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Rudy Rucker

Wetware Paperback – January 1, 1997

by Rudy V. B. Rucker (Author)

4.3 23 ratings

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When bopper robots discover a way to infuse DNA wetware with their own software code, a new lifeform results, ensnaring Della Taze and bringing pheezer Cobb Anderson out of cold-storage heaven. Reissue.

Print length

183 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Avon Books
Publication date

January 1, 1997
Dimensions

4.25 x 0.5 x 7 inches
ISBN-10

0380701782
ISBN-13

978-0380701780
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Rudy Rucker
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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

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Avon Books (January 1, 1997)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 183 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0380701782
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0380701780
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.25 x 0.5 x 7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,860,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #96,757 in Science Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 23 ratings

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Rudy Rucker

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Rudy Rucker has written forty books, both pop science. and SF novels in the cyberpunk and transreal styles. He received Philip K. Dick awards for for the novels in his "Ware Tetralogy". His "Complete Stories," and his nonfiction "The Fourth Dimension" are standouts. He worked as a professor of computer science in Silicon Valley for twenty years. He paints works relating to his tales. His latest novel "Juicy Ghosts" is about telepathy, immortality, and a new revolution. Rudy blogs at www.rudyrucker.com/blog

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David McClure

Masters of Space and Time is also a long time favorite.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 9, 2017

Verified Purchase

If you get one, you have to get them all: Software, Freeware, Realware. Rucker is terrific-get everything you can find. Masters of Space and Time is also a long time favorite.

One person found this helpful

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C. Richard

Entertaining and Food for Thought

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 23, 2014

This is the second book in the Rucker's Ware Tetralogy.

What is wetware? I think I know, but I am not sure how to explain it. A biological computer perhaps?

In any case, in this book, the robots (boppers) make a sort of human-bopper hybrid. The humans, with a few exceptions, are not amused and take extreme action. This includes killing the hybrids and infecting the boppers with a mold.

This mold appears to shut down the boppers, but it also seems to work some kind of transformation on them as well. Where will this lead? Maybe the third book will tell us.

The second book brings back many characters that we met in the first book and tells about a very weird drug called merge. Merge makes people sort of melt.

I gave the book four and not five stars because it is kind of weird. But, it is entertaining and provides much food for thought. As to the latter, where is the line between life and machine? Not an easy question to answer as this book illustrates. But, then, maybe the questions is not as important as it seems at first. Yes, it is one of those kind of things. :)

The book may also make readers wonder about life and death. As in, what is the meaning of each. It does provide an inkling of answers perhaps.

I look forward to reading book three - and then four.

See what you think.

2 people found this helpful

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Jari Aalto

Robot evolution implanted in humans

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 27, 2009

A detective is hired to find a Girl, Della. She is a lab chemists's belowed one. The detective gets an ampule of drug called merge. A trip of a lifetime: the drug will temporarily melt a human body, or bodies if taken together, and bring person to meet his creator. The petaflop robot, Berenice, get into her hands the drug and realize Christmas being in her doorsteps. An embryo is grown in Della; an experiment to later seed as many woman as possible. The only problem is that the born he, the boy man, will age one year per day (after 7 days; 7 years old). Will the robots succeed to merge with humans this time?

This is a sequel to Software , but it is not strictly necessary to know the back story; albeit it would help. The previous robot revolution failed to build super brains that would have melded human brain charts into ONE. This time robots want to become humans by tampering the genome by seeding and planting in babies in the Womb of as many women as possible. The 'wetware' explored consider the possibility of blending robot programming with the human brain, together with the entire nervous system. The book develops the idea of neurosurgery by planting small mouse into human brain to make then zombies. In neurophysiology sense Rucker plays with the mammalian brain system: touching the the voluntary and involuntary nervous system and the lateralization of the brain hemispheres. The sequels are Freeware (1997) and Realware (2000).

Three (3) stars. Written in 1988 the book won Philip K. Dick Award in the same year. The plot development and writing tone of the book has improved by a big leap since the prequel Software (1982; also the PKD winner). Fortunately this book has less messy drug humor than its predecessor. The surroundings are described in detail, the motivations behind the robots are made more tangible and overall improvements in quality of the prose can be observed. The weakest point is the dialogue between the characters who dawdle too much around without clear target. In the end one person, half of his brain sliced away, saves the world by spitting clumps around to spread organism called chipmold. If the reader can get past the slack characters, like a boy chasing girls and women and making them pregnant, following this cyberpunk robot evolution can be mildly amusing and entertaining.

2 people found this helpful

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J. F. Cantrell

Brilliant

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 12, 2008

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.

6 people found this helpful

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turner

meatbop cyber opera

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 3, 2007

Gideon's Fall: When You Dont Have a Prayer, Only a Miracle Will Do This is a strange but intriguing novel. Written in a lyrical style that melds one to the subject matter. I enjoyed it from the first page........think of that

One person found this helpful

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Crystal

Read it...........trust me

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 4, 2000

Rucker will open up your mind with this book Wetware. The imagination Rucker has of the future is crazy yet believable enough to immerse yourself in him world. Wetware takes you to a world with self-sufficient robots living on the moon and people melting themselves for pleasure. The humans no longer control the robots; the robots are trying to control humans. If you are thinking this is just another book about robots, you are wrong. This book is not the norm in robot books. Rucker's robots come is huge variety of different shapes and sizes. They can even show their emotions though colors flashing across there bodies. Rucker gives a fresh view and some new concepts in his world of the future.

How far will AI go? How far could the human race take drugs to satisfy sexual of emotional needs? Could human actually live off earth? After you read this book, you might wonder about these same things. This book does jump around a little but is still easy to follow. Wetware has made me want to read the other books in this series, Software, Freeware and Realware. If you are a cyberpunk fan then it is well worth the read!

4 people found this helpful

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Amazon カスタマー

小学生の時、読んだ本

Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on July 9, 2015

Verified Purchase

小学生時分に購入し、読み込んだ本でして、先ずは此れは続刊になりますので、ルーディラッカーのソフトウエアからお読み下さると良いと思います。
当作品はディック賞を受賞した、マット小説で有り、古き良き時代のハヤカワSF文庫と言えるでしょう。
翻訳文体等読みづらい所も有りますが、読み込む程にハマりますよ？

One person found this helpful

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Jane

前作のほうがデキがよいです。

Reviewed in Japan 🇯🇵 on April 7, 2010

Verified Purchase

話が散逸していて、結局何を言いたいのかわからないまま終わります。
ただ、４部作のうちの２冊目ですので、それは今後への伏線なのかもしれませんが、３冊目は訳者急逝だかで日本語訳されていません。英語は中学校で15点だったのでもうあきらめるしかありません。それが非常に非常に残念です。

One person found this helpful

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Wetware Paperback – January 1, 1997

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