Customer Reviews (8)

Very Uneven Anthology
The premise of this anthology is "What would a world without the internet be like?" Some are quite entertaining and inventive and others (notably David Brin and John Grant) are just boring.The majority are just readable and not really worth the time to discuss.

The Novella by John Meaney is the most complete but that may be because it's the only long story in the book and the length helps alot.Some of the writers seem to think that an abrupt ending (like a song that just stops) is how best to end a short story. IMHO it's not. A couple of the stories are just convoluted musings and go nowhere fast.

All in all Harlan Ellison has nothing to fear.

Zeb Kantrowitz

does not compute
This is a spotty collection. The premise -- a world without computers -- is certainly interesting. The antho, sadly, did not live up to its potential.

Some of the stories are excellent, thought-provoking, and moving: Alex Irvine's "Reformation," Del Stone Jr.'s "I Feed the Machine," and John Meaney's "The Swastika Bomb." A few were truly dreadful -- loosely related at best and/or more style than substance -- including a couple I couln't even make it through. Most were solid, but still dissapointing, on topic, but not credible as to how or why computers weren't in this world. One, John Grant's "No Solace for the Soul in Digitopia," was simply porn with (at its end) a veneer of alternate-universe's clothing.

The closest thing to a common thread was biotech of one sort or another replacing some functions of silicon computing, and the inherent differences of the two computing approaches. When done well (about half the time), that made for something to think about.

18 short stories diverge from the popular futuristic visions
Lou Anders edits Live Without A Net, a fine anthology of stories from masters of speculative fiction. 18 short stories diverge from the popular futuristic visions of a cyber-controlled future to consider alternative futures where cyberspace does NOT rule. Here you'll find winners by Brin, DiFilippo, and others who present startlingly different worlds.

A snapshot of the future of Science Fiction
This is an excellent compilation of stories.If you are interested in understanding how science fiction and fantasy are morphing into a new and facinating genre, then I highly recomend this book.It is a snapshot of the medium as it reaches a tipping point and shoots into the future.I have bought 4 books from authors whose short stories I read in this anthology.I highly recommend this book not only for the content, but also for the reading lists it will help you build.

A few gems, but very inconsistent.
Edited by Lou Anders, the sci-fi anthology Live Without a Net (all never-before-published stories, save one) imagines a variety of sci-fi-tinged worlds, future, past, and, present, in which IT, the Internet, and AI as we conceive of it do not exist. Introducing this limitation is an intriguing concept, and the end result is five or six very good stories, a bit of remarkable crap, and some filler.

The best stories are Adam Roberts' "New Model Computer," which puts an O. Henry twist on post-Singularity fiction; Michael Swanwick's "Smoke and Mirrors," an amusing set of short-shorts featuring the author's retro-Victorian rogues, Darger and Surplus; Charlie Stross' "Rogue Farm," David Brin's "Reality Check;" S. M. Stirling's PKD-style head-scrambler "The Crystal Method;" John Meaney's "The Swastika Bomb," a WWII spy epic in an alternate history of advanced biowarfare; and my pick for the best story of the book, Del Stone Jr's frightening doomsday cult scenario, "I Feed The Machine."

Unfortunately, most of the rest is unengaging filler or just plain awful. John Grant's "No Solace For The Soul In Digitopia" consists largely of painfully detailed descriptions of the narrator depositing his seed into his various parallel-Earth wives, and Grant is no better than most sci-fi writers when it comes to sexual matter. The most inexplicable inclusion of the anthology is Alex Irvine's "Reformation," which infuses some Islamic mysticism into a straightforward cyberpunk yarn about a hacker/Internet-revolutionary. Irvine's story completely breaks the "no Net" theme of the book and is terribly out of place. Best left undescribed are "Frek and the Grulloo Woods," Paul di Filippo's "Clouds and Cold Fires," and Dave Hutchinson's "All The News, All Time, From Everywhere."

I'd check this book out at a library for the good stories, but hold off on buying it. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Collects four novellas originally published by PS Publishing, including the scarce "The Tain" by Mieville. ... Read more

Product Description
2ND SMASH MINI-SERIES !Date: March to July 2006*** Contains Issue #'s 1-5 ***COMPLETE 5-ISSUE MINI-SERIES!Dr. Leonard Samson, powerhouse psychoanalyst to the Marvel Universe...! ... Read more