Nested Scrolls by Rudy Rucker
reviewed by Richard A. Lupoff
His science fiction ranges from serious-minded studies of realistic persons plunged into fantastic
realms to fairly conventional adventure SF, to children's fables,
to a historical bio-novel of the late Renaissance painter Peter Bruegel, to at least one deadpan pastiche
of the old Verne-Poe-Bradshaw-Burroughs hollow earth novel, called appropriately, The Hollow Earth. At
least, it seems to be a deadpan pastiche. That's one of the charming aspects of Rucker's work, although it may
also have limited his success. Sometimes you don't know whether he'd kidding or not.
Mad Professor: The Uncollected Short Stories by Rudy Rucker
reviewed by Paul Raven
Rudy Rucker is a unique and idiosyncratic science fiction writer, who over the years has slowly carved out a niche for himself in the
canonical landscape. Closely associated with Bruce Sterling's seminal cyberpunks, he has also defined his own sub-school of
writing, "transrealism." The product of this colourful and care-free career is a brand of science fiction with its own distinctive
sound and texture, dressed in surf-bum threads and sun-tanned by laid-back surrealism.
Master of Space and Time by Rudy Rucker
reviewed by Ian Nichols
The story is a reworking of the three wishes myth, in modern whiz-bang technology. Dr. Joe Fletcher and his friend, Harry
Gerber, build a blunzer, a device that gives them three wishes. This is not any ordinary techno-genie, though. It operates
by injecting gluons, red, blue or yellow, right through the skull into the brain. But these are no ordinary gluons; they're
fried in a microwave first. Wish fulfillment through flash-fried gluons.
Frek and the Elixir by Rudy Rucker
reviewed by Rich Horton
Hundreds of years before, NuBioCom destroyed the remaining natural species on Earth, and replaced them with a very
few genetically engineered variants. They even destroyed the records of the genetic code of the natural species. Now, in 3003, Houses
are grown from trees, the only pets are dogs, much of the food comes from anyfruit trees, and in many other ways it is clear that
species diversity is rare. Frek Huggins is a 12-year-old boy living with his mother and his two sisters. He resents the fact that
his father, Carb, left for the asteroids several years before. His life is nominally fairly pleasant but he doesn't quite fit in.
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The Hacker And The Ants, Version 2.0 by Rudy Rucker
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
There are robots, and then there are robots. Some people hear the word and think of those annoying mechanical sidekicks from science
fiction (I'm looking at you, Twiki...) and decide that real robots are still in our not-so-distant future. Robots, though,
are in our midst every day and we seldom notice because they don't fit our space opera definition. Aside from our assembly-line machines
and not-remotely-lifelike techno-pets, our world is filled with robots in human bodies.
Realware by Rudy Rucker
reviewed by Charlene Brusso
In this fast-paced and cheerful homage to Edwin Abbott's Victorian classic Flatland, San Francisco-based chef
Phil Gottner discovers that his father has apparently been swallowed whole by a multidimensional holographic toy
modeled on a Klein bottle. His seriously messed-up and needy girlfriend Kevvie is addicted to merge,
which breaks down cell structures, allowing bodies to flow together into a single gloopy organism.
Clearly their relationship is doomed. Then Phil meets sexy Moon-born Yoke Star-Mydol, whose mother Darla was eaten
by a bizarre multidimensional alien...
Seek! by Rudy Rucker
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
This book provides an interesting and highly readable look into the mind of a writer who remains one of
SF's true iconoclasts, perhaps the only writer in science fiction who can legitimately be compared to
both Hunter S. Thompson and Carl Sagan.
Freeware by Rudy Rucker
reviewed by A. John O'Neill
In a reprise review to coincide with the paperback release, John
found that, chapter by chapter, Rucker's characters and the world they inhabit
are made real. The more outlandish the premise, the more energy he expends to make it plausible.
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