Holo Men

by Stephen Billias

Holo Men by Stephen Billias

Genres: Cyberpunk, Science Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1996

About the author

Stephen Billias is the published author of seven fantasy novels, one collection of short stories, and a literary novel, Pilgrim Maya, that he wrote with his wife Bela Breslau. His newest novel, The Zen Time Traveler: A Pilgrim's Journey Through the Koans, a spiritual Zen time travel fantasy, is being released by Discovery Publisher on June 21st, 2026.
Stephen is a MacDowell Fellow. He has worked as a professional actor, street-performing juggler, dishwasher, New York City taxi driver, technical writer, and project manager. He is a longtime practitioner of the esoteric Japanese martial art Shintaido. He lives in Deerfield Massachusetts where he and Bela established and ran the Shintaido Farm, a spiritual retreat center for the practice of Shintaido, from 2006-2016.
For the last fifteen years, Stephen has studied Tai Chi with renowned teacher Wolfe Lowenthal. He sits with the Boundless Way Zen group in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he is often jiki (practice leader) or doan (bellringer). A former student of the legendary Roshi Bernie Glassman, Billias brings a rare combination of historical rigor and spiritual authenticity to his prose.

Reviews

[Corey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. The ending felt a little rushed but 15 year old me would have loved it!

[Ian Mewhinney · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5: Great cyberpunk book that reminded me of the matrix a bit. Will definitely have to seek out others in the genre. Pretty well written, feels like teen reading level. The main character gets addicted to being "jacked in" to the internet and joins forces with the holo men to help free the internet for all people to use. In the meantime his whole life in the real world basically falls apart but the ending was good. Fun and memorable story with good characters and world building.

[Micha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a bad book. Hard to read in the beginning as the writer seems to be writing in "netspeak" so it is hard to understand. I also think there were some extremely long run on sentences.

Middle part was good. The ending was meh. Not much in the way of details but the action kept moving.