Silicon Sunset

By Scott T. Grusky

"It's a great idea, reminiscent of the best work of Philip K. Dick..."
--Salon

Take a journey to the furthest limits of cyberspace. It is the year 2077 and data pervades. There are no plants or animals in the cities, food grows only on orbiting satellites, and sex has been forgotten. All day long, day after day, humans process their burgeoning data via "PIFFEN meters" implanted in their brains. A worldwide bioelectronic net called the Neural Web links the tiny meters. But Kale Keeler--a 26 year-old, female Web reporter--has glimpsed the ways of the old-time. While attending a rare physical briefing with Mr. Clyde Trivers, the CEO of the "Public Netgorks," she notices that Trivers is different from everyone else. He does no data processing of his own.

Most humans would be too busy with their Web-signals to give this a second thought, but Kale suffers from a "slowed metabolic rate." She agrees to accept Trivers' odd assignment to investigate a Professor Walter Morgaux at Harvard University, which has been relegated to a rehab center for the most feeble processors of society. Unknown to her, she is monitored by Ralph Peterson, a small-time channel boss desperate for a Netgorks promotion. Trivers has even given Ralph a special headware device to illegally enter private segments of Kale's system.

The more Ralph sifts her system, the more Kale deviates from her data. She even touches the skin of a male rehab student at Harvard named Greggy Panagopoulos--a violation of the sacred "Third Law of the Internal." But the terrible truth about the world doesn't get revealed until Kale does the most brazen thing of all: She arches her back like a bird and sends a Webless signal to her reclusive grandfather, Joseph Baptista.

The result is pure silicon madness. If you're worried about where the Internet is leading, you may want to read this book. If you aren't worried, you BETTER read this book

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965119009
• ISBN13: 9780965119009
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Furthest Press
• Length: 362 Pages
• Weight: 1.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

more relevant than ever

now that scientists are plotting to put microchips in human beings, this novel is more salient and relevant than ever. i think this should be required reading for anyone who thinks of cloning, genetic engineering, and cybernetics as mere larks. the villian in the piece is a little too realistic, if you know what i mean. this is a very enjoyable book.

This is a MUST-READ!

I truly hope Scott Grusky's vision of the future does not come to pass. He gives us a little sugar with our medicine, though. The story is clever, entertaining, and often funny. It's a fascinating tale of where society might be headed (although I hope not).

5 stars- no doubt about it.. this is a great book...

While reading Silicon Sunset by Scott Grusky, I was shocked and horrified by many of its plotlines. If Grusky's vision and completely logical premonitions come true, the world will be a living computer application-- complete with a KILLER APP..... Grusky, a newcomer to the Sci-Fi book world, could quite possibly be one of the greatest writers our time. Deftly intelligent and with quick-witted humor, Grusky explores the darker side of the high-technology trends.This book will win awards this year. ***** 5 Stars

I Can't Get this Fascinating Novel Out of My Head!

Let me begin by saying that I am not normally a science fiction reader. I also don't know a tremendous amount about computers or cyberculture in general. Perhaps that is why I'm even more impressed by Grusky's Silicon Sunset. He does a truly bang-up job of exploring foreign/technical territory and making it absolutely fascinating. His mind-numbingly detailed world, which is set in the year 2077 when all humans have been implanted with networked computer chips, has a multitude of clever and compelling features. Even several days after finishing the book, I find myself still pondering various aspects of the storyline, and still reaping little insights that Grusky planted about where we are headed as a civilization. I strongly recommend this book to anyone that is tired of formulaic plots and conventional logic. Grusky is really onto something universal here, so Internet newbies should not be put off by the high-tech subject matter. I don't see Silicon Sunset as stu! ck in any genre. It is a gem of a read for anyone who loves to think and discover new truths about our world!

This is who we are. Or may become. Wow!

Silicon Sunset, is, um, disturbing, in that it shouldn't be so easy for the reader to slide into such a finely crafted madhouse world-and language -as that depicted here without any hand-holding from the author, but (t)here you are, and if you take that as the point of the novel you could lose some sleep... The timing of this story is exquisite, and accidental. Grusky's been birthing the damn thing through a decade-long series of oblivious midwives, and has finally had to perform the delivery himself. I'm here to report that the baby is very healthy indeed, even if it does have two navels and an eye in the back of its head. Strange creatures such as this are, I think, youbetcha welcome now as we stumble around trying to craft our self-fulfulling prophecies for these highly charged Last and First days; something, ANYTHING, to counteract the ennui of, say, yet another rock-in-the-sky fx-moneysuck placebo with the audacity to call itself Armaggeddon... For orientation (not! ! description), Silicon Sunset is more Millennium than X-Files, more 'This is who we are' than 'The Truth is Out There.'  Nah, that truth is In Here, in the mirror, and boy howdy, what a funhouse mirror you stand before when you enter Silicon Sunset!  Most importantly, this bambino's FUN to interact with. Being one who dives out the window at the mere mention of an economic report on TV, I was surprised to find myself so caught up in all the bizarre intricacies of that aspect of the plot. Ditto for this particular take on cybernetic evolution. Grusky has an odd talent for immersing himself in the most unpalatable topics (he'll spend YEARS if necessary), then emerging with a wickedly delicious angle on it, to which a big old belly laugh, half on-site spontaneous, half o mama appreciative, is the only possible response. For me the appreciative part had to do with how surprisingly familiar are the strange events, and their context, in Silicon Sunset.  Again, 'this is who we are.' ! ! Or may become. Wow.