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251st out of 2,944 books
—
12,412 voters
Vurt (Vurt #1)
by
Jeff Noon
Vurt is a feather--a drug, a dimension, a dream state, a virtual reality. It comes in many colors: legal Blues for lullaby dreams. Blacks, filled with tenderness and pain, just beyond the law. Pink Pornovurts, doorways to bliss. Silver feathers for techies who know how to remix colors and open new dimensions. And Yellows--the feathers from which there is no escape.
The beau...more
The beau...more
Paperback, 342 pages
Published
January 15th 1996
by St. Martin's Griffin
(first published 1993)
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I was given this book when it first came out in the early 90's and was completely blown away. I re-read the book last year and it still is as enjoyable as it was 15 years ago. Noon takes the reader through the drug riddled streets of future London. Everyone is addicted to feathers. You tickle your tongue with a feather and depending on the color of the feather you go on a certain trip. If you like to eat aliens, if you worship the game cat, if you think people should mate and have offspring with...more
Oct 08, 2008
Ren the Unclean
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Cyberpunk fans.
Shelves:
cyberpunk
This is a very strange book that stands somewhere between cyberpunk and an altered reality novel. It is written from the perspective of Scribble, a member of a gang that spends their time doing Vurt feathers, which are a means of entering a virtual reality experience that is presented as a drug induced shared hallucination.
Vurt is written in a very disjointed way, which gives you the impression that it is actually being written by Scribble. It is the story of his quest to find his sister who got...more
Vurt is written in a very disjointed way, which gives you the impression that it is actually being written by Scribble. It is the story of his quest to find his sister who got...more
Jun 06, 2007
graycastle
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
hybridity scholars, scifi fans, video game fans, people who like good books
Shelves:
scifi
This is such a smart book, but for some reason doesn't have the recognition that it deserves, at least not in literary circles. It speaks intelligently on hybridity, drug culture, game culture, created communities, fantasy spaces, writing as escape...it's just crazy good. I had a prof who called this a "game narrative," one of the first novels to use the conventions of video games as part of its narrative strucure, which is, trust me, extremely cool. I have a big love for this novel, and recomme...more
4 likes · like · see review
I don't leave books unfinished very often, but I just couldn't bring myself to keep reading Vurt.
Noon's cyberpunk drug-culture epic strives to describe a psychedelic future/alternate Manchester, but fails quite obviously - halfway through the book, his cast of characters have yet to spend more than a few moments in the eponymous cyber-drug-world. In addition, his characters are wooden and, despite their depressing hijinks-filled lifestyle, largely uninteresting. I didn't care about them, and th...more
Noon's cyberpunk drug-culture epic strives to describe a psychedelic future/alternate Manchester, but fails quite obviously - halfway through the book, his cast of characters have yet to spend more than a few moments in the eponymous cyber-drug-world. In addition, his characters are wooden and, despite their depressing hijinks-filled lifestyle, largely uninteresting. I didn't care about them, and th...more
3 likes · like · see review
I couldn't get into this one. I've not really read anything like this before and I think it was just a bit too far 'out there' for me. I couldn't really understand what was going on for the most part because I couldn't get used to the way it was written. It was fast paced which would add to the effect of the drug-use but I ended up skim-reading from the half way point because I just didn't connect with any of it. The places which I did understand were just a bit too disturbing. I'm not saying th...more
1 like · like · see review
I read this book over a weekend while I was in college. This book is 100% brain candy (easily digestable with a sugary coating)! It was a fun ride, where feathers are the new drugs and the color and size of the feather dictates it's effect. Oh yeah, these drugs take you into a virtual reality. The crux of the story is what happens when someone takes a feather while they are in a virtual reality from another feather? If you like science-fiction, you will enjoy this book. I don't care for science-...more
I picked this up on Gary's recommendation when looking for some lighter fantasty/science fiction material between tough books. Thanks, Gary...I was not disappointed. The last 200 pages crackle in "don't want to put it down" fashion. I was reminded a bit of Lethem's "Gun With Occasional Music" in that a drug-addled protagonist had to work his way through a cast of underworld characters to find what he wants. If you were into that book, or like Gaiman, Gibson, or Stephenson, you'd probably enjoy "...more
Totally a quick beach book, but a really fucking cool beach book with interesting ideas, settings, and concepts throughout. Most of the book was narrated to quickly and simply for the dense interesting world it created. I was left wanting a lot more. I didn’t just want to hear the names of the cool things, I wanted to see them, to figure out what was going on and not have the story told and then filled out much much later. There simply was not enough information to go on for a lot of the book (a...more
So my read of this book in 94 was the occasion of my first seeing genre sci-fi's big problem: endings. Who knows why, but people that write about the future generally can't end a book to save their lives.
This book had a brilliant set up, a great chase, fantastic writing about amazing virtual reality future drugs, wonderous speculation about the future and what it said about today, and the the worst, most hurried, unedited, junk ending you could imagine.
Do not read, you'll only get your hopes up.
This book had a brilliant set up, a great chase, fantastic writing about amazing virtual reality future drugs, wonderous speculation about the future and what it said about today, and the the worst, most hurried, unedited, junk ending you could imagine.
Do not read, you'll only get your hopes up.
I honestly have no idea what to think about this book or what a proper rating should be. It felt like a cross between Transmetropolitan (the parts that Spider wrote about, not Spider Jerusalem's crusade itself) and something along the line of William Gibson.
There's this drug, see, and it's made from smoke and takes the shape of feathers. No, wait, it's a feather that has a drug on it that causes shared dreaming. Hold on. It's a pyschadelic substance that came from a dreamsnake that may or may no...more
There's this drug, see, and it's made from smoke and takes the shape of feathers. No, wait, it's a feather that has a drug on it that causes shared dreaming. Hold on. It's a pyschadelic substance that came from a dreamsnake that may or may no...more
Vurt started with a cool premise. A future Manchester UK filled with an assortment of new species of human, a new social structure, and, the central feature of the book, a new drug/game/escape from reality called vurt.
One of the problems with the book is that vurt is vurt. Through the entire plot, we're left kind of fuzzy as to what it actually is. People take feathers, and ... well we're not exactly sure what happens. They see things differently, but sometimes act parts out in the real world....more
One of the problems with the book is that vurt is vurt. Through the entire plot, we're left kind of fuzzy as to what it actually is. People take feathers, and ... well we're not exactly sure what happens. They see things differently, but sometimes act parts out in the real world....more
On of the first "down the rabbit hole" books I read, where the author was on drugs / going insane / was extremely creative and out of the ordinary, or some combination of the above. I first read this book of the series in high school thanks to my friend Dave and it was refreshingly awesome. There is a bit of an incest scene in there, (usually a deal-breaker for me. If a book even hints at something like that, it goes in my sell to Ukazoo pile.) but the effed up nature of the book in its entirety...more
I just finished re-reading Jeff Noon's Vurt for the first time since I originally read it in 1994 (when an uncorrected proof of the book crossed my path), and I am pleased to say that I found it just as wonderful the second time through. The book is set in Manchester, England at a time when the walls between virtual reality (the Vurt) and the real world have become very thin. The story follows Scribble and his crew (the Stash Riders) as they try to find a way to rescue Desdemona - Scribble's lov...more
Possibly life changing?: I am a student, and we were mucking about in the libary at lunch one wet break - and i saw this book in the shelf and picked it out due to the versions random colour scheme. I read the blurb and thought it sounded ok. I started reading...
When i finished it a few weeks later (i'm a slow reader...) i new it was the best book i had ever read. It's perfect mix of violence, sex, futuristic drugs, and an incredibly emotional and heart-pounding, creative and immaginative story
...more
Starts out with an interesting premise straight from the bowels of early 90s cyberpunk: People eat LSDesque feathers to get high, get hurt and generally escape reality. The landscape is a dystopia. The protagonists are mutants, shadow people, aliens and cyborgs. Techno music is rampant, though there's a surprising lack of computer lingo and presence. It's more rave-culture than mirrorshades.
And as novel as it all starts, it sort of ends up churning it's wheels. For me, there was too much empha...more
And as novel as it all starts, it sort of ends up churning it's wheels. For me, there was too much empha...more
This is by far the best science fiction book I have ever read. It takes place in a future where entertainment in all forms has been replaced by virtual reality feathers called vurt. You can experience everything you could ever imagine and more. Just remember if you take a yellow you have to win the game or die.
It is a little hard to find Jeff Noon books sometimes but I have had luck with ordering them off Amazon. So if you are interested look there.
It is a little hard to find Jeff Noon books sometimes but I have had luck with ordering them off Amazon. So if you are interested look there.
"Walking along a gangway, like on a tall ship, concrete ship, miles above the sea of glass. Me, Beetle, Mandy, Tristan, and Suze. Oh yeah, and the dog. Karli. Great slavering fur metal beast, stretched out taut at the end of Suze's leash. Tristan carrying his gun, just for show really. Who's going to touch him? Because they know what would be coming then. And two robodogs let back in the flat, looking after the homestead. Night coming down. No one talking much, just walking the high-rise hung up...more
Jul 27, 2010
The Book Nazi
added it
One of the more interesting of the "cyberpunk" short lived genre of fiction, Vurt's strengths lie in its postmodern approach to storytelling. Essentially its about a guy trying to find his sister who's been lost in the collective dream that is the Vurtworld.
Set in a future Manchester, the characters are bold and snide, the settings surreal, and the imagery is fantastic. This is science fiction the way its meant to be, albeit an allegory of drug culture in the 90s seen through the eyes of a smal...more
Set in a future Manchester, the characters are bold and snide, the settings surreal, and the imagery is fantastic. This is science fiction the way its meant to be, albeit an allegory of drug culture in the 90s seen through the eyes of a smal...more
This was one of the few books I honestly didn’t want to put down until I had finished it!
My wife read it in one sitting, something that’s unheard of for her.
It may not be a book for the masses, the writing style is a bit different from the norm, and the plot won’t be to everyone’s taste. Then the best books rarely are.
It’s been called ‘cyberpunk’ but I think only by people who feel the need to label things. I’d say it’s a good old-fashioned adventure book. You follow the adventures of the Stash...more
My wife read it in one sitting, something that’s unheard of for her.
It may not be a book for the masses, the writing style is a bit different from the norm, and the plot won’t be to everyone’s taste. Then the best books rarely are.
It’s been called ‘cyberpunk’ but I think only by people who feel the need to label things. I’d say it’s a good old-fashioned adventure book. You follow the adventures of the Stash...more
Vurt is fundamentally a book about people who trade in their dreams for manufactured facsimiles, and it's a raw deal.
Analogies to our modern lifestyle abound: drugs, pornography, the boob tube, video games, music, media, DRM. We have all surrendered our minds to mass media culture in some way, big or small, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to hack, subvert, remix, and otherwise take back that which should have been our birthright all along.
---
Now that I've finished Vurt, I have to say t...more
Analogies to our modern lifestyle abound: drugs, pornography, the boob tube, video games, music, media, DRM. We have all surrendered our minds to mass media culture in some way, big or small, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to hack, subvert, remix, and otherwise take back that which should have been our birthright all along.
---
Now that I've finished Vurt, I have to say t...more
This book definitely chose me. I know that sounds corny, but it did. I kept seeing it at a bookstore and finally just had to pick it up. I ended up reading five pages past the first page before I even realized it. Vurt is an interesting story, wholly unique and out of this world. We are thrust into the dingy streets of Manchester where man and droids coexist, real pets are a rare item, cops are made of smoke, and the real world shares a room with the hallucinatory world of Vurt where anyone can...more
In a world of junkies who tweak out on feathers that jack you into dreams, or Vurt, orphaned teenager Scribble, a member of the Stash Riders gang of hoodlums, must ascend to the higher levels of Vurt, in order to retrieve his sister.
Appeals: cyberpunk, engaging alt-world, coming-of-age, quick-moving plot, action, sex, drugs.
Notes: Reminds me of M.T. Anderson's Feed in that both novels feature, teenagers under the influence, alt/tech elements, and a protagonist who is a little bit different from...more
Appeals: cyberpunk, engaging alt-world, coming-of-age, quick-moving plot, action, sex, drugs.
Notes: Reminds me of M.T. Anderson's Feed in that both novels feature, teenagers under the influence, alt/tech elements, and a protagonist who is a little bit different from...more
I read this book upon the suggestion of my husband, who counts this as a favorite. At first I was a little off-put but as I got deeper in I began appreciating the world this book portrays a bit more. This book is disturbing, it will probably make you uncomfortable, and it is not a happy ending or a happy story at all for that matter. However, I found myself sucked into the world of the Vurt, the outrageousness of the idea of it and the outlandishness of the situations it creates. My favorite cha...more
Totally my kind of brain candy. Wish there were more stuff like this out there, and if I'd found this kind of thing when I was 13, my teen years might have been a fair bit different.
Cyberpunk-influenced psychedelic '90s technoheterotopia galore! People drugged out on mind-altering feathers! Old-school video game narrative structure. Giant dreadlocks with computer chips, and a countercultural incest-stained Orpheus retelling on top. The kind of thing you read in between Tank Girl and Grant Morris...more
Cyberpunk-influenced psychedelic '90s technoheterotopia galore! People drugged out on mind-altering feathers! Old-school video game narrative structure. Giant dreadlocks with computer chips, and a countercultural incest-stained Orpheus retelling on top. The kind of thing you read in between Tank Girl and Grant Morris...more
Vurt and Pollen made me become a Noon-addict. A mindblowingly fast, colorful whirlwind-tour.
A friend recommended "Vurt" to me with the words "Irvine Welsh writes on cold turkey, Noon while being high.". I think he is right.
A friend recommended "Vurt" to me with the words "Irvine Welsh writes on cold turkey, Noon while being high.". I think he is right.
A splashy forward story of an alternate world or "Vurt", that all can access... with the right connections. Feathers rule in this fun, future forward tale written in the 90's.
this is amazing, it decribes human existence in this modern hyper real world so well.
i'm currently back on the feather...
i'm currently back on the feather...
Vurt is a science fiction novel for people who don't really like science fiction. Set in an alternate reality/future where the best drugs are feathers of various colors and potency, Vurt's cyberpunk heroes are a crew of drugstore cowboys by the name of "The Stash Riders". The novel follows its dubious protagonists through a highly stylized and refreshingly inventive world, owing as much to Martin Amis as it does Phillip K. Dick. While there is a quite original mystery of sorts taking place, the...more
This book is strange. It has been weeks since I finished it and I'm still not sure what to make of it. It goes in many different directions and it seems to me at times to be much more focused on the word that the characters inhabit, rather than the characters themselves. There are themes and elements mainly related to the cyberpunk genre, but I noticed that there was some influence by the beats as well. William Burroughs, specifically comes to mind as one of the influences in the writing of this...more
Someone reminded me of this book lately, and I had forgetten it. I loved this book!!!! It is a trippy adventure into a world where people are addicted to tripping feathers. I had to add it immediately to my list, because this is one I want to read again. It is amazing. I still am amazed at how much is going on in this book, it would be very easy to get lost in the story, and characters for me, because almost nothing is as it is in our universe. But Noon's writing is wonderful, and totally kept m...more
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Jeff Noon is a novelist, short story writer and playwright whose works make extensive use of wordplay and fantasy.
More about Jeff Noon...
He studied fine art and drama at Manchester University and was subsequently appointed writer in residence at the city's Royal Exchange theatre. But Noon did not stay too long in the theatrical world, possibly because the realism associated with the theatre was not conducive to the fant
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