the landscape (and the lingo), cyberpunk fiction can be enticing and very rewarding.

Tea from an Empty Cup is a cyberpunk novel with somewhat of a twist. A murder mystery entwines the lives of a smart homicide detective named Konstantin and a Japanese woman named Yuki. Konstantin's search for the killer of a young man takes her into an artificial world where she searches for answers. The bulk of the story takes place mainly in this artificial reality world where there are a thousand different ways to tell a lie, making it rather difficult to solve a murder. Yuki and Konstantin's paths slowly begin to connect over the course of the novel.

Pat Cadigan's book is easy to read despite the fact that she changes her focus character as she changes chapters. New ideas such as "post-Apocalyptic Noo Yawk Sitty" and others, make this book very entertaining. Japanese culture is a significant part of the book but includes enough detail for just about anyone to understand it. While the ending still left some questions in my mind, I felt that this is a well written and entertaining book. Enjoy it!

This book seemed too disjointed and meandering in plot. This is the first book in a long, long time that I put down to finish the next day, with only five pages left to read. I cared that little about how the thing was going to end. Some neat ideas crop up throughout the book, but with very little character development and plot development, at the end I was sorry I wasted my time reading it.

I know what you're looking for... the atmosphere of a Gibson, the satire of a Stephenson, the dense prose of a Sterling.

Well, you won't find it here.

"Tea from an Empty Cup" by Pat Cadigan - boring, rambling, and, when any detail rises above the morass, derivative. Plot? The only way I could tell when it ended was that the throbbing in my temples stopped.

I really regretted spending the time and money - rarely happens to me.