Terminal Cafe [Paperback]

Ian McDonald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1994

It is a few decades after a revolutionary technology has given humans the ability to resurrect the dead. The ever-increasing population of the risen dead is segregated into areas called necrovilles. Here they have created a wild culture, untouched by the restrictions of the law - except that the dead cannot stray into the realm of the living, nor the living into the teeming necrovilles, after nightfall. It is November 1, the Day of the Dead. Virtual artist Santiago Columbar, creator of drugs and 'ware that melt and reconfigure reality for his many disciples, has grown bored with the realities at his command. There is one reality he has yet to try, the culmination of his life as an artist: He will venture into the forbidden streets of the Saint John dead town, and there walk willingly into the open arms of death. At Santiago's invitation, four of his friends will meet in Saint John to record his death and resurrection. On their way to witness Santiago's transformation, as the necroville erupts into the first volley of a revolution against the living, each will face danger and adventure in the wild streets of the dead...and find that life has changed forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Definitions of life and death become blurred when technology makes it possible to "resurrect" the dead. "Resurrected" bodies are far superior to flesh and blood but, ironically, the act of dying changes one's status to legally dead. In legal limbo, the "dead" dwell in Necrovilles and must pay for the cost of their revival with years of service to the living. McDonald (The Broken Land) portrays this macabre future with a whirlwind of imagery and emotion that immediately pulls the reader in and won't let go until the last page. McDonald, who won the Philip K. Dick Award for King of Morning, Queen of Day, reveals the workings of his bizarre society through the exploits of five friends as they search for the meaning of life in the Necroville at Los Angeles on the Night of the Dead. Sorting through five points of view requires some patience, but it is well rewarded. In the best science fiction tradition, McDonald provokes reexamination of current societal standards through the prism of another time and place.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In the Los Angeles ghetto of Necroville, the yearly celebration of the Night of the Dead-where the dead are resurrected through the miracle of nanotechnology and live their second lives as noncitizens-becomes a journey of discovery and revelation for five individuals on the run from their pasts. With his customary flair for making the bizarre both credible and fascinating, McDonald (The Broken Land, LJ 8/92) tosses aside the line of demarcation between living and dead in a story that confronts the central quandary of human existence: the essence of nonbeing. Most libraries should own this title.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Spectra (October 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553374168
• ISBN-13: 978-0553374162
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,266,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dinosaurs, Undead and Drugs: Doncha love SciFi?, August 12, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Terminal Cafe (Paperback)

Nano-scale machinery, tiny robots and computers built on a molecular level by the millions, will feasibly be able to "grow" intelligent metal, reshape bone structures, and reanimate the dead. Science Fiction writers are getting brain hemorrhages as they try to predict life with these little guys.

Ian McDonald has done an amazing thing-- with "Terminal Cafe" he's created a wholly plausible world of Dinosaur hunts, men who add wings to their bodies, gene-tweaked monkies that are as common as pigeons, collapsible automobiles, decay, dystopia, AI jurisprudence, monstrous corporations, re-animated dead and the coolest hookers you could ever imagine.

"Terminal Cafe" follows the adventures of a group of old friends as they make their way to their annual getogether at the Terminal Cafe. The POV rotates between them, offering a grand-scale view of life in the near future.

One friend goes on a Hunt, where he stalks and is stalked by people mounted on gigantic Tyranosaur knock-offs. Another friend rescues an undead prostitute, and finds he has a lot in common with her. Still another friend gets entangled in a chase complete with a lycanthropy club-- gene-tweaked guys who change into werewolfs. There's the friend who is a lawyer, who has a client that the biggest Megacorp in the world wants to silence. Finally, there's the friend who gets embroiled in a kind of Independence Day for the dead-- when all the ressurected return from forced labor in the asteroid belt and assault Earth in a bid for freedom.

Heavily grounded in the latest fiction about the Internet, biotechnology and nanotechnology, and with a strong understanding of human nature, "Terminal Cafe" assumes a strong understanding of technology and genre standards. It is a powerful novel, deftly written, with a new fantastic wonder on every page and a cast of characters that can hardly process it all.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deep and rich with concept and characters., January 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Terminal Cafe (Paperback)

Absolutely amazing book! The text is rich and complex. The author's prose is written to reflect the dialects and rhythms of the culture he has created. Once you learn this rhythm, there's no escaping it's dance. I found myself comepletly drawn into the concepts and characters as if they were intimate friends, and the high-tech ideas, were commonplace. One of my favorite Sci-fi novels.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the all-time most inventive!, August 24, 2001

By 

Eric J. Kristoff (Chicago, US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Terminal Cafe (Paperback)

Ian Mcdonald seems to have an uncanny understanding of the human condition, of the primal urges and fears that drive us. If you changed the rules which govern life and death, which govern the very evolution of the human race, what will come of those urges and fears? That to me is the central question of Terminal Cafe. Once you've been dead, of what are you afraid? Nothing. If you can manipulate flesh and machine with equal ease, what could you be? Anything. One of my Top 5 favorite SF novels. Ian McDonald stands head and shoulders above the crowd of SF authors.