Vurt [Paperback]

Jeff Noon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1996 | Series: Vurt (Book 1)

Vurt is a feather--a drug, a dimension, a dream state, a virtual reality. It comes in many colors: legal Blues for lullaby dreams. Blacks, filled with tenderness and pain, just beyond the law. Pink Pornovurts, doorways to bliss. Silver feathers for techies who know how to remix colors and open new dimensions. And Yellows--the feathers from which there is no escape. The beautiful young Desdemona is trapped in Curious Yellow, the ultimate Metavurt, a feather few have ever seen and fewer still have dared ingest. Her brother Scribble will risk everything to rescue his beloved sister. Helped by his gang, the Stash Riders, hindered by shadowcops, robos, rock and roll dogmen, and his own dread, Scribble searches along the edges of civilization for a feather that, if it exists at all, must be bought with the one thing no sane person would willingly give.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you like challenging science fiction, then Jeff Noon is the author for you. Vurt, winner of the 1994 Arthur C. Clarke award, is a cyberpunk novel with a difference, a rollicking, dark, yet humorous examination of a future in which the boundaries between reality and virtual reality are as tenuous as the brush of a feather.

But no review can do Noon's writing justice: it's a phantasmagoric combination of the more imaginative science fiction masters, such as Phillip K. Dick, genres such as cyberpunk and pulp fiction, and drug culture.

If this tickles your fancy, you should definitely consider the sequel to Vurt, Pollen, or Noon's lighter and more accessible Automated Alice, a modern recasting of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

British novelist Noon debuts with a futuristic tale of a hallucinogenic drug that spins users into virtual worlds.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 342 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (January 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312141440
• ISBN-13: 978-0312141448
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (111 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #218,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars good, but for a specific reader June 22, 2005

By sharpie_revolution

Format:Paperback

I personally really enjoyed this book, but I've also enjoyed other works by Noon, so maybe it just comes down to my taste. I could see why some wouldn't like it, it's not revolutionary or anything. I did however, find the characters to be compelling and realistic and I didn't have a problem with the dialogue as suggested in another review. Then again I've done a lot of drugs, hung out with addicts, squatters, and punks, and generally enjoy books about these topics. The characters reminded me of old friends I've had and the scenerio was exciting enough to keep me interested.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A feather in your mouth: July 18, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Vurt, by Jeff Noon is one of the most creative books that I have read in the sf&f world. It seems almost like a combo of A Clockwork Orange (the way Jeff Noon invents words, deriving them from words already in existance; also the all night Vurt-You-Want is analagous to the Korova Milkbar), Neuromancer (the general style of writing, cyberpunk theme), and Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland (the sort of mysticism that surrounds the plot, how a child is chasing down something that seems trivial to others, how he encounters a strage and almost magical world, paralelling to reality), and finally of Tekwar (the theme deals with the solicitation of drugs that don't exist in the non fiction world, and the battling that goes along with them). The plotline is very simple when you strip it of detail, which is part of why it becomes such an intriguinging, such a simple plotline bears such a complex plot. I think that Jeff Noon did a commendable job on his first book, and look ! forward to reading more books by him.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Feather Full of Dreams April 13, 2003

By "rhaeve"

Format:Paperback

"A young boy puts a feather into his mouth..."

From the first sentence of the book, I was drawn in. I forced myself to read only one chapter at a time, to actually consider what I'd read and let it sink in, and that made this book that much richer. To me, it heralded back to Clockwork Orange. The Stash Riders (made up of Scribble, Beetle, Mandy, and Bridget) have their own vocabulary grown from the world they inhabit - where feathers can hold their fondest dreams or worst nightmares, where the worst poison comes from dreamsnakes, where pure is poor, and where shadowcops lurk above every all-night Vurt-U-Want.

Scribble is a young man, not so out of the ordinary, who wants nothing more than to have his sister back again. That want drives him to a destiny he'd not even considered, gaining and losing almost everything in the process.

I'm enamoured with this book. It stays on my nightstand so I can hear Scribble tell his story whenever I want. Let Jeff Noon take you into his tangibly ethereal world.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is only for some (Glorious for some) February 24, 2001

By "distorto_tech"

Format:Paperback

Please don't read Vurt if you are a sub-culture literature snob. And don't read it if you are a Sci-Fi elitist. And if you like to intellectualize the merit of a work against the established canon (even if that canon is considered cultish or underground or whatever) or critique it within a particular lineage, please stay clear of this book.

I can see why this book is not for all. I can even relate with the negative reviews it has been receiving on this web site. If I were to remove myself from the emotional and the more intuitive responses this novel evokes in me, I too might label it drug-obsessed and not the most original; or the writing style somewhat pretentious and over-the-top.

But, whether because I stem from a culture of electronic music, psychedelic drugs, and crusty fashion or because I tend to romanticize everything in life to death, this book has captured and moved me deeply.

So please, read this book if you too are a dreamer, like me. And read it if you've ever found yourself looking over that field of shattered glass, like an illusion gleaming, hiding the scum and the stench of Anytown-Bottletown, hoping for something better. Searching for a reality more satisfying than this, because you've always known this world is not your own. Linking the hunger with sexual love then discovering (in letting it go) that the insatiability goes far beyond.

It's about escape. This book is a momentary escape.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars read this book July 22, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Vurt is unique.The more you read,the more original it gets.It starts off like some crappy cheap cyberpunk book-a bunch of sterotypes robbing a drugstore,but soon turns into an incredibly original maelstrom of twisted events fluxing in and out of a cyber-plethoric orgy of reality and dream world.It's towards the end,where you really learn of the relationship between the main hero and his sister,that the reader is blown away.It still leaves an infintude of questions relating to the operations of the vurt and the characters,of which the answers are constantly hinted at in his other books.I'm not suprised it won the Arthur C.Clarke award!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Rock-N-Roll Sci Fi March 23, 2006

By Piper Pneumatic

Format:Paperback

I LOVED this book. It's unlike any other science fiction book...or any book for that matter...that I've ever read. Jeff Noon writes in such a way that whether you want to be or not, you're swept up in the book's quick pace. It's fun...like a chocolate sunday (okay I am a girl!)... and it's deliciously weird. It take a few pages to get in tune with his way of writing, which is part of the fun, and when you do it's a roller coaster ride. I didn't want it to end! Not only is it fun, but actually has a really interesting plot and keeps you guessing till the end. I would highly recommend it! :)