Transreal Cyberpunk [Hardcover] [Feb 01, 2016] Rucker, Rudy; Sterling, Bruce and Latham, Professor of English Rob

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. With notes by the authors and an introduction by Rob Latham.

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!