Vurt

Sorry, I posted this without asking whether it was okay.

Vurt was a doorway into a different way of thinking that nobody had ever been brave enough to try before. For me, it represented everything I’d ever wanted out of science fiction. it was sexy and surreal. It was dangerous and clever. I’ve given this book to people who have told me they’ve never read a book and it’s made avid converts out of them.
I can’t quite put my finger on why I love this story so much. All I can say is that it has touched me in a way that has never left me, and I’ve read a good few novels in my time. There is just something about the mix. the urgency of it, the streetwise pace. It’s not your usual sci-fi fare. this is a bad acid remix with the amps turned all the way up to eleven.
Blade runner meets trains spotting.
I owe this book a debt. It was this one novel that made me think I could get my own i-con story together. Maybe it isn’t the best book in the world, but then The Velvet Underground were not exactly the best band in the world but it’s said that everyone who listened to them went out and formed a guitar band.
Jeff couldn’t get this book out when he first wrote it. Nobody in the mainstream wanted to know. In the end it was taken up by a tiny little independent label called “ringpull press” who risked everything on a major print run. I’m so glad they had the guts to do so, or I’d never have had the joy of driving my beat up van through Rainy Old Madchester at night with just the gurgling of the Thing From Outer Space for company!
You can tell I’m a fan, can’t you? Sell your sister. Buy this book. Fair exchange.

I’m not sure if this review, doesn’t spoil the major plot of this book. I don’t remember if the book mentions the feathers in conjunction with drugs. As far as I remember feathers are feathers from the beginning and they are not called drugs. But at some point this paralell is obvious, but you’ll spent some time with this book until you’ll figure that out. Which is the actual fun. Maybe until you finish it, like me. The text above is for me like a Matrix review that explains what the Matrix is about in the first sentence.

But maybe I overlooked some bit at the beginning of the book. Though I hope my critique of the critique is somehow helpful.

I’m always open to criticism.
It mentions Vurt being “the ultimate drug” in the back cover blurb of my addition though (Ringpull press). Obviously I don’t want to give too much away but at the same time on want to try to convey something of what the book is about.
Thanks for reading.

Interestingly enough, the blurred line between drugs and virtual reality is never really considered in much detail in this story. Much like a person who watches TV all the time would not bother to wonder about how the signals get into the set.

The more you read about the Vurt universe, the more the feathers, vaz, Gamecat and a whoile bag full of other stuff starts to make sense. I almost think a new Jeff Noon reader should start with “Nymphomation”, which goes a very long way to explaining the truly mind blowing mathematical concepts at play.

So far there hasn’t been a Vurt story that hasn’t relied on new books to tie up loose ends, or to feed new loose ends into old stories. Nice trick when you can get away with it!

Sorry to be ignorant but is Pollen set before or after Vurt? I read it a few years ago and it just didn’t do much for me.

To tell you the truth I really can’t remember exactly when it’s set in realtion to Vurt, but it’s based on a different character set anyway. I think it had a lot to say about the Fecundity war, and its resulting inter-mixing of species types. Oddly enough, now that I try and think about it I’m hard pushed to remember what it was about! Not exactly the best advertisement!
Oh well. If my best book is as good as his worst I’ll consider my time well spent.
I’ve just picked it up again now. Which is annoying because it means I won’t finish this chapter of my own for another week. *Sigh!

Pollen is set approximately twelve years after Vurt, I think. I actually read it last night. I won’t say how I know that, for those of you who haven’t read Pollen, but I’m pretty sure that this is the case. I know it is set after Vurt.