The original “Mad Professor” of Cyberpunk, Rudy Rucker (along with fellow outlaws William Gibson and Bruce Sterling) transformed modern science fiction, tethering the “gnarly” speculations of quantum physics to the noir sensibilities of a skeptical and disenchanted generation. In acclaimed novels like Wetware and The Hacker and the Ant he mapped a neotopian future that belongs not to sober scientists but to drug-addled, sex-crazed youth. And won legions of fans doing it.
In his outrageous new Surfing the Gnarl, Dr. Rucker infiltrates fundamentalist Virginia to witness the apocalyptic clash between Bible-thumpers and Saucer Demons at a country club barbecue; undresses in orbit to explore the future of foreplay in freefall (“Rapture in Space”); and (best of all!) dons the robe of a Transreal Lifestyle Adviser with How-to Tips on how you can manipulate the Fourth Dimension to master everyday tasks like finding an apartment, dispatching a tiresome lover, organizing closets and iPods, and remaking Reality.
You’ll never be the same. Is that good or bad? Your call.
What People Are Saying
“Rudy Rucker should be declared a National Treasure of American Science Fiction…simultaneously channeling Kurt Gödel and Lenny Bruce!” —William Gibson, author of Neuromancer and Pattern Recognition
"Rucker is a mathematician bewitched by the absurdity of the universe, and a writer possessed of a brilliantly witty pen." —Publishers Weekly
“Rudy Rucker’s sense of fun is rare indeed. He has been compared to Lewis Carroll, and the comparison is not presumptuous. Like Carroll, Rucker is a mathematician who not only enjoys paradoxes, but can propagate that enjoyment as pure lunatic humor.” —Washington Post
"Science-fiction author Rudy Rucker is an oddity and a treasure." —Wired
"Rucker's writing is great like the Ramones are great: a genre stripped to its essence, attitude up the wazoo, and cartoon sentiments that reek of identifiable lives and issues." —New York Review of Science Fiction
About the Author
A direct descendant of philosopher G.W. Hegel, Rudy Rucker is a mathematician, science author (The Fourth Dimension), on-line editor (Flurb), award-winning SF writer (two Philip K. Dick Awards), and confirmed computer geek. A native of Kentucky, he lives in Silicon Valley with his wife, a Hungarian princess.