Signal to Noise

by Carla Sinclair

Jim Knight, a features editor at Signal magazine, and Kat Astura, an intern, must flee for their lives when Kat accidentally loses $50,000 of Jim Knight's money to a virtual blackjack game run by organized crime

Genres: Fiction

294 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[MaryKate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this expecting to feel nostalgia for the wide-eyed way people, myself included, viewed the internet at the end of the last millennium. There was some of that at the start, but it quickly gave way to a standard caper with bumbling crooks who were less fun to read about. And all the while the writing is amateurish. Also Jim mentions feeling anxiety in his bowels so many times that I genuinely thought he was going to sh*t his pants or be diagnosed with colon cancer. “Surely this repetition is foreshadowing,” I thought wrongly. So bizarre.

[Anne]

Coupland fans...have you read this one yet? It's from 1997 and has been on my bookshelf that long. 1/2 way through it now. What's notable to us is that Doug is a fictional character in this one, and so far "not Evil."

(later)...finished it. It's a very Couplandesque story that has elements of MW & GT (older man/younger woman), EGG (scheming), HN (unexpected body count), AFAP (gangstas). And it's awfully funny to read a 1997 "geek tech" book that does not include cell phones ;)

The Doug influence and fact that he's a character in the book mean this one's getting saved on my Doug shelf--we'll want to remember this one in the far future.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Postmodern computer zine folks.

[Gospodyina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Culling a pile from 10-15 years ago. I remember the title and the cover, and that's it. Reckon if I'd actively hated it, I'd remember more, right?