Reviews
CYPULCHRE
"From android strippers to technology addicts, Cypulchre is part cyberpunk thriller and part essential human storytelling in its depiction of a man's quest for redemption."
GRACE O'CONNELL, OPEN BOOK TORONTO
"Required reading for any Cyberpunk aficionado..."
"Joseph MacKinnon has done a fine job with this story. This is the kind of book you can come back to, discovering new things with each read. The length and pacing is appropriate, the plot and action compelling, and the characters are interesting, relatable (both good and bad), and well constructed. The world and consequences have been crafted in such a way that I think this deserves a sequel, as there’s plenty of room in this universe to explore the ramifications of its ending. I would be disappointed were MacKinnon to elect not to continue with this."
R. LEIGH HENNIG, BASTION SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE
"MacKinnon has crafted a believable world in Cypulchre, a dystopian future where critical thought has given way to virtual pleasures and the wants of the rich are favoured over the needs of the poor."
“As a commentary in speculative fiction about our cyber-connected lives, with engaging plotting and many discomforting scenes, Cypulchre is a fine addition to the cyberpunk genre.”
"[Cypulchre] is an interesting story, with a lot of gripping action in the last few chapters. The first chapter is reminiscent of The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells, but the rest of the book takes a very different course....After seeing the epigraph, which reads, "So that at the world's Omega and its Alpha, lies the Impersonal," I happened to open up my copy of The Phenomenon of Man by Teilhard de Chardin at the very page where that passage is taken from (kind of providential, so I thought I should really get on with reading the book). De Chardin goes on to say a couple of pages later that "It is...a mistake to look for the extension of our being or of the noosphere in the Impersonal." He emphasizes that the real Omega is or ought to be personal (or Hyper-Personal)…The characters in the story face the results of the mistake of an impersonal noosphere, in the way the noospheric CLOUD corrupts human life. This seems to happen through direct influence in terms of what happens to those who get connected to the CLOUD, but perhaps also through indirect influence, in the way that the good guys (and not only the bad guys) in the story lean towards exhibiting psychopathic behaviour, especially towards the end of the story. In any case, it was an exciting read (as was MacKinnon's other book…Faultiline 49). Both those books would, I think, make interesting movies."
CLAUDE DELLA ZAZZERA, Ph.D
"Out of the jungle of cyber-kinetic gadgetry and techno-acronyms that are apparently the future of the human species, Joseph MacKinnon has constructed and charged into life a character with the brain to play in those fields and the heart to balk at the most egregious aspects of its arrogance. Dr. Paul Sheffield, determined to destroy the overreaching CLOUD that he helped create, is a character any reader can get behind in this story that sparks and sizzles with radioactive intelligence. Read it on your plasma-screen or download it from the noosphere directly into your head."
MARK FRUTKIN, AUTHOR OF THE NOVEL, FABRIZIO'S RETURN, WINNER OF THE TRILLIUM AWARD AND THE SUNBURST AWARD FOR LITERATURE OF THE FANTASTIC
"After becoming immersed in MacKinnon’s writing style and the world of Paul and the CLOUD, readers should be suitably geared up for all the action-packed events leading up to the final moments..."
"I also really enjoyed the writing style. I liked the way the author used words to describe things that were sort of technically incorrect, but really gave you a perfect sense of what was being conveyed. I found it to be quite unique and felt that it suited the book perfectly...Overall, I enjoyed [Cypulchre] a lot. It definitely makes me want to read more cyberpunk."
“This one is clinical and cynical. It’s what would happen if The Matrix was written by a brain surgeon...The aftermath of the creation of the matrix(ish)-thing drives the story. Then the sci-fi terms and concepts really kick in, and it’s cyberpunk all over again. This is a compliment."
"Cypulchre is the gritty cyberpunk you should be reading."
CARLY FJELD, SCI-FI BLOGGERS
"A sci-fi cautionary tale that shines a decidedly unflattering light on technology..."
ERIC VOLMERS, THE CALGARY HERALD
“MacKinnon’s second novel, Cypulchre, is billed as a 'dark and twisted cyberpunk thriller,' and it ticks as many of the genre’s boxes as it can: a cyberspace-esque virtual reality (the CLOUD), check; tech-savvy Japanese characters, check; an omnipresent corporation (Outland Corp.), check; mind-melding network (the “noosphere”), check… For sci-fi fans who like to jack themselves into dystopian fiction above all else, Cypulchre may just be enough to deliver."
FAULTLINE 49
"Faultline requires most careful reading, sorting through the Genesis commentary and Danson's reportage. The reader undertakes a voyage of startling discovery: a black metaphor for US actions in Iraq, of course, but also in Afghanistan. The book is meticulously researched and cleverly transposes, to the 49th parallel, events and quotes arising out of the Bush Administration. This has particular resonance for a Canadian who was resident in Washington during that period."
MICHAEL KERGIN, FORMER CANADIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES
"David Danson has succeeded in writing an imaginative and somewhat haunting book. It succeeds in describing how in the end, countries revert to self interest."
JACK MAJOR, CC, QC
"Unnerving. And, dare I say, exciting."
"Genius."
CALGARY HERALD
“This highly original, vivid and bizarre tale of terrorism, civil war, and foreign military intervention in Canada will shock readers and haunt them long after they have put down this book.”
ALLAN GOTLIEB, FORMER CANADIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES
"It’s dark. It’s heavy. It’s very, very interesting."