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Terminal Cafe
by
Ian McDonald
It is a few decades after a revolutionary technology has given humans the ability to resurrect the dead. The ever-increasing population of the risen dead is segregated into areas called necrovilles. Here they have created a wild culture, untouched by the restrictions of the law - except that the dead cannot stray into the realm of the living, nor the living into the teemin...more
Paperback, 288 pages
Published
October 1st 1994
by Spectra
(first published 1994)
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In un futuro, non molto lontano, le nanotecnologie permettono agli uomini di compiere cose straordinarie come essere sempre connessi alla rete tramite una tuta che si interfaccia direttamente con il sistema nervoso di chi la indossa, possedere macchine e mezzi di trasporto che mutano la loro forma e si liquefano in dorate pozze di mercurio una volta utilizzate e, soprattutto, resuscitare i morti.
Morti che però sono relegati in città-ghetto dalle quali possono uscire solo se autorizzati per esegu...more
Morti che però sono relegati in città-ghetto dalle quali possono uscire solo se autorizzati per esegu...more
If people could come back from the dead, corporations would lobby to have the dead declared unpersons and then use them as free labor. Ah, Cyberpunk! I absolutely loved McDonald's RIVER OF GODS, and while this book isn't quite as good, I definitely enjoyed it. McDonald's m.o. involves near-future scifi in foreign lands, and the cyberpunk Los Angeles-that-is-practically-Mexico of Terminal Cafe qualifies. McDonald builds a richly detailed, almost-believable world. Like all good Cyberpunk, the b...more
I picked this book out of the library because of some impressive cover art and an intriguing concept. The idea that the dead may be resurrected, and best served by being isolated into necropoli in a nanotechnological age sounded like it had some legs. the problem I have is that the writer has sought to introduce a mind-numbing number of characters within the first thirty pages, all with their own little worlds and problems relating to the resurrection of their servants, house intruders or lovers...more
This book has aged surprisingly well, coming from the past century and dealing with nanotechnology and how it will change humanity. One of the reasons it works is because McDonald focuses on the human side and how post-humanity would behave, rather than the how or why of the technology.
In what will be a night to remember, we follow five former friends as they tackle the Festival of the Dead, in an Earth where death is just a gate to something else. There may be an excess of viewpoints,...more
In what will be a night to remember, we follow five former friends as they tackle the Festival of the Dead, in an Earth where death is just a gate to something else. There may be an excess of viewpoints,...more
I found it slow and really didn't keep my attention. The idea was different, but I lost interest very, very quickly.
Heard this was one of those Must Read Novels, yet I thought it was completely boring.
Must be I'm not of the same mind-frame as those people who wet themselves over this book. Oh well, eh?
Heard this was one of those Must Read Novels, yet I thought it was completely boring.
Must be I'm not of the same mind-frame as those people who wet themselves over this book. Oh well, eh?
Terminal Cafe by Ian Mcdonald (1994)
*note to self. Copy from A.
Parthena
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone who likes bizarre, dark plotlines
It was hard for me not to rate this book higher, because the author had a pretty amazing idea going on with this novel, but I had to rate it the way I did because certain parts were simply a bit too confusing. Towards the middle of the book, lots of characters' purposes come clear and the action really picks up, and somewhere in there I think it just got a little too chaotic, disjointed, and hard to follow.
I found myself a bit lost at points, but overall, the novel is based on a ve...more
I found myself a bit lost at points, but overall, the novel is based on a ve...more
Is it bad that I had almost no idea what was going on until the last hundred pages?
The text is a treasure to read, but the ratio of "plot to lavish descriptions of an nigh-insane future" is tipped pretty high in the direction of the latter. Oddly enough (for an Ian McDonald book), I think it's this ratio that would allow it to be adapted into a really excellent and bizarre movie.
The text is a treasure to read, but the ratio of "plot to lavish descriptions of an nigh-insane future" is tipped pretty high in the direction of the latter. Oddly enough (for an Ian McDonald book), I think it's this ratio that would allow it to be adapted into a really excellent and bizarre movie.
Some readers will really go for Terminal Cafe's punk gothic atmosphere. If you're okay with dour but essentially good-natured zombies, and just a taste of necrophilia (sweet mouldy/rancid), this one's for you. My own tastes runs to a couple of McDonald's other books in my Goodreads list, but I was willing and prepared to be transported to whatever kinky world he had concocted.
Although it had the slightly tedious style of Ian McDonald, the reason it took me ages to finish reading it was because I had to stop every other page and call Sam and tell him about the fascinating shit that went down in it. It was that chock-full of ideas.
If you like Science Fiction and have not yet read this book - drop everything, locate a copy, buy it, read it, and love it. I guarantee that you will then read everthing else written by this master story teller.
This book was truly fresh. As an avid SciFi/SpecFi reader since I was 14, I was taken with the author's off-world humans and the struggle between the split society.
i'd actually read this before but had forgotten until i was 100 pages into. was interesting to read again.
Brian
marked it as to-read
Aznet
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Ian McDonald (1960-) is a British science fiction novelist, living in Belfast. His themes include nanotechnology, postcyberpunk settings, and the impact of rapid social and technological change on non-Western societies.
McDonald was born in 1960, in Manchester, to a Scottish father and Irish mother, but moved to Belfast when he was five, and has lived there ever since. He therefore live...more
More about Ian McDonald...
McDonald was born in 1960, in Manchester, to a Scottish father and Irish mother, but moved to Belfast when he was five, and has lived there ever since. He therefore live...more
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