The made for television movie of TekWar came out when I was in late elementary school or middle school and I was hooked. I loved it. I had no idea what was going on, but it involved a computer drug that people tapped into that let people experience whatever they wanted for a price. It also involved a cryogenically frozen ex-cop who was framed for dealing Tek and who was let out in order to do…something. If all this sounds vaguely familiar, well, maybe you’ve seen it (it starred Greg Evigan, the non-Paul Reiser dad from My Two Dads) and William Shatner who “wrote” the book. It also touched on some very popular 80s zeitgeist trends like pseudo-Cyberpunk, drugs, tapping into memories, and cryo freezing.
So what’s the book like? It’s terrible.
It’s written almost like Beowulf. Oh, you mean like it’s an epic journey about a hero? No, I just mean the entire thing is basically a bunch of fake neologism compound words bandied about like they mean anything in an attempt to distract from the fact that basically nothing happens in this book. So if you’re going shoot your lazgun at a recorder-mike or drive a landbus or take an aircar well, maybe you’re in the terrible and obviously ghostwritten 1989 novel “by” Star Trek’s beloved William Shatner.
Chances are you aren’t though. I guess I didn’t get the joke in the Simpsons, because as much as this book wants to pretend it’s William Gibson, it’s a ghost of a ghost of a ghost of a ghost in the shell of his writing.