Cyberweb

By Lisa Mason

Book Overview

Once Carly Nolan was a high-powered lawyer, mechanically modified to conduct all her business in a cybernetic "telespace". Now, fired from the firm and on the run from Data Control, Carly finds herself living on the ragged edge of a futuristic San Francisco -- without access to either cash or telespace. Keeping her company in exile is Pr. Spinner, her A.I. nemesis. Kidnapped by an outlaw gang, Carly must strike a bargain with a mysterious mainframe entity and suddenly finds herself caught up in a desperate race against time as the Silicon Supremacists move ever closer to their ultimate goal: the destruction of humanity and telespace.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0688139876
• ISBN13: 9780688139872
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

DEEPER THAN DEEP

On re-reading CYBERWEB a year later, I don't think my first review does it justice. The writer has peeled off the difference between conscious robots and flesh and blood man. Almost without fanfare the robots are provided with souls. Her mechanical characters are given both consciousness and emotion. Their only difference to man is in their composition. This becomes very clear when the outmoded Spinner character uploads herself into Patina's flashy, lifeless bodywork. I MUST NOW RATE THIS BOOK FIVE STARS. The writer, thus, dives deeply into the unseen world that controls man's apparent freewill existence. By using mainframes as purposeful beasts, seeking to control fleshy man, some very deep philosophical questions are posed. She leaves it up to the reader to fill in the blanks to this very entertaining and thoughtful story. THE OLD REVIEW READ: Mason leads her cyberpunk reader into the arena of sci-fi comics. It?s not possible for humans to grasp the feelings and desires of these robot characters but it?s still a lot of fun to try. She challenges your imagination to follow her character?s avatars, cones, cubes and three headed chimeras as they flit in and out of cyberspace. But hard questions are run up the flagpole. Can bodiless people exist in this virtual world of telespace? Can a soul exist in a nonorganic body? Should robots be discarded like machines when a new model arrives? Can our culture continue to absorb the changes computer power is unleashing? Is our reality but an extension of the bits composing telespace? Even the questions of what consciousness might consist of and whether it is really an advantage to being born as flesh and blood. She makes no attempt to answer these questions but even considering them makes this book a very creative endeavor. You could certainly invest your time on a much less entertaining story. Also it is short and sweet.

Interesting...pretty cool actually...

Cyberweb is a pretty nifty cyberpunk novel...lots of interesting ideas...I liked it...there's a sequal to it too, but I can't remember its title...