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Transreal Cyberpunk
A book of nine stories by Rudy Rucker & Bruce Sterling,
Published by Transreal Books. Hardback, paperback and ebook. 308 pages.
Publication date: February 1, 2016.
Summary
Nine wild, weird and wondrous stories, written together by Rucker and Sterling. What do you get if two cyberpunk masters spend thirty years writing tales about transreally warped versions of themselves? A unique perspective on giant ants, flying jellyfish, Soviet rocketeers, runaway genomics, Silicon Valley, and the death of the Universe.
See Rob Latham’s introduction to Transreal Cyberpunk for a fuller description.
Blurbs
This book is unlike any other collaboration I know of in the field, … the whole is not only greater than the sum of its parts, but wilder, and weirder, and more wondrous. Science fiction is the richer for it.
— From Rob Latham’s Introduction.
You might think there’s a limit to how weird Rudy Rucker or Bruce Sterling can get, but when they team up, their combined weirdness rises exponentially.
— Charlie Jane Anders, io9
Half euphoric loony-laughter, half weird-out contest, and 100 percent awesome.
— Cory Doctorow, Locus
Book Trailer
Trailer by Rudy.
Trailer by Bruce.
Description
Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling are two of the original cyberpunk writers, crafting tales about our warped postmodern times.
It’s a speculative fiction tradition to write stories about two guys. Rucker and Sterling formed the idea that the “two guys” didn’t need to be the same in each of their stories, nor did they have to be “guys.” But the two characters did always have to be, in some sense, Bruce and Rudy. Often arguing about what to do next.
So what do you get if two cyberpunk masters spend thirty years writing tales about transreally warped versions of themselves? A unique perspective on giant ants, flying jellyfish, Soviet rocketeers, runaway genomics, Silicon Valley, and the death of the Universe.
As scholar Rob Latham puts it in his introduction to Transreal Cyberpunk,
“These aren’t just SF buddy stories, they’re metafictional reflections on buddy stories—and, more than that, potent fictive meditations on the virtues and vicissitudes of friendship itself. They don’t just reflect, they embody collaboration, dialogue, disputation. The stories are organized chronologically, and the characters seem to grow older together, the tones darkening, the humor taking on a sharper edge.”
The volume includes authors’ notes on each of the stories, detailing Bruce and Rudy’s sometimes fractious, sometimes ecstatic process of collaboration.
As a final bonus, Transreal Cyberpunk includes “Kraken and Sage,” a brand-new story written for this volume. In this story, Rudy is a flaky hermit sage who’s made all organisms programmable—and Bruce enters the tale in the form of a flying jellyfish. But soon he becomes a shady deal-maker and then—a giant world-devouring kraken. A great guy to work with!
Old Illos
Down below, just for fun, are some illustrations that the stories have appeared with our stories.
Left to right and top to bottom we have: Asimov’s illo by J. K. Potter for “Storming the Cosmos,” Asimov’s illo by Jim Burns for “Hormiga Canyon,” Asimov’s illo by John Allemand for “Junk DNA,” Tor.com illo by Tim Bower for “Goodnight Moon,” Rudy’s concept painting for “Kraken and Sage,” and the perspective-wrenching Tor.com illo by Carl Wiens for “Loco.”
These illos are copyrighted to the individual artists, and they will not be included in the anthology—theyr’e just here to give you a sense of what the stories are like. Many thanks to all concerned!
Book Site
Here’s a link to the permanent web site for Transreal Cyberpunk, which will be updated as time goes on.