Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Bad Voltage

3.47 of 5 stars 3.47 · rating details · 34 ratings · 2 reviews

The Livewires-

High-tech lowlifes, bio-enhanced delinquents, or doped-out street kids, they've learned to survive in riot-torn future Paris, playing simulated war games in the fall-out shelters beneath the city. Soaring high and fast on gravfield skimboots, they head straight into the heart of violence and terror, then out and down to the safety of the tunnels to party unti...more

Paperback, 309 pages

Published June 6th 1989 by Roc

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Cyberpunk Reading List

106th out of 107 books — 25 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 62)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Mar 17, 2012 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars

Left to my own devices, this is the kind of crap I would write all the time: unadulterated cyberpunk drivel, filled with profuse drug use, sassy/cynical characters, unabashedly gushy prose, and strews of earnest, embarrassing/cool futureslang: essentially, Neuromancer fan fiction.

The fact that Bad Voltage's inspiration is Neuromancer is no secret: Case from Neuromancer gets name dropped once, and I have the suspicion the character on the cover is supposed to be some badass version of William Gi...more Left to my own devices, this is the kind of crap I would write all the time: unadulterated cyberpunk drivel, filled with profuse drug use, sassy/cynical characters, unabashedly gushy prose, and strews of earnest, embarrassing/cool futureslang: essentially, Neuromancer fan fiction.

The fact that Bad Voltage's inspiration is Neuromancer is no secret: Case from Neuromancer gets name dropped once, and I have the suspicion the character on the cover is supposed to be some badass version of William Gibson.

There's plenty of other inspirations that get trotted out too: along with cameos by Clint Eastwood as the President and Johnny Rotten at a rave, there's Michael Moorcock's Cornelius as an arms dealer and a character named Chthulu. I really groaned when Burrough's Dr. Benway showed up as a sort of major character. That was a bridge too far.

Bad Voltage is certainly an intelligent and well-written enough novel, though, especially considering it's essentially a pulp adventure story. But then again being cyberpunk and science fiction there's always that urge to see Bad Voltage as some prediction or warning or a mirror image of the world as it was when it was written. Of course, if you look at it for too long you would see it's all smoke and glammy mirrors: it doesn't really have anything to say, it's just a breezy, fun ride. It could've used some skimming of fat, and it was hard for me to feel sympathetic toward its bisexual statutory-raping dreadlocked junkie music snob crustpunk-anarchist protagonist, or his supposed disgust at one horrific act of spoiled depravity, especially when it just seemed as insane as everything else in his world.

But it was clear at least to me that the author enjoyed his world, as the maps of Underground France in the back of the book (along with a list of albums including works by Einsturzende Neubaueten and Joy Division and the provocation "If you liked the movie, this is the soundtrack") would imply.

So you can imagine my surprise that when I looked the author up, expecting him to have gone nowhere, I found he had instead wrote ONE other, far more recent book called the Kindly Ones (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37...). It was written in French and it's about World War II and apparently it's quite famous and successful. Not only that, but apparently Mr. Littel is now embarrassed by his to-date one other published novel, namely Bad Voltage. To which I say: lighten up, asshole! I would've killed to have published a crappy cyberpunk novel in my early 20's!(less)

like 1 like · see review

Sep 07, 2011 Ed rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: cyberculture, technoculture, cyberpunk, queer

Part of the popular/mainstream response to cyberpunk writers like Gibson and Sterling, this "pulp" cyberpunk novel rehashes most of the technocultural, cybercultural tropes of late-80s sci-fi including near-future urban setting (this time Paris), youth culture, drugs, techno music, high-speed chases, jacking in, gang warfare, and downloaded consciousness. However, as I write about in my dissertation, Littell's Bad Voltage offers an interesting counterpoint to Gibson's Neuromancer in how it deals...more

like · see review

May 11, 2013 Michael Walker rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi

Apr 30, 2013 Porscha Ladonna marked it as to-read

Apr 05, 2013 Benjamin Wright rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mar 30, 2013 Monty Ashley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mar 22, 2013 Jon added it

Mar 03, 2013 Darik marked it as to-read

Mar 03, 2013 Ralf Siig rated it 3 of 5 stars

Feb 28, 2013 Casey rated it 2 of 5 stars

Jan 10, 2013 Yassen marked it as to-read

Jan 09, 2013 Rebecca marked it as to-read

Dec 31, 2012 James Ward marked it as to-read

Shelves: paused, science-fiction

Dec 26, 2012 Nikita marked it as to-read

Nov 24, 2012 Nic rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nov 22, 2012 Interdome marked it as to-read

Shelves: must-read

Nov 14, 2012 Dwcdump rated it 3 of 5 stars

Nov 12, 2012 Simon added it

Shelves: science-ficton

Nov 07, 2012 Jay Owens rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sep 30, 2012 Hugh Tullner marked it as to-read

Sep 13, 2012 Xiri marked it as to-read

Sep 02, 2012 Bosco Farr rated it 3 of 5 stars

Jul 30, 2012 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars

Jul 03, 2012 Ken marked it as to-read

Shelves: paperback-box-04, owned

Jun 27, 2012 PeteMC rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf

Jun 21, 2012 Adam marked it as to-read

Jun 10, 2012 III rated it 4 of 5 stars

May 21, 2012 Ckc123 added it

Apr 04, 2012 Nielsnej added it

Mar 19, 2012 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi-cyberpunk-near-future

« previous 1 2 3 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (1)

Genres

Science Fiction

3 users

Science Fiction > Cyberpunk

2 users

See top shelves...

About Jonathan Littell

A bi-lingual (English / French) writer living in Barcelona. He is a dual citizen of the United States and France and is of Jewish background. His first novel written in French, Les Bienveillantes , won two major French awards.

More about Jonathan Littell...

Books by Jonathan Littell

Le sec et l'humide: une brève incursion en territoire fasciste

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Bad Voltage

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: Bad Voltage
avg rating	preview: Bad Voltage Goodreads rating: 3.47 (34 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/733689.Bad_Voltage?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327385397l/733689.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/733689.Bad_Voltage?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Bad Voltage by Jonathan Littell[/url]