Mindstar Rising

Hamilton, Peter F. Mindstar Rising. 1993. New York: Tor, 1996.

First book of the Mindstar "trilogy of near-future thrillers" (backcover blurb). We'll characterize it politically in the Monty Python formulation, with a 180-degree twist, "Reactionary rubbish!", except MR is a well-crafted, highly entertaining, and arguably somewhat ambiguous work, presenting James Bond-style action in a very British cyberpunk world. See for a major character is a post-mortem personality housed in a cybernetic "neural network bioware core" (119), hotrod computer hackers doing burns in the manner of cowboy runs in W. Gibson's Neuromancer series, high-tech surveillance and security, a "gigaconductor" as a technological and commercial breakthrough, and Royan (ch. 20 and passim): a maimed and mutilated young man intimately connected to computers, waldos, and various servo mechanisms, communicating with and through the world-wide cybernetic system. The "esper" psi powers of the hero and at least one other character are mediated by artificial glands implanted in them. CAUTION: Some sex, more Bolshy-bashing, Royan's mutilation, and one scene of bone cracking (ch. 40). (RDE, 13/09/98)