Wetware [Mass Market Paperback]

Rudy V. B. Rucker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1997

In 2030, bopper robots in their lunar refuge have founds a way to infuse DNA wetware with their own software code. The result is a new lifeform: the meatbop. Fair is fair, after all. Humans built the boppers, now bops are building humans. . .sort of. Its all part of an insidious plot thats about to ensnare Della Taze--who doesnt think she killed her lover while in drug-induced ecstasy. . .but isnt sure. And its certainly catastrophic enough to call Cobb Anderson--the pheezer who started it all--out of cold-storage heaven.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Humans created the sentient robot "boppers," but now it's the boppers who have started creating humans. Clones and DNA-splicing have spawned the meatbop, a human body infused with the software (the mind and personality) of a bopper. The meatbops are interested in propagating down on Earth, but that might not be so good for humanity (the boppers have a nasty habit of enslaving humans, actually). When a couple of (reasonably) innocent humans get tangled up in the bopper's machinations on the moon, it's time to drag out the stored mind of bopper-creator Cobb Anderson and see if he can help.

Review

"A genius. . .A cult hero among discriminating cyberpunkers" -- -- San Diego Union-Tribune

"One of science fiction's wittiest writers" -- -- San Francisco Chronicle

"You cannot know where modern science fiction has gotten to unless you are familiar with Rucker's work." -- -- Fantasy & Science Fiction

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 183 pages
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380701782
• ISBN-13: 978-0380701780
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,306,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rudy Rucker is a writer and a mathematician who worked for twenty years as a Silicon Valley computer science professor, and published a number of software packages.

Rucker is regarded as contemporary master of science-fiction, and received the Philip K. Dick award twice. His thirty published books include both novels and non-fiction books on the fourth dimension, infinity, and the meaning of computation.

A founder of the cyberpunk school of science-fiction, Rucker also writes SF in a realistic style known as transrealism. His 2006 Mathematicians in Love was an example of a transreal novel. His early cyberpunk four-book series was republished in 2010 as The Ware Tetralogy.

Rucker's 2007 novel, Postsingular was something of a return to the cyberpunk style, as was the 2009 sequel, Hylozoic, in which every object on Earth comes to life. Rucker's autobiography, Nested Scrolls, appeared in 2011, as did his novel of the afterlife, Jim and the Flims.

More information can be found on Rucker's Wikipedia entry, in his illustrated online autobiographical essay, in his collected online interviews, and in his booklength autobiography Nested Scrolls.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars exciting science fiction thrill ride December 4, 2000

By Aaron

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Rudy Rucker's Wetware is a must read for any science fiction enthusiast. Rucker paints a very interesting view of the future where humans and robots have colonized the moon. After being exiled from Earth, robots created cities on the moon only to be again kicked out by humans. The robots, called boppers, now live beneath the moon's surface planning their revenge. When the boppers decide to re-colonize the earth through artificially impregnating a human woman, the story begins to take wild twists and turns. Like the rest of the book, Rucker does not disappoint his readers with the story's conclusion. Although Rucker adds a lot of his own jargon to the story, it is an easy read. Reading this book has turned me on to Rucker's other books in his four-part series and on to science fiction literature in general. Wetware appeals to a wide variety of people from the science fiction aficionado to the average reader.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant January 12, 2008

By J. F. Cantrell

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Sorry, but I don't understand the negative reviews. This book is so well, so completely conceived, it really has few peers. Hilarious, too. There are more projective/predictive ideas in the first chapter than in most writer's entire oeuvres. It makes perfect sense to me and I am awe at an author who has such a vivid, logical, and prolific imagination. Well written, too, in a gonzo way.

Incidentally, the boppers aren't robots, exactly. They are more like self-programmable, sentient, artificial protoplasm... with good senses of humor, no less (well, some of them).

Highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Science fiction fantasy June 18, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Definitely not a book to be taking seriously. A fun-filled romp into the future that has no basis in reality which makes it so much fun. A quick easy read. Most enjoyable is the dicussion of what it means to be 'alive' or what constitutes life. The concept of artificial intelligence as another step in human evolution is interesting.