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Web of Angels
Condemned to death at the age of nine for his ability to manipulate the Web, which links the many worlds of humanity, Grailer must go underground, hiding his skills and testing his powers. Original.
311 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1980
10 people are currently reading
412 people want to read
About the author
John M. Ford
102 books206 followersJohn Milo "Mike" Ford was a science fiction and fantasy writer, game designer and poet.
Ford was regarded (and obituaries, tributes and memories describe him) as an extraordinarily intelligent, erudite and witty man. He was a popular contributor to several online discussions. He composed poems, often improvised, in both complicated forms and blank verse, notably Shakespearean pastiche; he also wrote pastiches and parodies of many other authors and styles.At Minicon and other science fiction conventions he would perform "Ask Dr. Mike", giving humorous answers to scientific and other questions in a lab coat before a whiteboard.
Ford passed away from natural causes in 2006 at his home in Minneapolis.
Biography source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._...
Ford was regarded (and obituaries, tributes and memories describe him) as an extraordinarily intelligent, erudite and witty man. He was a popular contributor to several online discussions. He composed poems, often improvised, in both complicated forms and blank verse, notably Shakespearean pastiche; he also wrote pastiches and parodies of many other authors and styles.At Minicon and other science fiction conventions he would perform "Ask Dr. Mike", giving humorous answers to scientific and other questions in a lab coat before a whiteboard.
Ford passed away from natural causes in 2006 at his home in Minneapolis.
Biography source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._...
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
May 1, 2024
Not bad, John M. Ford. Not bad. That’s about all I’ve got for opening thoughts. I received an eARC of this reprint edition of classic Web of Angels from Tor and NetGalley in exchange for a review.
This edition has a foreword from Cory Doctorow, who delivers an encomium of Ford while waxing poetically about Web of Angels as a kind of evolutionary cousin of what became cyberpunk. It makes a lot of sense. As Doctorow says, a lot in this book is familiar, right down to the naming of Ford’s cyberspace as the Web—however, a lot of it also feels dated, a result of Ford writing just prior to the PC and internet displacing the phone as the primary mode of telecommunication.
Grailer Diomede is nine years old when the book opens, a precocious boy singled out by a fascist interstellar law enforcement agency for death. Rescued in the nick of time, Grailer is raised to embrace his abilities as someone with “Fourth Literacy,” which means he can not only operate and program for the vast, interstellar Web, but he actually has the ability to conceive of it and its myriad connections in an intuitive way.
He’s a l33t hax0rz, as I might have put it back when I started my journey on the web in 2004.
This book is a bildungsroman that follows Grailer as he quickly grows up, falls in love, and starts sticking it to the man. Ford takes us to various exotic locations, and we meet a small but plucky cast of characters who alternately aid or antagonize Grailer while he is posing in one of his many Web-forged identities. The vignettes within this story overlap and spiral towards an inevitable conclusion, echoes of which reside in later science fiction, like The Matrix.
Doctorow mentions that this is one of Ford’s less accessible works, and I believe it. Time slips, unmarked flashbacks, and precious little exposition—especially for a reader unfamiliar with what operating a computer terminal felt like in the seventies. I won’t lie to you: I was really confused about what was going on for a great deal of this book. I still am, kind of, but rather than worry too much about it, I’m going to roll with it.
Here’s what I liked about this book: even without reading that foreword, I would have been able to see the connections between Ford’s writing and the authors who have come since. In this way, Web of Angels is clearly a classic worthy of this reissue, belonging up there among the other greats like Butler, Le Guin, Asimov.
Ford’s prose has a fairytale-like quality that reminds me of Neil Gaiman. He can quickly set a scene even when descriptive language is at a premium. The future of humanity that Ford sketches here is a lush one but also full of people, places, and things that aren’t entirely what they seem.
Ford and his contemporary cyberpunk founder, William Gibson, share in common a view of cyberspace as something that exists independently of the humans who use it. Grailer ponders whether the Web can be intelligent, as in self-aware, for it spans the entirety of human existence. Ideas like the Singularity lurk in the background of this novel, occasionally mentioned or hinted at in that way that happens when we haven’t quite coined all the terms that are now familiar to us.
But actually, the author whose writing this most reminds me of is Dan Simmons. His Hyperion novels feel ripped out of the pages of Web of Angels in the sense that both books posit a future of humanity steeped in literary trappings of our past. A lot of science fiction imagines that our culture will trend further towards secularism, towards a cold, minimalist aesthetic of starship hull blues and greys (or it goes solarpunk and imagines us all in the greens and browns of cholorphyll bioships, lol). Ford and Simmons draw their inspiration from humanity’s literary past in telling of our literary future: from subcultures whose every movements are part of an intricate Dance to doctors who wear capes and receive the title of Lord, these anachronisms, more even than the faster-than-light drives and lifespan-enhancing treatments, mark this society as futuristic and alien.
Web of Angels is not a novel that “holds up” in a modern sense of what most readers want from their novels. The story is not straightforward. The characters are not particularly deep. In many ways, this reads like a novella stretched thinly over the frame of a novel—and I mean that as a compliment. This is a book for the anthropologist of science fiction, for the fan digging into the archives to glimpse their favourite authors’ inspiration. I stipulate to Ford’s brilliance while also admitting that this book, on its own, didn’t do a lot for me. I won’t rush out to read more by Ford, but I am pleased to have read something by him, and perhaps I will explore his oeuvre further now that Tor has rights to republish!
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews.
This edition has a foreword from Cory Doctorow, who delivers an encomium of Ford while waxing poetically about Web of Angels as a kind of evolutionary cousin of what became cyberpunk. It makes a lot of sense. As Doctorow says, a lot in this book is familiar, right down to the naming of Ford’s cyberspace as the Web—however, a lot of it also feels dated, a result of Ford writing just prior to the PC and internet displacing the phone as the primary mode of telecommunication.
Grailer Diomede is nine years old when the book opens, a precocious boy singled out by a fascist interstellar law enforcement agency for death. Rescued in the nick of time, Grailer is raised to embrace his abilities as someone with “Fourth Literacy,” which means he can not only operate and program for the vast, interstellar Web, but he actually has the ability to conceive of it and its myriad connections in an intuitive way.
He’s a l33t hax0rz, as I might have put it back when I started my journey on the web in 2004.
This book is a bildungsroman that follows Grailer as he quickly grows up, falls in love, and starts sticking it to the man. Ford takes us to various exotic locations, and we meet a small but plucky cast of characters who alternately aid or antagonize Grailer while he is posing in one of his many Web-forged identities. The vignettes within this story overlap and spiral towards an inevitable conclusion, echoes of which reside in later science fiction, like The Matrix.
Doctorow mentions that this is one of Ford’s less accessible works, and I believe it. Time slips, unmarked flashbacks, and precious little exposition—especially for a reader unfamiliar with what operating a computer terminal felt like in the seventies. I won’t lie to you: I was really confused about what was going on for a great deal of this book. I still am, kind of, but rather than worry too much about it, I’m going to roll with it.
Here’s what I liked about this book: even without reading that foreword, I would have been able to see the connections between Ford’s writing and the authors who have come since. In this way, Web of Angels is clearly a classic worthy of this reissue, belonging up there among the other greats like Butler, Le Guin, Asimov.
Ford’s prose has a fairytale-like quality that reminds me of Neil Gaiman. He can quickly set a scene even when descriptive language is at a premium. The future of humanity that Ford sketches here is a lush one but also full of people, places, and things that aren’t entirely what they seem.
Ford and his contemporary cyberpunk founder, William Gibson, share in common a view of cyberspace as something that exists independently of the humans who use it. Grailer ponders whether the Web can be intelligent, as in self-aware, for it spans the entirety of human existence. Ideas like the Singularity lurk in the background of this novel, occasionally mentioned or hinted at in that way that happens when we haven’t quite coined all the terms that are now familiar to us.
But actually, the author whose writing this most reminds me of is Dan Simmons. His Hyperion novels feel ripped out of the pages of Web of Angels in the sense that both books posit a future of humanity steeped in literary trappings of our past. A lot of science fiction imagines that our culture will trend further towards secularism, towards a cold, minimalist aesthetic of starship hull blues and greys (or it goes solarpunk and imagines us all in the greens and browns of cholorphyll bioships, lol). Ford and Simmons draw their inspiration from humanity’s literary past in telling of our literary future: from subcultures whose every movements are part of an intricate Dance to doctors who wear capes and receive the title of Lord, these anachronisms, more even than the faster-than-light drives and lifespan-enhancing treatments, mark this society as futuristic and alien.
Web of Angels is not a novel that “holds up” in a modern sense of what most readers want from their novels. The story is not straightforward. The characters are not particularly deep. In many ways, this reads like a novella stretched thinly over the frame of a novel—and I mean that as a compliment. This is a book for the anthropologist of science fiction, for the fan digging into the archives to glimpse their favourite authors’ inspiration. I stipulate to Ford’s brilliance while also admitting that this book, on its own, didn’t do a lot for me. I won’t rush out to read more by Ford, but I am pleased to have read something by him, and perhaps I will explore his oeuvre further now that Tor has rights to republish!
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews.
February 19, 2019
Web of Angels is deeply surreal proto-cyberpunk, but not with the dystopian noir edge that most of that genre embodies. Instead, it is a coming-of-age story for hackers that ultimately left me feeling soberly adult: that this is a painfully imperfect world, but that one has a grounded role in it and duties.
The book draws deeply on Western myths, the Hero's Journey, the Tarot, and (unsurprisingly) the stories of Anansi. I also suspect the book draws more on the phone phreak culture than on what hacker culture evolved into.
Published in 1980, the same year as City Come a-Walkin' (which deeply influenced Neuromancer), John M. Ford was clearly plowing the same field of surreal cybernetic myth, but with now-uncredited effect.
It certainly rocked my world when I read it then. It's not a light read -- no good novel of ideas is, nor anything this surreal -- but its repays the effort invested. And it remains a topical, readable, and dazzling work even today. I'm glad I came back to it.
The book draws deeply on Western myths, the Hero's Journey, the Tarot, and (unsurprisingly) the stories of Anansi. I also suspect the book draws more on the phone phreak culture than on what hacker culture evolved into.
Published in 1980, the same year as City Come a-Walkin' (which deeply influenced Neuromancer), John M. Ford was clearly plowing the same field of surreal cybernetic myth, but with now-uncredited effect.
It certainly rocked my world when I read it then. It's not a light read -- no good novel of ideas is, nor anything this surreal -- but its repays the effort invested. And it remains a topical, readable, and dazzling work even today. I'm glad I came back to it.
October 27, 2024
Three and a half stars
The writing, language and the evoked imagery is fantastic, the world building is deep and many layered but takes a fair bit of effort to put together, and the story itself is fragmented but I found it ultimately quite effective.
The writing, language and the evoked imagery is fantastic, the world building is deep and many layered but takes a fair bit of effort to put together, and the story itself is fragmented but I found it ultimately quite effective.
April 2, 2016
his first novel, actually the first true cyberpunk novel, published in 1980, and amazingly predictive about the shape of the WWW that was still to emerge. it's kind of a difficult novel to read in places, as Ford never stops to expand on anything: though it comes in at 311 pp, a normal length at the time, it really needs about 700 pp (more normal for a major sf work now) to fill out the world, characters, and timeline; i always wonder whether it was massively cut to fit, or whether his editor needed to tell him to 'unpack everything'. cause an expanded mss might have resulted in perfection. this is his first novel, but his later books do consistently come in at about that size, though not necessarily at that weight. but anyway don't be dismayed, just keep reading: most everything has a resolution, the shadowy characters are ethically complex, the background world easy to extrapolate from the hints at hand, and Ford's interesting brain just keeps on making new and creative connections between things as his various stories eventually come together. Ford is a brilliant thinker, and writer, and this is still an important book for more than historical reasons.
November 24, 2014
I am a very big fan of Ford's work, and I wanted to love this novel, but I did not; I liked it, and it has many fine things in it, but it does not hold together quite like it needed to. It read rather as separate stories linked together, and the connecting matter not strong enough or inclusive enough to make a line through the entire book. I think it is still worth the reading, especially for those interested in the early days of cyberpunk -- not that this novel is cyberpunk, but it touches on those things, with the 'Webspinners' who are able to do things with an intergalactic computer system which are illegal. What I found most fascinating was the metaphors Ford chose, in this time before any particular metaphor had become set into stone -- much of music, fingers upon keys, chords and all, and the Web to describe the computer system. It might be that part of the fragility I found in it is simply that it has not aged well, thirty-plus years on when some pieces of what he imagined have taken shape in other forms.
December 21, 2018
The author seems to have just thrown plot threads at the wall -- no particular structure -- but nevertheless, the real draw for this book is the detailed and extremely creative worldbuilding. If you wish Neuromancer was written by Cordwainer Smith, this is the book for you.
You'll get more out of the book if you're familiar with tarot (particularly the Rider-Waite deck) and with Greek & Norse mythology; there are Arthurian references I barely caught and opera references (some to Wagner) that went far over my head.
You'll get more out of the book if you're familiar with tarot (particularly the Rider-Waite deck) and with Greek & Norse mythology; there are Arthurian references I barely caught and opera references (some to Wagner) that went far over my head.
September 27, 2018
Intressant proto-cyberpunk med en ansenlig skuld till Samuel R. Delanys Nova och inte lite till Zelazny och en skvätt M. John Harrison. Språket skiftar från bra till riktigt bra och stämningsfullt och är som allra bäst när Ford rör sig kring the Web. Men det är inte en bok som är lätt att hänga med i, då han inte har några planer alls på att förklara saker och ting i klartext och svänger sig med neologismer och egna termer till höger och vänster. Huvudkaraktären går dessutom igenom flera olika alias. Men det är bra, om än att jag inte kan förklara handlingen ordentligt.
August 8, 2018
An interesting little surrealist space adventure. Not sure it held together in the entirety but is a good ride with arresting imagery.
February 28, 2024
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Tor Publishing Group for an advance copy of this reissue of a classic book that saw the future of a genre, but has never received the credit it so richly deserves until now.
Many authors who were ahead of their time, both in writing and ideas have been unfairly forgotten. John M. Ford was one of those writers. A writer whose books challenged readers not only plot, but with interesting characters and a lot of esoteric knowledge. And a lot of humor. I'm not sure what the first book was I read by him, but he was one of those authors who if I saw I grabbed and read almost immediately. His Star Trek novelization s were some of the best books I read in that series, and How Much for Just the Planet? introduced me to Gilbert and Sullivan, which is not something many people can say. This is the second book reissued by Tor Publishing, and for that I am grateful because I get to read it again, and tell others about it. Web of Angels is a book that looked to the rising interest in hacking, computer even cyberpunk, and laid out ideas that still seem fresh today.
This was Ford's first book, but does not show any fear of being a first book, or hesitation in just going for it. The book begins by diving not just into the deep end, but more cliff diving, and never really slows down. A young boy is being pursued through strange neighborhoods and markets, each filled with different groups, some that hinder, some that ignore the boy. The boy is being pursued for he has a dangerous gift, one that endangers a vast interstellar empire. This empire run by corporations, some more powerful than others, are interconnected to each other by a vast Web. This web allows communication, some minor programs to run, and ways for data to be shared over great distances. Some have the ability to do more, and they are elites who control things. Our young boy, who is only eight going on nine, is named Grailer, and he can do much more. Grailer is a Webspinner, able to make the Web do amazing and complicated things, things few others can do. For this Grailer is sentenced to die.
The book came out in 1980 just ahead of many of the books that would later make up the foundations of the Cyberpunk genre. Ford was interested in a lot of things, so drew on much of what was going on both in technology, and among the outsiders who played with technology in different ways. The new introduction by Cory Doctrow discusses how Ford was influenced by the ideas of the early phone phreakers, who used old landbased phones for free calls, early phone messaging systems and hack early AT&T technology. Ford's world is a little cleaner, not as grim, and yet still has giant corporations controlling things, dangerous tech weapons, and well a Web controlling it all. The ideas are a bit 1980's there are mentions of tarot, a lot of hope for how great technology will makes us, but much of the writing still seems fresh, and engaging. Again it takes a bit to get what Ford is doing, and patience is a virtue to enjoying this. However, once tried, one will be scouring used book stores or patiently/impatiently waiting for Tor to reissue new books.
Many authors who were ahead of their time, both in writing and ideas have been unfairly forgotten. John M. Ford was one of those writers. A writer whose books challenged readers not only plot, but with interesting characters and a lot of esoteric knowledge. And a lot of humor. I'm not sure what the first book was I read by him, but he was one of those authors who if I saw I grabbed and read almost immediately. His Star Trek novelization s were some of the best books I read in that series, and How Much for Just the Planet? introduced me to Gilbert and Sullivan, which is not something many people can say. This is the second book reissued by Tor Publishing, and for that I am grateful because I get to read it again, and tell others about it. Web of Angels is a book that looked to the rising interest in hacking, computer even cyberpunk, and laid out ideas that still seem fresh today.
This was Ford's first book, but does not show any fear of being a first book, or hesitation in just going for it. The book begins by diving not just into the deep end, but more cliff diving, and never really slows down. A young boy is being pursued through strange neighborhoods and markets, each filled with different groups, some that hinder, some that ignore the boy. The boy is being pursued for he has a dangerous gift, one that endangers a vast interstellar empire. This empire run by corporations, some more powerful than others, are interconnected to each other by a vast Web. This web allows communication, some minor programs to run, and ways for data to be shared over great distances. Some have the ability to do more, and they are elites who control things. Our young boy, who is only eight going on nine, is named Grailer, and he can do much more. Grailer is a Webspinner, able to make the Web do amazing and complicated things, things few others can do. For this Grailer is sentenced to die.
The book came out in 1980 just ahead of many of the books that would later make up the foundations of the Cyberpunk genre. Ford was interested in a lot of things, so drew on much of what was going on both in technology, and among the outsiders who played with technology in different ways. The new introduction by Cory Doctrow discusses how Ford was influenced by the ideas of the early phone phreakers, who used old landbased phones for free calls, early phone messaging systems and hack early AT&T technology. Ford's world is a little cleaner, not as grim, and yet still has giant corporations controlling things, dangerous tech weapons, and well a Web controlling it all. The ideas are a bit 1980's there are mentions of tarot, a lot of hope for how great technology will makes us, but much of the writing still seems fresh, and engaging. Again it takes a bit to get what Ford is doing, and patience is a virtue to enjoying this. However, once tried, one will be scouring used book stores or patiently/impatiently waiting for Tor to reissue new books.
July 9, 2025
Proto-cyberpunk in a far-flung future where human lives can be extended by centuries and people still rely on bardic storytelling and tarot cards for cultural cohesion. Ford's story and his protagonist Grailer's journey are heavily informed by folklore and mythology, and "magic" is a kind of currency to be bartered across the Web. The Web itself as portrayed here is a one-to-one match with other early depictions of cyberspace: data represented by grometric solids on a vast mathematical expanse, with "webspinners" like Grailer as troubleshooters and -makers driven by a sense of justice and superstition and hunted by monstrous programs that can kill through code. The plot is nowhere near as interesting as the individual locales and settlements that Grailer visits (or infiltrates) during his adventures. I actually found myself completely checked out of the story by the final confrontations, and I found my interest fluctuating from chapter to chapter. The cyber-adventures are great; the politicking around them very dull. Exploring how human culture and folklore shift and adapt over millennia is really cool; sitting through a whole troubador-performance is just tiresome. I'm still happy to have read this, though, as I do like experiencing genre-experiments before things are completely codified and tropes become fixed.
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February 1, 2021Review written March 2000
This book nearly made the "Couldn't Finish" list, I'm afraid, but it had been recommended to me by a friend, so I felt obligated to finish reading it. So far, Mr. Ford has two strikes on him. One more and he's out.
In Web of Angels, there are a lot of interesting ideas and bizarre characters, but I don't think the author knows exactly what to do with them. The book would occasionally aspire to moments of lucidity, but then by the end of the chapter, I'd be lost once more.
In brief, the story is about a young man who has a very rare talent for being able to manipulate the web of computer systems uniting the worlds of mankind. He is persecuted by the political leaders of that system merely for possessing that talent. After his lover is killed by watchdog programs within the web, he seeks answers and vengeance. Unfortunately, neither he nor we ever find any real answers - and his vengeance is Pyrrhic.
This book nearly made the "Couldn't Finish" list, I'm afraid, but it had been recommended to me by a friend, so I felt obligated to finish reading it. So far, Mr. Ford has two strikes on him. One more and he's out.
In Web of Angels, there are a lot of interesting ideas and bizarre characters, but I don't think the author knows exactly what to do with them. The book would occasionally aspire to moments of lucidity, but then by the end of the chapter, I'd be lost once more.
In brief, the story is about a young man who has a very rare talent for being able to manipulate the web of computer systems uniting the worlds of mankind. He is persecuted by the political leaders of that system merely for possessing that talent. After his lover is killed by watchdog programs within the web, he seeks answers and vengeance. Unfortunately, neither he nor we ever find any real answers - and his vengeance is Pyrrhic.
February 25, 2021
I read this because Charles Stross recommended it as an interesting precursor to cyberpunk that matched what William Gibson did in Neuromancer. I admit that line-by-line the writing is often exceptional. I agree that how Ford imagined web surfacing, especially the hacking variety, is much more on target that Gibson. But, conceptually, the effort fails. First, it can't seem to decide whether it is a future-tense meditation on the hero's quest in the manner of Joseph Campbell or if it wants to be primarily enjoyed as Hard SF. Second, it is constructed in three novella length sections that span several decades which don't jibe with each other as well as they should. I could only recommend this novel to the cyberpunk completist. And only after Gibson's stronger competitors, such as Pat Cadigan, had been thoroughly explored.
September 13, 2025
It is difficult to explain what is good about a book you know won’t work for most people. It’s harder to tell someone why you like something most people won’t even approach understanding through no fault of their own. Web of Angels, like most of Ford to come, denies easy entry. It’s not ever going to be like or unlike anything in the cyberpunk genre, or science fiction. It’s not quite a coming of age tale, although it very much is. Web of Angels is a fully realized narrative of a fantastical future that we will never have. That’s what makes it special and so tough to read: there is little to no place for a casual, or even a most serious, reader to jump in on. So while this reading of mine owes a lot to what Ford was to write, the novel itself deserves praise. So take my high rating with a grain of rice: there’s sustenance here, and there is a lot that has been lost to time.
March 23, 2021
Ignore the Cover! Just read it/
This story is one of the precursors of all the current Internet/Hacker genres. A young boy is born with the innate ability to 'Spin' the Web...except of course, Webspinning is illegal. What's amazing of this story is the detailed depth of Ford's Universe-- an interstellar nation filled with corporations and shadowy government powerful near-immortals and an artful use of folklore and mythology to give the reader a glimpse of a society that recognizable came from Earth and changed over the lightyears...just a long long time ago. In the end, the story is about the Power to Effect Change, and the responsibility that comes with it. The imagined technology is timeless, and as exciting a read today as it was way back in 1980.
This story is one of the precursors of all the current Internet/Hacker genres. A young boy is born with the innate ability to 'Spin' the Web...except of course, Webspinning is illegal. What's amazing of this story is the detailed depth of Ford's Universe-- an interstellar nation filled with corporations and shadowy government powerful near-immortals and an artful use of folklore and mythology to give the reader a glimpse of a society that recognizable came from Earth and changed over the lightyears...just a long long time ago. In the end, the story is about the Power to Effect Change, and the responsibility that comes with it. The imagined technology is timeless, and as exciting a read today as it was way back in 1980.
July 18, 2024
This was slower going than most of Ford's more recent books, but you can certainly see the outlines of his later writing. The prose is almost purple, kind of reminded me of some old Jack Vance books, and the setting has a 'web' that seems a lot like the modern internet (even though this came out long before that was invented), except rather than a keyboard or a graphic user interface, they interact with the web with devices with varying numbers of sliders on them that you nearly play like an instrument. It's also big space opera on many different planets and FTL ships, but it has almost a proto-cyberpunk feel to it. Glad I read it but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to others.
September 22, 2024
A very disjointed plot that was hard to follow. It was almost as though the plot was less important than the concept of a "Web" and coders who could manipulate it. Given its publication in 1980, Ford's vision of the technology to come was fascinating. Readers can definitely see the seeds of the Matrix in this work. I found it a tough read and confusing, but it was worth the read, if only for historical perspective.
September 4, 2025
I'm...
not sure what I just read here. It's wild. and simple. but insanely complex. the language is something else entirely.
Proto-CybperPunk via phone phreak psychedelia, with things to say about power and immortality and monopoly, all buried beneath language so very obtuse that you might as well be an acute angle...
worth the read? oh yes.
Understandable? debatable.
not sure what I just read here. It's wild. and simple. but insanely complex. the language is something else entirely.
Proto-CybperPunk via phone phreak psychedelia, with things to say about power and immortality and monopoly, all buried beneath language so very obtuse that you might as well be an acute angle...
worth the read? oh yes.
Understandable? debatable.
October 9, 2025
Quite a prescient view of what the internet would be for being published in 1980, but the sections of this books didn’t feel like much in the way of a cohesive story. Certainly not enough to justify the sudden bad guy reveal ending. Well written though and I look forward to reading his World Fantasy Winner The Dragon Waiting.
November 20, 2018
Je ne savais pas qu'on pouvais overdoser les descriptions colorées. Je regrette de l'avoir appris. Pas pu dépasser le premier chapitre.
Look Author : sometimes even if you want to do it, you can't. So stop trying.
Stopped at the first chapter.
Look Author : sometimes even if you want to do it, you can't. So stop trying.
Stopped at the first chapter.
April 15, 2024
This book was gifted to me by TOR and this is my honest review. I kept waiting for this book to click. It never did. It was disjointed and I never really understood what was going on. Character names were thrown in constantly. I spent the entire time reading this bored and confused.
August 6, 2021
Very predictive of the internet for its time. At times a challenging read, but well worth the time.
September 16, 2025
Reread after many years. Beautiful prose, lovely imagery, difficult plot to comprehend, yeah, that's a John M. Ford novel.
October 9, 2020
This is an important book, though not a good read. It has a lot in common with Gravity’s Rainbow in that it’s hugely influential but surreal, or slapdash, that gives the impression of a story more than the actual thing.
It would have made a superb collection of short stories, like Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man.
In the first act, a sci fi coming of age story, you can’t go more than two paragraphs with stumbling on a point of inspiration to future books, movies, and video games. The imagery is lush and settings grand, but the characters rush by and it’s difficult to track who is important and who is merely present.
The story continues in overlapping adventures that, while rich in tone, are convoluted and haphazard. The book is deep in the vein of the more surreal sci fi of the sixties and seventies.
But if one of the goals if sci fi is to see into what may be, you may have to remind yourself that this book was published more than ten years before the first World Wide Web page. And for all the gifts John Ford seeded in Web of Angels he deserves a read and our thanks.
It would have made a superb collection of short stories, like Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man.
In the first act, a sci fi coming of age story, you can’t go more than two paragraphs with stumbling on a point of inspiration to future books, movies, and video games. The imagery is lush and settings grand, but the characters rush by and it’s difficult to track who is important and who is merely present.
The story continues in overlapping adventures that, while rich in tone, are convoluted and haphazard. The book is deep in the vein of the more surreal sci fi of the sixties and seventies.
But if one of the goals if sci fi is to see into what may be, you may have to remind yourself that this book was published more than ten years before the first World Wide Web page. And for all the gifts John Ford seeded in Web of Angels he deserves a read and our thanks.
February 5, 2010
I remember being somewhat shocked when I read it of how accurate a prediction of the www it was, written way way back in 1980. I was an incurable sf junkie when I was a teen and this is one of the few books that where some extrapolatin just feels right - oh, not the setting, which IIRC is very sfictional, but the concept of what the web is and works, surprisingly right.
About the book itself, he wrote better but then again he wrote worse also. I am a fan of his style, though it might not be for everybody - he did not believe in telling reader things, readers were supposed to figure it out for themselves. It worked for me, though it also contributes I am not sure I remember the plot of some of his books!
About the book itself, he wrote better but then again he wrote worse also. I am a fan of his style, though it might not be for everybody - he did not believe in telling reader things, readers were supposed to figure it out for themselves. It worked for me, though it also contributes I am not sure I remember the plot of some of his books!
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May 28, 2017Web of Angels by John M. Ford (1992)
April 6, 2012
I read this ages ago but left it on a Greyhound bus and never finished it. Should pick it up again at some point.
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June 27, 2007The first true cyberpunk novel, and still a strong read.
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