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I'm sure you all know the story behind this alternate direction for the Alien Saga, but just in case, I'm going to summarise it here. Queensway's donation will take Synners through to the end of the season and buys the club precious time.
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Mindplayers, (Bantam Spectra Aug. 1987)/(Gollancz Feb. 1988); revised and expanded from the following linked stories: It’s genius, and a mess and incredibly ground-breaking and seriously, should be considered a science fiction classic . . . Question any list of “great/classic SF” that doesn’t include this book’– Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Ah. I thought you looked like you needed, um, change for the machines.' Gabe shrugged self-consciously; he could feel the entire common room watching. Dolan told Teesside Live: "What we have to do now is build on the stability that Queensway have given us and work to secure some more sponsorship for the seasons going forward. We can't be resting on our laurels now, we have to build as a club."I wouldn't say that I'd like to read this again anytime soon, perhaps, because it was something of a chore, but the satisfaction quotient is WAY up there. She knows how to pull of ENDINGS. Wow. If you don't believe you can be in two places at once, you've forgotten everything you've learned." In the 1960s Cadigan and a childhood friend "invented a whole secret life in which we were twins from the planet Venus", she told National Public Radio. [2] The Beatles "came to us for advice about their songs and how to deal with fame and other important matters," Cadigan says. "On occasion, they would ask us to use our highly developed shape-shifting ability to become them, and finish recording sessions and concert tours when they were too tired to go on themselves." The Venusian twins had other superpowers, that they would sometimes use to help out Superman, Wonder Woman and other heroes, she said. [2]
Synners by Pat Cadigan | Goodreads
This novel has really everything I want when reading SF: mind-blowing technology, non-utopia setting, and ‘real’ personal characters’– Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Well, it was pretty much a mess of characters and mediots for more than half the novel and I'll be honest, I was rather mystified and wondering where the novel was going or whether it WAS going anywhere. It felt like a random number generator approach to novelization. We had a bunch of friends all interconnected on the media-train in all different positions or outside of the corporate loop, and most of it was fairly interesting in and of itself, but then I kept asking myself... Where is this going? It felt like a discovery novel. As in, the author is throwing out everything and she's just gonna get there when she gets there. A masterpiece of Cyberpunk . . . Synners is science fiction at its best: innovative, stirring, and not always easy to figure out but always poignantly thought provoking’– Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The book feels dated and not because of the the author's failure to predict how the future would turn out but more stylistically. It feels very much like a book from the late 80's/early 90's and reminds me of why I never really liked much SF from the time.What if the tech revolution, instead of being made by start-up and college geeks, was driven by MTV-era creatives? That's essentially Cadigan's premise in this cyberpunk classic. It's impossible, obviously, not to read this 1991 novel with 2014 eyes, but I suspect that simply enriched the experience (particularly as I find cyberpunk mostly irritating as a rule). It's why a lot of this review will focus on the future-vision of Cadigan. Just FYI: I never wear a cardigan when I write. I used to, but when I got a computer, the auto-correct elves would get so confused, they’d have a nerv Just FYI: I never wear a cardigan when I write. I used to, but when I got a computer, the auto-correct elves would get so confused, they’d have a nervous breakdown and screw up all the headers in the manuscript. Strictly T-shirts now. Cadigan's first novel, Mindplayers, introduces what becomes the common theme to all her works: her stories blur the line between reality and perception by making the human mind a real, explorable place. Her second novel, Synners, expands upon the same theme; both feature a future where direct access to the mind via technology is possible. While her stories include many of the gritty, unvarnished characteristics of the cyberpunk genre, she further specializes in this exploration of the speculative relationship between technology and the perceptions of the human mind. [5] [ citation needed]
Synners by Pat Cadigan | Hachette UK
I really wanted to like the book. The characters were good. Cadigan manages to avoid needless exposition, trusting her readers to puzzle the pieces together. Cadigan could also foresee many of the developments of the Web impressively. Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay (Titan Books, August 2021; novelization of the screenplay by William Gibson) Racingly told, linguistically acute, simultaneously pell-mell and precise in its detailing’– The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction This period also saw the introduction of the holders of the club's two main records; Tony Hetherington (64-79), is the club's top goal-scorer with 243 goals from 526 appearances including a club record 51 goals in 71-72. Andy Harbron (1977-96), made his debut in a 4-3 win at Shildon on November 19th 1977 and is the club's top appearance maker with 648, scoring 76 goals. Also into the Synners fold came goalkeeper Eric Chamberlain (68-86) who amassed 454 appearances and defender John Alderson (73-86) who featured 434 times as well as Peter Cook (76-87) who netted 156 goals, and is the 4th all-time top goal-scorer. Cadigan sold her first professional science fiction story in 1980. Her success as an author encouraged her to become a full-time writer in 1987.I'd kinda forgotten how much I love good cyberpunk until I read this. Turns out I really really like it. The 88-89 season saw the 1st Division title claimed for a second time with the firepower of striker Allen and Charlie Butler (3rd Synners all-time goal scorer with 183 goals); the start of a formidable partnership. A first Durham Challenge Cup success was also obtained with a 4-1 win over neighbours Billingham Town in the final, goals from Granycome, a Butler brace and David Shearer. A third Northern League title was secured in 89-90 and a third Northern League Cup was also claimed in a 5-2 win over Whitby Town in the Final. Further FA Cup progression also ensued with a 1st Round tie away at Lincoln City where Synners narrowly missed out with a 1-0 defeat at Sincil Bank. Stone-home great! Cadigan is yet another example that puts pay to the lie of sci-fi being a somehow inherently shallow genre’– Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I had some issues with plausibility as to the way the threat came about and spread around; it just didn't seem very convincing to me. I can't really talk too much about it though for fear of spoilers.
Pat Cadigan - Wikipedia
I will say if you want to dive into this it is probably going to be a challenge for you if it's your first Cyberpunk (like me) but if you push on it does have some very cool moments. I definitely enjoyed reading this and the experience it gave me, coming waaay out of my comfort zone. Overall a 3.5* from me. Ecstatic" Synners chairman Paul Dolan told the players the good news last night, as he met Queensway representatives to officially mark the start of the club-saving link-up. Which is fine, but I truly had to wonder. As a coherency thing, I got through something like 70% of the novel and I was CERTAIN that I was going to give it a 2 star rating. I was SO over it. I didn't like it. I didn't care. Instead, it seems to me, while communication and connection have driven a lot of our technology in the last decade, it has been less immersive forms - text-based communication that doesn't rely on synchronicity to be effective; communication that enables us to chat lightly with a wide range of people - not the kind of tech that lets you get (literally) into your lovers head. Similarly, our entertainment industry has gone for more superficiality - cheap swelling-music emotional moments and lots of eye candy explosions - not the kind of dizzying, emotive, complex sequences Cadigan envisages. I'm not sure what that means about who we've become, but Cadigan's vision gave me a different way of looking at it.The most famous ex-Synner is Brian Clough, who appeared for the club 4 times scoring 3 goals in 1952-53 before he went on National Service. Others include Aidan Davison, a goalkeeper capped 3 times by Northern Ireland, who played for Synthonia during 1987-88, Bernie Slaven (21 appearances, 22 goals), ex-Middlesbrough and Republic of Ireland striker, who played for the club after his retirement from professional football, & ex-Middlesbrough and Northern Ireland winger Terry Cochrane also having a spell at the club. Another ex-Middlesbrough and Rep. of Ireland player, Curtis Fleming, played for Synthonia in 2006-07. Poorly written, repetitive, uncreative blather at that. There are enough F-bombs in the first few chapters to annihilate every major city on Earth. Even if you don’t mind the profanity in and of itself, it crowds out all the other verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and nouns that could have expressed more ideas more colorfully and specifically. Over-reliance on a single word (however fun to say when we’re in that “let’s use that curse word we know” phase) flattens and stifles. Unfortunately, Cardigan has the habit of using a few dull terms as a crutch. “Drunk,” along with “sex” and “crazy,” boasts one of the longest collections of colorful synonyms in the English language. But in Cardigan’s voice, high, spritzed, tozzled, soused, baked, fried, flying, and all their wilder cousins boil down to just one inelegant word: “toxed.” Same with “porn.” Everything on the various (static and uninteresting) digital feeds is “porn”--disaster, medical, travel, food, etc., etc. And “very,” “extremely,” “totally,” “definitely” (add your own force multiplier here) is “stone.” Possibly “stone home.” Instead of taking the time to create a fleshed-out slang, or even to throw out a few evocative phrases to hint at the unheard existence of a post-apocalyptic cant, Cardigan comes up with a handful of examples and uses them to death. Toxed on stone slang porn, if you will. Cadigan also has a way with words that twists the reader to see things in a new light. For example, the phrase "change for the machines" which is echoed throughout the book was first introduced in a scene shortly after Visual Mark's small music video production company was acquired by Diversification Inc, a huge conglomerate. He wanders into an employee meet-and-greet to use the coffee vending machine and after a while of patting himself down Gabe offers him "change for the machines". Mark immediately latches on to that phrase and has a private epiphany about the nature of humanity as it relates to immersive technology. The reader is privy to the slow unfolding of this epiphany. She has won a number of awards, including the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award twice,in 1992, and 1995 for her novels Synners and Fools.
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