Blurred Line

So, I have to comment on Jeff Noon's Vurt. Because, well, it's the kind of book that you just have to have an opinion on, whether you enjoyed it or not. I count myself among the former, which shouldn't surprise anyone, as the book is essentially really bizarre cyberpunk. I mean, really bizarre. Vurt is cyberpunk wacked out on LSD. There's dogmen, mind-reading shadow girls, half-robot everything, virtual reality aliens that somehow get transmogrified into the real world, snakes that inject virtual reality into you, and bullets that get you high and slowly turn you into a Technicolor light show.

Oh, and the story, you ask? Well, Scribble and his friends, who form a gang called the Stash Riders, are Vurt junkies. Virtual Reality games, in the novel, are essentially drugs. Low-level ones are legal and can be purchased at convenience stores, while homemade (and sometimes lethal) ones are only available illegally. So, anyway, Scribble and his sister (who also happens to be his girlfriend, by the way) do a Yellow (the most dangerous of all Vurts, because you can't pull out unless you die or beat the game). Well, his sister gets sucked into the Vurt and a giant green blob from the Vurtworld gets spat out. So, as you can imagine, Scribble and his gang have to go on a rescue mission to find his sister.

Now, I'm being tongue-in-cheek here, but Noon's novel is genuinely fascinating. He's also got the noir style down to a science, so the book has style to spare. Be sure to check this one out.


Profile Editor. Writer. 9-5er. Lord of the Dance. Blurredline.com Apodis Publishing Fusion Fragment cterrill(at)blurredline.com Buy Goodbye, Darwin Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format Buy Blurred Line Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format The Short Stuff "Learning Magic From Mint" - published May 2007 in Atomjack "Between Eternities" - published October 2005 at Speculative.ca "Smoke and Mirrors" - published June 2005 in Byzarium Submissions Log Total Subs: 25 Acceptances: 3 Rejections: 17 Withdrawals: 3 Subs Out: 2 Quality Blogs Scalzi's Whatever Dave's Blogography Bookslut The Struggling Writer SF Signal the0phrastus Paperback Writer Scribe's Writing Desk Nathan Bransford Lyons Literary LLC The World in the Satin Bag Book In The Oven The Word Perhaps We Learned Something... Words, etc. Archives March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 Et Cetera Cavan @ Last.fm Cavan @ LibraryThing Feeds Atom Feed RSS Feed	Monday, December 11, 2006 - Vurt So, I have to comment on Jeff Noon's Vurt. Because, well, it's the kind of book that you just have to have an opinion on, whether you enjoyed it or not. I count myself among the former, which shouldn't surprise anyone, as the book is essentially really bizarre cyberpunk. I mean, really bizarre. Vurt is cyberpunk wacked out on LSD. There's dogmen, mind-reading shadow girls, half-robot everything, virtual reality aliens that somehow get transmogrified into the real world, snakes that inject virtual reality into you, and bullets that get you high and slowly turn you into a Technicolor light show. Oh, and the story, you ask? Well, Scribble and his friends, who form a gang called the Stash Riders, are Vurt junkies. Virtual Reality games, in the novel, are essentially drugs. Low-level ones are legal and can be purchased at convenience stores, while homemade (and sometimes lethal) ones are only available illegally. So, anyway, Scribble and his sister (who also happens to be his girlfriend, by the way) do a Yellow (the most dangerous of all Vurts, because you can't pull out unless you die or beat the game). Well, his sister gets sucked into the Vurt and a giant green blob from the Vurtworld gets spat out. So, as you can imagine, Scribble and his gang have to go on a rescue mission to find his sister. Now, I'm being tongue-in-cheek here, but Noon's novel is genuinely fascinating. He's also got the noir style down to a science, so the book has style to spare. Be sure to check this one out. Cavan blogged at 10:12 PM \| 0 comments	Progress Zilch! 0/0 Listening A.J. Croce - "Maybe I'm Amazed" My Music Reading Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney My Library Watching Black Book: B Sweet and Lowdown: C Breakfast on Pluto: B Wishlist Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo Rachael Yamagata - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart