Rudy Rucker

"Big Jelly" (with Bruce Sterling) © IASFM, Nov 1994 Gnarl!, 2000 --novelette : 1995 Asimov's Reader Poll /7 --/ third place sf story --/ idea award --/ wonder award --/ style award ---------------------------------------------- "Chu and the Nants" © IASFM, Jun 2006 --/ third place apocalyptic sf story --/ wonder award --/ idea award --/ awesome scale Profoundly wild story, starting in subdued "trans-real" (read Dick' paranoidal) mode, and growing into one of the most visually mind-blowing stories in years. It even includes a current political commentary (kind of a farce, taking "right-wing" stereotypes to the extreme) - the story swims in a black humour like a sugared plum in a Black Russian cocktail, very stylish and ripe with all kinds of possibilities. Take this: nanobots are disassembling Mars into super- giga- computer (while Earth's dumb government is hoping to retain control over it when it's finished and make it to broadcast giant (orbit-wide) ads across the sky, among other things.) The orbit-sized computer soon stops doing that and transforms into a higher being, hungering for more real-estate, namely Earth. Splendid nano-cataclysm ensues, with haunting images of disintegrating reality - saved by an idiot-savant and an unknown variable of a character. This story could have easily been written by Philip K. Dick himself, I enjoyed it tremendously. review: 23-Jul-06 (read in 2006) ---------------------------------------------- "Enlightenment Rabies" © 1977, Geneseo also in "New Pathways # 9" 1987 Gnarl!, 2000 --/ cool sf story "Faraway Eyes" © 1980, Analog The 57th Franz Kafka, 1983 Gnarl!, 2000 --/ cool sf story --/ idea award "The Fifty-Seventh Franz Kafka" © 1982, Little The 57th Franz Kafka, 1983 Gnarl!, 2000 --/ fourth place sf story --/ style award --/ idea award "Jumping Jack Flash" © 1976, Geneseo The 57th Franz Kafka, 1983 Gnarl!, 2000 --/ cool sf story "Junk DNA" (with Bruce Sterling) © IASFM, Jan 2003 --/ second place sf story --/ idea award --/ wonder award --/ adventure award --/ humour award --/ style award "Monument To The Third International" © F&SF, Oct 1984 Gnarl!, 2000 --/ fourth place sf story --/ wonder award --/ idea award "A New Golden Age" © 1979, Alumnae The 57th Franz Kafka, 1983 Gnarl!, 2000 --/ cool sf story --/ idea award "Schroedinger's Cat" © 1981, Analog The 57th Franz Kafka, 1983 Gnarl!, 2000 --/ cool sf story --/ idea award --/ wonder award ---------------------------------------------- "Soft Death" © F&SF, Sep 1986 Gnarl!, 2000 --/ fourth place sf story --/ idea award --/ wonder award "Soft Death " postulates immortality through software engineering". It is a surprisingly Robert Sheckley-like story, giving a half-serious treatment to a single idea, and extrapolating the results on a future society. It also features a "life-box" device which records a person's lifelong sensory impressions on a chip (hardly a new concept, but we are talking 1986 here, which is the blooming of cyber-punk genre, so it feels right at home). We do not have "life-box" devices yet, but we have ... blogs instead. review: 27-Aug-06 (read in 2004) ---------------------------------------------- "Software" (nv) (Software Series 1) © 1983, Ace Books --winner : 1983 Philip K. Dick W --/ fourth place sf novel --/ wonder award --/ style award --/ shock value "Tales of Houdini" © 1983, "Elsewhere", Ace The 57th Franz Kafka, 1983 Gnarl!, 2000 --/ cool sf story ----------------------------------------------

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