SIGNED by WILLIAM GIBSON VIRTUAL LIGHT UNCORRECTED PROOF CYBERPUNK psychedelic

Description: Hi and WELCOME to the FLASHBACK BOOKS EBAY STORE. PLEASE CHECK BACK REGULARLY TO SEE THE LATEST ADDED BOOKS. FLASHBACK BOOKS HAS BEEN IN BUSINESS FOR OVER 25 YEARS SUPPLYING COLLECTORS , RESEARCHERS AND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES AROUND THE WORLD. PLEASE GO TO FLASHBACK BOOKS EBAY STORE, JUST CLICK ON THE CATEGORY YOU ARE INTERESTED IN & ONLY THOSE RELATED BOOKS WILL SHOW UP ON THE PAGE Please Note: We can Combine Auctions / Purchases so you will Save Money on Shipping Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 CANADIAN BUYERS EMAIL FIRST FOR CANADA POST RATES WITHIN CANADA VIRTUAL LIGHT SIGNED by WILLIAM GIBSON By William Gibson Published by Bantam Books , New York , 1993 SCARCE UNCORRECTED PROOF This book is a Soft Cover in near fine condition with 280 pages.The dust jacket is in very good plus condition (crease on back inside flap) Inscribed by William Gibson " To Annie , Best, W.M. Gibson" Virtual Light is the first book in William Gibson's Bridge trilogy. Virtual Light is a science-fiction novel set in a postmodern, dystopian, cyberpunk future. The term 'Virtual Light' was coined by scientist Stephen Beck to describe a form of instrumentation that produces optical sensations directly in the eye without the use of photons. The novel was a finalist nominee for a Hugo Award, and shortlisted for the Locus Award in 1994. Plot summary === The plot centers around Chevette Washington, a young bicycle messenger who lives in the ad hoc, off-the-grid community that has grown on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. Chevette, on a whim, steals a pair of dark-rimmed glasses from a man at a party because she is offended by his demeanor. Soon after, she realizes that the glasses have unlikely importance, as security company henchmen begin tracking and following her. Among the pursuers are Svobodov and Orlovsky, two Russian immigrants who reside in San Francisco and are employed as cops, as well as Loveless, a ruthless corporate hitman with gold incisors. The glasses contain plans by a powerful corporation to rebuild San Francisco entirely using nanotechnology, and for that reason, they are highly coveted and present a danger to the person who possesses them. Meanwhile, Berry Rydell, a former cop turned private security agent, is contracted to recover the pair of glasses for Lucius Warbaby, an intimidating and presumably successful "skip-tracer", a sort of bondsman/bounty hunter. When Rydell is given the mission, he is not informed of the significance of the glasses and the information they contain. Eventually, the plot climaxes when Rydell, Loveless, Warbaby, Orlovsky, and Svobodov all catch up with Chevette. The cops want the glasses, as does Rydell. Realizing the inherent danger of the situation, Rydell is forced to decide whom to side with. He decides to fight off Orlovsky and Svobodov and shirk his agreement with Warbaby. Instead, Rydell runs off with Chevette, and they embark upon a wild and treacherous journey in which they must remain one step ahead of their enemies, who have all the advantages of wealth and technology on their side. A subplot also focuses on a romantic relationship between Chevette and Rydell, which is initially restricted because of the nature of their circumstances, but is eventually allowed to flourish. Another subplot focuses on a Japanese sociologist named Shinya Yamazaki, who is currently studying the bridge dwellers and the history of their settlement. The subplot largely focuses on his interactions with Skinner, an old man who lives in a shack high atop one of the bridge's support pylons, who happens to share his home with Chevette. Setting === The setting is California in 2006, part of a dystopian world where the middle class has essentially evaporated leaving only multinational corporations and their exorbitantly rich elite and the poor who are mostly security officers, couriers, or otherwise work in minor service positions. Many of the poor live illegally and entirely outside the normal economy in places like The Bridge engaged in dubious enterprises such as theft, drugs, weapons, gambling, prostitution, and operation of unlicensed restaurants and doctor's offices. Others pursue livelihood in innocuous yet unregulated commerce such as by running antique shops and barbershops. Themes === A major theme of Virtual Light is class conflict; Warbaby and the elite are placed against Rydell and Chevette. The elite see themselves as inherently superior, and view the underclass as amoral, ruthless, and dispensable. Another important element, which is common to cyberpunk, is the idea of the power structure withholding information from the general population. The information, in this case, are the plans to rebuild an entire city completely, regardless of what its inhabitants think, reminiscent of Haussmann's renovation of Paris. MORE ABOUT = William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and essayist who has been called the "noir prophet" of the cyberpunk subgenre. Gibson coined the term "cyberspace" in his short story "Burning Chrome" (1982) and later popularized the concept in his debut novel, Neuromancer (1984). In envisaging cyberspace, Gibson created an iconography for the information age before the ubiquity of the Internet in the 1990s. He is also credited with predicting the rise of reality television and with establishing the conceptual foundations for the rapid growth of virtual environments such as video games and the World Wide Web. After settling in Vancouver British Columbia he eventually became a full-time writer. He retains dual citizenship. Gibson's early works are bleak, noir near-future stories about the effect of cybernetics and computer networks on humans a "combination of lowlife and high tech". The short stories were published in popular science fiction magazines. The themes, settings and characters developed in these stories culminated in his first novel, Neuromancer, which garnered critical and commercial success, effectively initiating the cyberpunk literary genre. Although much of Gibson's reputation has remained associated with Neuromancer, his work has continued to evolve. After expanding on Neuromancer with two more novels to complete the dystopic Sprawl trilogy, Gibson became an important author of another science fiction subgenre steampunk with the 1990 alternate history novel The Difference Engine, written with Bruce Sterling. In the 1990s, he composed the Bridge trilogy of novels, which focused on sociological observations of near-future urban environments and late capitalism. His most recent novels Pattern Recognition (2003), Spook Country (2007) and Zero History (2010) are set in a contemporary world and have put his work onto mainstream bestseller lists for the first time. Gibson is one of the best-known North American science fiction writers, fêted by The Guardian in 1999 as "probably the most important novelist of the past two decades". Gibson has written more than twenty short stories and ten critically acclaimed novels (one in collaboration), and has contributed articles to several major publications and collaborated extensively with performance artists, filmmakers and musicians. His thought has been cited as an influence on science fiction authors, design, academia, cyberculture, and technology. Counterculture = After his mother's death when he was eighteen, Gibson left school without graduating and became very isolated for a long time, traveling to California and Europe and immersing himself in the counterculture. In 1967, he moved to Canada by a desire to "sleep with hippie chicks" and indulge in marijuana & hashish. Gibson was hired as the manager of Toronto's first psychedelic marijuana head shop, a retailer of counter culture material products. He appeared, during the Summer of Love of 1967, in a CBC newsreel item about hippie subculture in Yorkville, Toronto. Gibson got married and settled in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1972. Impatient at much of what he saw at a science fiction convention in Vancouver in 1980 or 1981, Gibson found a kindred spirit in fellow panelist, punk musician and author John Shirley. Through Shirley, Gibson came into contact with science fiction authors Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner; Gibson met Sterling at a science fiction convention in Denver, Colorado in the autumn of 1981, where he read "Burning Chrome" – the first cyberspace short story . In October 1982, Gibson traveled to Austin, Texas for ArmadilloCon, at which he appeared with Shirley, Sterling and Shiner on a panel called "Behind the Mirrorshades: A Look at Punk SF", where Shiner noted "the sense of a movement solidified". After a weekend discussing rock and roll, MTV, Japan, fashion, drugs and politics, Gibson left the cadre for Vancouver, declaring half-jokingly that "a new axis has been formed." Sterling, Shiner, Shirley and Gibson, along with Rudy Rucker, went on to form the core of the radical cyberpunk literary movement. psychedelia mescaline peyote lsd cannabis hippies timothy leary Signed Science Fiction Fantasy Modern Literature SHIPPING COSTS FOR USA BUYERS ONLY is at $7.50 US Funds Includes Tracking Number . PLEASE NOTE: For USA and International Buyers , I ship ONLY ONCE a WEEK on THURSDAY AM from a USPS Post Office in Washington State, USA. Books will be Protected and Very Well Packaged. Buyer to pay shipping costs. Please Note : FOR CANADIAN BUYERS ONLY, I SHIP CANADIAN ORDERS FROM VANCOUVER BC . Please email me for shipping costs within Canada. Ebay requires I put a Flat Rate Shipping Cost for World Wide destinations Including Canada which in most cases will be higher than the shipping cost for Canada. CANADIAN BUYERS EMAIL FIRST FOR CANADA POST RATES WITHIN CANADA.

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