Book: Web of Angels by John M. Ford


Proto-cyberpunk novel that I wish I liked better

John M. Ford
Web of Angels
Tor, 1992 (originally published in 1980)
ISBN: 0-812-50959-5
$4.99
311 pages

Web of Angels by John M. Ford (alas, recently deceased) is a proto-cyberpunk novel. Mr Ford's creativity never ceased to amaze me and his imagining in the 1970s a ubiquitous network of computers that could be used from portable devices and which could be subverted by some people is remarkable. That was back when there were around 100 computers connected to what was then called ARPANET.

The story itself is not all that remarkable. It concerns a boy who ends up with the name Grailer Diomede who has a talent for hacking or "webspinning". He's trained by an experienced webspinner and has various reasonably interesting adventures that bring him full-circle. It's not by any means a bad book, but it's not up to Mr Ford's usual high standard.

Still, there's a bit that could fittingly be said about Mr Ford himself:

    The life of the body is cruelly short. The volume
    never has pages enough before it closes.
    (p. 198)

Posted: Sun - November 5, 2006 at 03:56 PM   Main   Category: 

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