- Audio Cassette
- Publisher: Brilliance Audio Paperback Audiobooks; Abridged edition (Nov 10 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1587889889
- ISBN-13: 978-1587889882
- Product Dimensions: 18.4 x 10.8 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 177 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Futureland is bestselling mystery author Walter Mosley's first science fiction book since Blue Light, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Futureland's nine linked stories will provide an accessible and intelligent introduction to written science fiction for mystery or mainstream fiction fans who do not normally read the genre.
Experienced science fiction readers, however, may be less than satisfied with Futureland. Reading it, you might decide Mr. Mosley grew up reading SF, respects the genre, and still watches SF movies, but has read little SF written during or after the New Wave of the 1960s. However, something more may be going on here than a genre newcomer making beginning-SF-writer mistakes. Mr. Mosley may be deliberately, and craftily, creating SF accessible to his large non-SF readership and to others who are strangers to this genre.
Some have labeled Futureland cyberpunk, and it does present a dark, infotech-saturated, corporation-controlled future; but it is in fact an inversion of cyberpunk. Instead of that subgenre's cliche of cool, cutting-edge, street-smart, but not very believable outlaws who out-hack and outwit powerful multinational corporations, this Dante-esque collection presents outlaws and outcasts who may be street-wise, but who have little chance of overcoming the corporations and governments that control, and sometimes take, their lives. Like shockingly few other SF works, Futureland directly examines the lives of the working and the nonworking classes, the poor and the marginalized, the criminal and the criminalized. In other words, Futureland is set in a world quite alien to many veteran SF readers, and is therefore a book they should try. --Cynthia Ward --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Although Allen brings a distinctly human touch to a cold world of computers and corporations, his relaxed style seems ill suited for these nine interconnected stories set in the near future. The frenetic material should be bristling with tension, but here it comes off as leaden. Agreeing with the sci-fi theme, the recording makes use of some effects, like giving Allen's voice a distant, tinny sound for a radio advertisement or a stentorian echoing effect for a ringside announcer. But even more would have been appropriate, such as background noise or music woven into the segues to heighten drama. While distracting in some recordings, such effects seem to be missing here amid the high-tech hullabaloo, especially given Allen's deadpan delivery. The stories themselves are intriguing and notable within science fiction for their focus on marginalized and underprivileged characters. But Allen's approach is simply too languid for the subject matter, and the dialogue in particular comes off as stilted and awkward. Simultaneous release with the Warner hardcover (Forecasts, Sept. 10, 2001).
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Audio Cassette edition.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Audio Cassette edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
These are vignettes ...,
By
This review is from: Futureland: Nine Stories of an Imminent World (Audio Cassette)
...not stories. They are not complete, but rather seem to have been truncated. They progress, developing an idea, then suddenly stop without closure or release. The ideas explored are quite interesting, to be sure. In fact, I'd like to see this world developed as a novel. But the rythmic problems of this writing will have to be addressed. Give me a reason to keep reading.To be fair, the ideas in the book may be given closure in the final stories. I'll never know, as I've found the experience so unpleasant that I won't finish the book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Scary vision of what may lie ahead...,
By
This review is from: Futureland (Mass Market Paperback)
I am glad I picked this book up the other day. I thought the description on the back looked decent and I had no expectations going in, so I was very suprised when I discovered an extremely well written science fiction book about the future. This book has several main characters and they are all interesting and well written and the secondary characters are almost just as good. The possible future that Mosley has laid out is terrifying and sad at the same time. Parts of this book simply scared the #$@! out of me. My city just started putting camera's on stop lights and this book had me thinking.....The author has some very fresh takes on the future, such as at work everything is translucent so every move you make can be filmed and analyzed, camera's are in your monitor's and your bosses watch you etc. I am probably making this book sound a little 1984ish and it's not. There are some similarities but really this is a story about people and the human race and the slow but steady slide toward stagnation that we may be traveling. Also Race is a big part of this story but I did not think it overshadowed the main feel of the story. An excellent read and I recommend it.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Completely Predictable & Poorly Written,
By A Customer
This review is from: Futureland: Nine Stories of an Imminent World (Audio Cassette)
I had the opportunity to explore this title via audiocassette on a recent weekend drive. After several hours, in spite of valiant attempts to like this work, I gave up. Driving in silence seemed a great relief. I found the stories to be highly predictable in their plot and outcome. The characters and plot lines were poorly developed and fragmentary. Adding to the agony was a narrator who's vocal talents were highly limited. Attempts to mimic accents or speech impediments resulted in nearly unintelligible results, adding "insult to injury". The juvenile nature of this work along with the poor narration results in an unacceptably poor overall experience. While the written version of this work may alleviate the limitations of the narrator, I remain highly doubtful that attempts to slog one's way through these unremittingly (and VERY predictably) dark and poorly written works would be worth the time investment.
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