Customer Reviews

WEB OF ANGELS

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

 

 

I am still amazed that noone else has ever given John Ford his due. This book is, as of now, the only title by him I have ever read. It is, however, one of the best SF books I've ever read (on a par with Dune), and certainly a far better construct of the wired far future that anything the CyberPunks were able to create. If you liked Steinbeck's "Tortilla Flat" better than Hemingway's "Snows of Kilamanjaro", you'll like "Web Of Angels" far more than "Mona Lisa Overdrive" or "Islands in the Stream". This book is what inspired Rucker, Sterling, and Gibson. And maybe Jean Michel Jarre as well

Amazing that John M. Ford wrote this in 1980!

What an astonishing piece of imagination. If it's possible to predict the future (or at least the hip parts of it), Ford has done just that.

Hackers as outlaws and criminals, what a concept. I don't know how anyone can read this book and not come away enthralled and awed.

Memorable characters enmeshed in a plot that does not let down for a paragragh.

A must-read for anyone with the slightest interest in sci-fi or future tech.

This was a book I read very quickly on the first pass and felt moved enough that it needed and deserved a slower read than what I'd initially given it. It was worth it.

Its about a young man, Grailer Diomede is what he's called, who has an incredible ability to manipulate a FTL communications network, The Web, that links a huge group of worlds. The Web is faster than the fastest ship - instantaneous and has its own dangers, ranging from the Black Knights of CIRCE - enforcers charged to kill to protect the integrity of that network. And with good reason - literacy on that network is the basis by which one can travel. If you can't use the Web, you can't travel - as simple as that. Its also a world of near immortals - one where someone can live 20 times their normal span (and be cursed to live forever as well) - with the changes that it means for humans.

This is interesting in that it precedes a lot of the cyberpunk movement, but it is, well, more than that. Grailer's confidence, love, caution and then vengeance are worth reading and very much operatic. I like it and I hope others will seek this out and read it.

This is only the 2nd John M Ford book I've read, the 1st being "Hot Time In the Old Town" which continues to be brilliant even after dozens of read-throughs. I've got several others that I purchased based only on how good "Hot Time" was. I'm holding out more hope for the others, since "Hot Time" alone convinced me that this Ford fellow knows how to write.

I have to say that this book is not good. Very little actually happens in the book: then he got on a ship, then he went to this planet, then he went to another planet. Massacres happen with all the drama of "then the massacre happened". The characters (for self-protection) all change their names every chapter, which makes it very hard to keep track who is who. Given how lifeless all the characters are, there's little incentive to keep track even if they kept the same names.

You can tell Ford loves experimenting with language, time, etc. With his writing, he asks more of the reader to follow what is happening, but there's so little meat to this story that reading it is tiring instead of ennervating, tedious instead of intriguing..

Much has been made of how ahead of its time it was, but since cyperpunk has come and gone that matters little unless you plan to purchase the book as a collector's item (much as you might purchase a Timex Sinclair computer in 2010) instead of for the purpose of reading it. I guess if it was written in, say, 1942 then that would be astonishing.

I can't believe anyone would compare this book to Dune. Maybe they read a different book, by a John R. Ford or a John H. Ford?

I'm not in the habit of giving bad reviews; with the rest of Ford's work, I hope it doesn't become a habit. I'd hate to think he only wrote one great book.

I actually read this book before it was submitted [having 'Mike' live with me helped], and was disappointed that he was asked to take a great deal of the meat out of the story. As someone who knew the model for Sharon Rose, i wasn't thrilled to see her killed off, either [he didn't warn her, either, & kept insisting in act that he'd 'save Sharon' in the final cut].

It's the earliest cyberpunk story - written *before* there was such a term - but if he had the power, i'd suggest he re-releade it *with* the 'good stuff' added back in. I wouldn't insist that he save Sharon, but his dishonesty to all of his pre-readers flaws what could've been a better book. Maybe even he realized it, because this book doesnt sing the way the unpublished MS did...

I actually read this book before it was submitted [having 'Mike' live with me helped], and was disappointed that he was asked to take a great deal of the meat out of the story. As the model for Sharon Rose, i wasn't thrilled to be killed off, either [he didn't warn me, either, & kept insisting in act that he'd 'save' her in the final cut].

It's the earliest cyberpunk story - written *before* there was such a term - but if he had the power, i'd suggest he re-releade it *with* the 'good stuff' added back in. I wouldn't insist that he save Sharon - this time i'm warned - but his dishonesty flaws what could've been a better book. Maybe even he realized it, because this book doesnt sing the way the unpublished MS did...