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William Gibson Announces New Sci-Fi Comic Book (arstechnica.com)
68-year-old science fiction author William Gibson just released a complicated new science fiction comic book, and this weekend Ars Technica proclaimed that "the results are grand". An anonymous reader shares their report:
A father and son occupy the new White House as President and Vice President. We never meet dad, but his son -- an evil jerk by the name of Junior Henderson -- has been surgically altered to resemble his grandfather, because Junior is about travel to an alternate Earth in 1945 to take grandpa's place, with the intent of remaking that world more to his liking (and, presumably, to prevent whatever it was that laid waste to the one we start off in)...The world is in ruins. The White House relocated to the ominous-sounding National Emergency Federal District in Montana. They have technology that far outstrips our own...
"It's an alternate-history/cross-worlds story," Gibson writes... "And I wouldn't want to spoil too much of the frame, because that's an inherent part of our narrative. But I will say that one of the first verbal tags we had for the material was 'Band Of Brothers vs. Blackwater.'"
On his Twitter feed, Gibson is also applauding the news that Marvel and DC comics abandoned a two and a half year legal battle to enforce their trademark on the word "superhero" against a publisher in the U.K.
"It's an alternate-history/cross-worlds story," Gibson writes... "And I wouldn't want to spoil too much of the frame, because that's an inherent part of our narrative. But I will say that one of the first verbal tags we had for the material was 'Band Of Brothers vs. Blackwater.'"
On his Twitter feed, Gibson is also applauding the news that Marvel and DC comics abandoned a two and a half year legal battle to enforce their trademark on the word "superhero" against a publisher in the U.K.
Geez, it's been at least 25 years since I read my first Gibson novel. I think I read some of the "trilogy" books in the wrong order, but they were always really intense.
When San Francisco opened their new Bay Bridge, it was a little disappointing. I was kind of hoping that it would turn into its own autonomous trade zone, like in "All Tomorrow's Parties."
What could be nerdier than a sci-fi comic book? That there's only one comment is proof that all of the nerds have departed Slashdot.
Would it really be so hard to put the title of the comic in the story instead of requiring a click through? Anyway, it's Archangel.
You save only 59 seconds over 8 miles by going 75 instead of 65. Do you really have to pass that guy? Do the Math!
Donald and Fred Trump?
I'm a digital pack rat. I collect just about anything that raises my eyebrows in my personal wiki. It's a crazy thing, like people who build entire houses out of used beer cans, but for me, at least, it pleasantly passes the time.
I strongly prefer insight over outrage, so I was awfully slow off the mark in finally creating an "asshole" page (subpage "corporate asshole"), but having done so about six months ago, what a boon it has become.
Welcome Marvel.
Welcome DC Comics.
Allow me to make some introductions. On your left is Comcast, Marriott, General Mills, and Sony. You probably know most of those already. On your right there's FIFA, IOC, NCAA, and Voltage Pictures. Another cluster top heavy in the usual suspects. Across the room, there's Gawker Media and the IAB conferring in what appears to be an almost romantic tete-a-tete.
Be sure to pull up a chair while you have the opportunity. Word on the street is that we soon might need to suspend the fire code.
What's that, you say? Where's General Hayden?
Company Men: Torture, treachery, and the CIA
Yes, I understand why you might be puzzled not to find him here. The situation concerning Hayden is complicated. Innocent until proven guilty, and all that rot. His was a complex mandate. Many good minds suspect he's rather too full of himself in a bad way, but other perspectives remain credible.
It's not like you can simply go to Wikipedia and read the following:
Feel free to mingle among the assembled company of like minds.
Damn, Ray Kurzweil and William Gibson make front page on the same day? What is this, 1996?!?
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have backups to corrupt.
No, no, William Gibson is actually an enlightened white who recognizes how evil and depraved his corrupt and oppressive society is, that's why he has written dystopian fiction for years, with characters that reveal other white evils.
I swear, a person like you shows you know about as much about literature as the bitch who wrote Harry Potter.
Why the fuck are you posting such utter off topic bollocks? Shut the fuck up and stop ruining the Internet for other people.
What I enjoyed about Gibson's books was that his vision of the future was grim and very dystopian at times, but it was always at least halfway believable. Sure, we had AIs and perfect human-computer interfaces, we had easy, reliable space travel and a lot of things were different from what we're used to, but all the changes that he proposed were at the very least possible. Plausible even at times. Prophetic at others.
Time travel doesn't really fit that bill, Bill.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"68-year-old science fiction author William Gibson"
What the hell? Cripes, I'm old.
"Even for Slashdot, that was a very obscure reference!" - Anonymous Coward
This actually sounds like a good concept, and would Gibson could do justice to.
I have read everything Gibson has written since Neuromancer, because I always find at least one amazing, put-the-book-down-shake-head-and-re-read clever idea that is wonderfully prescient in the way that Clarke made science fiction prescient in the Golden Age. (Like in Idoru, written years before anyone ever heard of Vocaloid, in which a Japanese singing idol is kidnapped, only for the detective to discover she is really software, a Virtual idol, and being "held captive" on an abandoned corporate website...) Great notions! But that's all it is. The man never learned how to write a plot, or (gods forbid!) any action. All well and good for the NY Times hardcover-buying crowd perhaps, but I don't predict much traction with the four-color mob...
I've put together annotations (& random thoughts) for Archangel (comments welcome):
https://williamgibsonarchangel.blogspot.ie/