Black Glass PDF
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Taking the fall for his younger brother, Richard Candle went from being a cyber cop to a condemned criminal. After four years of "UnMinding"—with his mind suppressed and his body enslaved—he's released to discover his brother has slipped back into the underworld of the V-Rat: the virtual reality addict. Meanwhile, Candle's harried by the murderous Grist, the head of the world's biggest multinational. But his real enemy is something else: a conscious program, the Multisemblant, a meld of copied personalities, the dark side of five powerful people, with its own brutal agenda. Human society is sinking ever deeper into a mire of escapism, but Richard Candle, looking for his missing brother, fights his way through the real world of underground stock markets, flying guns, the trash-walled labyrinth of Rooftown, and the fringe of the fringe.
From BooklistShirley’s 25-year-old “lost novel” depicts a dystopia that is not entirely unrecognizable. Citizens are under constant surveillance, prisoners’ minds are disconnected during their sentences, a black wind spreads a toxic storm that wipes out whole populations, semblants (digital clones) take care of business while humans attend to other things, and virtual reality is the new crack, literally. Ex-cop Richard Candle is released from prison after four years of UnMinding he endured for taking a rap for his brother, a virtual-reality junkie who then fails to show up. Candle sets out tracking him down, only to be targeted by corrupt and powerful tech mogul Terrence Grist, whom Candle has dirt on. While seeking his brother, Candle works security for a gang in the underground stock market—the very people he went after as a cop. Meanwhile, Grist, trying to seize control of the Fortune 33, hacks a new kind of semblant. Unfortunately, this multisemblant has a mind of its own. Shirley’s cyberpunk pulp novel, fast-paced and violent, bristles with provocative new technologies. --Ben Segedin
About the AuthorJohn Shirley is a winner of the Bram Stoker Award and the author of numerous novels, including City Come A-Walkin', Crawlers, Demons, The Other End, and A Splendid Chaos. He lives in San Francisco.
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