Tea from an Empty Cup

WORKING

Cadigan, Pat. Tea from an Empty Cup. New York City: Tor, 1998.

Described in the brief Wikipedia entry as a cyberpunk detective novel, involving a "near mythical Japan, which has been destroyed in a vaguely described natural cataclysm several decades before the story opens. [...]. A virtual version of Japan has become a sort of holy grail for a core group of artificial reality addicts. Artificial Reality, or AR, like 'post-apocalyptic Noo Yawk Sitty' has become immensely popular in an increasingly dreary overcrowded world, not just as a game, but as a way of life" — and of death, since this is a murder mystery, which ([in good noir fashion — RDE]) expands to larger issues.[1]

Discussed in Mitchell Kaye's "Bodies That Matter: Science Fiction, Technoculture, and the Gendered Body"[2] and Murphy and Vint, eds., Beyond Cyberpunk: New Critical Perspectives.

RDE, finishing, 8Nov22