Synners: The Arthur C Clarke Award-Winning Cyberpunk Masterpiece for Fans of William Gibson and the Matrix

By Pat Cadigan

Book Overview

Welcome to the Best of the Masterworks: a selection of the finest in science fiction - What does it mean to be human when you're part of the machine? Synners are synthesizers - not machines, but people. They take images from the brains of performers, and turn them into a form which can be packaged, sold and consumed. They don't use the net, they are the net. Everything is automated. Everything is synthetic. But when the technology starts to fail, the terrifying question remains: what is a human? Winner of the 1992 Arthur C. Clarke Award , Synners was Pat Cadigan's early stories, and cemented her place in the core of the cyberpunk movement, and has even inspired academic works. Lauded for her complex characters and plots, and seen as a stalwart of feminist SF, Cadigan has gone on to win another Clarke and a Hugo for subsequent works. - 'Racingly told, linguistically acute, simultaneously pell-mell and precise in its detailing' - The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 'Ambitious, brilliantly executed . . . Cadigan is a major talent' - William Gibson 'Pat Cadigan is the undisputed Queen of Cyberpunk' - The Fantasy Hive

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1399617257
• ISBN13: 9781399617253
• Release Date: January 2024
• Publisher: Gollancz
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.0" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

excellent, highly complex, cyberpunk sci-fi

Pat Cadigan's "Synners" - excellent, highly complex, cyberpunk sci-fi by an author I now very much want to read more of. Perspective switches between different characters in different narratives and I'm sure I missed a lot by only reading this in bits interspersed with a lot of other things. Synners are those who take imagery from the brains of others and turn them into a consumable form through a new form of surgical cuber modules. The idea is similar to that I first saw in one of William Gibson's "Kings of Sleep", one of the short stories in the Burning chrome collection, or the performers with cybered creative skills in Joan D. Vinge's "Cat's Paw", but "Synners" takes the idea further, developing it into a complex plot with a sideline of studies in Self and Consciousness.

Glad this is back

I read Synners around 1993. It was borrowed from friends of friends, and so I returned it. When I finally got around to looking for it, it was out of print. I was happily surprised to learn it was republished, so it was a good Christmas gift.Pat Cadigan weaves a multi layered mystery of when flesh meets technology and people lose themselves into their own created reality. While the main characters of Gabe, Gina, and Sam dominate the story, other characters are developed at a good level, such as Gator, Fez, Mark, and Art. They are not 2d characters. The use of everyone's viewpoints, even down to the use of language in the way they think and talk, is refreshing. She also captures via words such things as travelling through the wire and drug induced hallucinations. While this book is 10 years old and may feel a bit dated in sci-fi terms, it still feels very relevant to our society as computers and digital technology invade our lives and change the ways we communicate and relate with each other thru the wires.

Great cyperpunk

I picked up this book after reading one of Cadigan's short stories in a cyberpunk compilation, and I was thoroughly impressed by it. The way it immerses you in the character's thoughts is especially appealling. And it's one of the only books I've ever read that has a soundtrack to it... sort of... without giving anything away, I'll tell you to make sure you have a copy of George Thorogood's "Who Do You Love" and Lou Reed's "Coney Island Baby" handy, and it'll make your reading experience that much more immersive. Also, it wouldn't hurt if you bring some "change for the machine".

Still love it!

Still love 'Synners' after re-reading it this weekend. Why are Cadigan books so difficult to find? I love her wit, the covoluted story-telling, the characters, you name it - maybe more cerebral and satisfying than Gibson

Even if you don't like cyber-punk, you'll like this.

I'm not a huge sci-fi fan, but I like good stories. This is a fine story. I admire Cadigan's ability to have several stories going at once, a ton of characters interacting, and still keep it interesting and fun. I recommend her other novels Mindplayers and Fools. They aren't as funny, but the plots are intrigueing and complex. Cadigan is a very original writer, and I love reading her work.