Ribofunk: Amazon.ca: Paul Di Filippo: Books

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Book Description

Publication Date: Oct 1 1998

In a strange, seriously funny and stunningly inventive collection of stories all set in the same disturbingly dystopian tomorrow, acclaimed sf innovator Paul DiFilippo demonstrates that the future isn't electronic, nuclear, or cyber...it's organic. Here is an Earth where bodies and brains are routinely genetically/chemically modified; where laboratory-created "Splices" do the dirty work -- as long as their genetic makeup is less than haft human -- and, sometimes, go renegade, forcing the Protein Police to hunt them down like dogs. In this world, potentially apocalyptic threats -- viral, mental, virtual, physical, and brain-fryingly toxic -- are everywhere, inside and out, the outrageous end-products of unchecked biological tinkering with our surroundings and ourselves. You will never forget this brave new world: it's a future that will swallow you whole.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } In a strange, seriously funny and stunningly inventive collection of stories all set in the same disturbingly dystopian tomorrow, acclaimed sf innovator Paul DiFilippo demonstrates that the future isn't electronic, nuclear, or cyber...it's organic. Here is an Earth where bodies and brains are routinely genetically/chemically modified; where laboratory-created "Splices" do the dirty work -- as long as their genetic makeup is less than haft human -- and, sometimes, go renegade, forcing the Protein Police to hunt them down like dogs. In this world, potentially apocalyptic threats -- viral, mental, virtual, physical, and brain-fryingly toxic -- are everywhere, inside and out, the outrageous end-products of unchecked biological tinkering with our surroundings and ourselves. You will never forget this brave new world: it's a future that will swallow you whole.

Product Details

Paperback: 241 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada / Science Fictio; Reprint edition (Oct 1 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0380730766
ISBN-13: 978-0380730766
Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.4 x 2 cm
Shipping Weight: 113 g

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,994,253 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

From Amazon

Nebula finalist Paul Di Filippo follows The Steampunk Trilogy, a collection of alternate-history novellas, with Ribofunk, a biotechnological hard-SF collection. As the radical shift of genres may indicate, Ribofunk is astonishingly diverse in subjects and styles, even though its 13 stories make up a future history. Despite the generous number of stories, the book's quality and creativity remain high throughout. In "Brain Wars," a genetically engineered disease afflicts an Antarctic army with enough psychobiological horrors to frighten even the famed neurologist Oliver Sacks. In "The Boot," a 2060s-era private investigator seeks a bio-enhanced thief-gambler who can see the dynamics of chaos and may therefore be able to beat any odds, even those of capture. In "The Bad Splice," the PI finds himself trapped alone in the superseaweed-choked, storm-torn North Atlantic with the diabolical Krazy Kat, a "splice," or genetically engineered animal-man, who has escaped bondage and become a splice-rights terrorist. A few characters recur sporadically, but one appears in every story: the Earth, its biosphere progressively altering with every tale, until the ultimate transformation of the final story, which brings the collection, novel-like, to a tremendous, terrifying, apocalyptic climax.

Few SF writers are as imaginative, energetic, or idea rich as Paul Di Filippo, and fewer still have as broad a knowledge of science and culture. And there's no contemporary SF writer who's more fun to read. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly

Shifting his focus from Victorian pseudoscience to genetic engineering, two-time Nebula finalist Di Filippo follows Steampunk Trilogy (1995) with a story collection that presents a mid-21st century dominated by an awareness of the primacy of protein to all life. By linking the "ribosome" (producer of cell protein) to "funk," the title suggests the collection's general theme: that those who create life should remain compassionately responsible for it. In these 13 stories (two original to this volume), "basal" humans can no longer function adequately in the world they and their ancestors have warped, and so engineered grotesques abound. The most appealing tales are "Little Worker," about an amalgamation of 12 different species (including human and wolverine) that is poignantly devoted to its negligent human master; and "McGregor," wherein a chain-smoking Peter Rabbit rescues an "epcot" full of abused "splices" from their sadistic human keeper. The previously unpublished stories play Krazy Kat, a charismatic human-feline splice, against an artificially hard-shelled Protein Policeman. Despite occasional obscurity, Di Filippo's effervescent prose can provoke both hilarity and haunting reflections on our species' possible fate. The best of these experimental tales, written between 1989 and 1995, keenly dissect the selfishness by which humanity may doom itself to extinction.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing, well-realized biopunk world of "Tomorrow" Feb 19 2002

By DOC BARHAM

Format:Hardcover

If I were Tim Robbins in Robert Altman's 'The Player' I might pitch a well-read exec like this: Imagine a biopunk version of William Gibson's 'Burning Chrome'. But I'm not. Briefly, I have a love/hate relationship with science-fiction. Love the genre, hate most of what I find out there. Most science-fiction is poorly conceived and/or poorly written. Di Filippo is different. As a writer, his prose is as tight as his ideas are original. 'Ribofunk' is an excellent collection of short stories connected by a shared dystopian world where genetic engineering has been taken to the extreme. What it means to be human has changed as 'splices', individuals possessing a blend of human and non-human DNA, have become the norm. Animal antlers, fish gills, insect limbs and a host of other add-ons can be acquired in shops for reasons ranging from fashion to military functionality. One's human rights are determined by the possession of no less than 51% human DNA. These and many more provacative premises are cleverly explored throughout 'Ribofunk'. Each story stands on its own. Taken together they form a strange kaleidescope of a future that seems much closer and more plausible with each new 'biotech' headline.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Enormously entertaining and creative Jan 4 2002

By Gordon Rios

Format:Hardcover

How I wish this writer would do some more of his speculative SF. This collection of short stories is some of the most innovative and well conceived stuff available without a prescription. I absolutely recommend this to anyone who likes writers like greg egan or neal stephensen.

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5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Sci Fi Books of the Past 10 Years Aug 22 2001

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

This is a very entertaining, very engaging book. Fantastic, creative use of language combined with amazing insight into the possibilities of nanotechnology, cloning, genetic manipulation and better living through chemistry. The book and stories are fun but have depth and emotion. I reread this in 2001 after reading it 5 years ago and I was amazed at the perceptive forward vision that the author had in some of these stories originally published 10 years ago.

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