All posts by Alexander V Woods

A Beginner’s Guide to Cyberpunk (Part 2 of 4)

January 10, 2019 Alexander V Woods 1 Comment

Starting at the Beginning

This post is a continuation of the series called “A Beginner’s Guide to Cyberpunk”. For today’s post, we will be talking about the C-1 Era of Cyberpunk, or the early first two decades. More on why I divided Cyberpunk into these sections can be found in the first post here.

The C-1 Era

Neuromancer (1984) and Blade Runner (1982)

The first era covers the birth of Cyberpunk, which began with Neuromancer and Blade Runner, as I mentioned in Part 1. Neuromancer is currently only in book format, although a movie production of the book has been in the works for decades. Perhaps with the revival of the Cyberpunk genre, producers will finally get around to making it happen. As for Blade Runner, a sequel was just released in 2017, but I will be covering that in the C-3 era.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968)

So you’ve watched Blade Runner and then read Neuromancer. What next? You’ll want to read Phillip K. Dick‘s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep, as your second Cyberpunk novel and an introduction into the very influential works of PKD, whose novels include The Man in the High Castle, A Scanner Darkly, We Can Remember it for you Wholesale, The Minority Report, and Adjustment Team (all of which were adapted or inspired films or tv series). PKD was a prolific writer with a dark and intriguing life, such as having paranormal experiences, five wives, drug abuse and a suicide attempt. His work often included his own life experiences and featured themes such as monopolistic corporations, authoritarian regimes, alternate universes, and altered states of consciousness. In 2005 Time named one of his novels, Ubik, as one of the 100 greatest novels published since 1923. In fact, the field of science fiction now has a pretty prestigious Phillip K. Dick award, funded by his trust fund and the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society.

Akira (1988)

After this? Another movie, this time an anime movie called Akira. This movie inspired a lot of future cyberpunk media, including The Matrix, and its visual style is on par with the C-1 era. In fact, Akira was fairly advanced for the anime of the time, and set a new standard for what anime could do. It stands the test of time pretty well, I would say, but also I think I should warn you: Akira is not only cyberpunk, but what we call “bio-punk” as well. Biopunk is like cyberpunk but instead of mixing futuristic technology with punk elements, there is biological manipulations of bodies present (whether engineered or alien by origin).

Total Recall (1990)

Akira then would be a good segue into Total Recall, which also has biopunk elements in its cyberpunk style. Total Recall is a gory, over the top, and silly cyberpunk movie based on PKD’s We Can Remember It For You Wholesale featuring none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, you heard right. The Terminator star is a big Cyberpunk style. But is that really surprising?

Robocop (1987)

Anyways, after watching Total Recall, you’ll also want to watch Robocop. Robocop is also over the top gory and dramatic, directed by the same Paul Verhoeven, but without the biopunk elements. While Total Recall focuses more on reality and altered states of consciousness, Robocop focuses more on the distinction of identity between human and robot/AI. If you like action and funny one-liners, and can stand the 90s style gore, I think you might enjoy both movies, as they stand the test of time as well.

Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

For another influential movie still in the C-1 era, I would strongly recommend watching Johnny Mnemonic–if you can get through the entire movie. Sadly, unlike the two Verhoeven films I mentioned above, this one did not age well at all. Starring Keanu Reeves as the titular Mnemonic, this movie is based on a short story by William Gibson of the same name. While based on a solid premise (Johnny is a data courrier, using his own brain as a vault to ferry information in the black market) this film is heavily based on virtual reality, something that relies heavily on special effects that might have been decent in the 90s but by our standards today are terribly outdated. Still, if you can get through it all, read Gibson’s excellent short story and see how the two compare. Also of note is that Molly Millions, the second main character from Neuromancer, is present both in the film and in Gibson’s short story.

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Finally, to see virtual reality mixed with film noir, finish on a strong note with another amazing anime film: Ghost in the Shell. Released in 1995, this film still comes from the C-1 era, but has also had multiple series come from it in the C-2 era as well as a live-action remake in the C-3 era.

Honorable Mentions

Once you get through all that, you’ve completed the C-1 era! If you want even more, some honorable mentions would be Hackers and Strange days. You may also want to consider the original Tron, Terminator, Lawnmower Man, and Judge Dredd.

So to recap, this is the order I would suggest:

Blade Runner (1982)
Neuromancer (1984)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968)
Akira (1988)
Total Recall (1990)
Robocop (1987
Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
Ghost in the Shell (1995)

The Final Word

Seen any of the movies above? What did you think? Feel free to agree/disagree with the ranking and comment below. To continue onto Part 3, click here.

Guide

A Beginner’s Guide to Cyberpunk (Part 1 of 4)

January 9, 2019 Alexander V Woods 3 Comments

A Beginner’s Guide to Cyberpunk

The intention of this article is not to rehash the origins of cyberpunk, or what the word means. To do that, I would direct you to my What Is Cyberpunk? Article in the menu. However, after discovering the Cyberpunk term, I was eager to go to a beginner’s guide to figure out what media I should read first. I was disappointed to find I could not find such a beginner’s guide, which is what led me to publishing this post.

The Purpose of the Beginner’s Guide to Cyberpunk

This article is meant to guide you and give suggestions on what media to consume first, second, third, and so on in their different forms to begin your own Cyberpunk adventure.

First off, it’s important to determine what kind of media you prefer, and to make sure you are aware of all the different forms of media in which Cyberpunk manifests itself. The main ones are TV shows, Movies, Books and Graphic Novels/Comics, and Video Games. So keep in mind which ones you prefer, hopefully a combination of all the above.

Next, to not get lost and start at the beginning of your adventure, I recommend breaking it down to three separate eras of Cyberpunk.

The 3 different Eras of Cyberpunk (According to the Cyberpunk Matrix)

See, you basically have 3 different eras of Cyberpunk media which should really be consumed separately.

Why, you ask? Because media invariably is a product of the times from which it comes. Different time periods come with different fads, concerns, and economic, political, and social trends. So to consume them out of order, when each piece had wildly different styles and focuses, would just be plain confusing.

So what are the 3 different eras exactly?

C-1 would be from the 1980s to end 1990s, starting with Blade Runner in 1982 and Neuromancer in 1984 and ending with, but not including, The Matrix in 1999.

Then you have Neo-Cyberpunk (pun intended) with C-2 starting with the Matrix in 1999 and ending with media from the late 2000s. Finally, C-3 would be 2010 until now, starting with Tron: Legacy up until today.

Getting Started with Cyberpunk

In terms of getting to know the genre itself, I would recommend reading Neuromancer and watching Ridley Scott’s 1982 Blade runner. This will be a good introduction into the genre, since these two pieces of work are considered the founding material for the whole genre. However, although there are countless die-hard Blade Runner and Neuromancer fans, these works may not be for everyone. Neuromancer is definitely hard to read and follow if you are unfamiliar with cyberpunk lingo (which I’m assuming you are if you’re reading this guide) and even if you are, it’s still quite challenging. The dialogue is what shines in Gibson’s novels with stylistic genius, but half of the time spent reading it, you probably won’t understand what’s happening. I would actually recommend reading a brief synopsis of the story as you’re reading along, so you don’t get lost. That’s what I did.

Unless if you like getting lost. Then by all means, go right ahead.

I confess: I didn’t like Blade Runner

The issue I had with Blade Runner is that it’s slow, it’s long, and I personally didn’t like the discordant chords prevalent in the movie’s soundtrack by Vangelis. Tell any cyberpunk fan you don’t like the soundtrack and they’ll probably tell you it’s heresy, though. But perhaps I fit right along in the punk elements of fighting the powers that be to tell me that I have to like Blade Runner or its soundtrack. So there.

An Introduction to Philip K Dick

After trying out your first movie and first book, I would recommend moving on to the book that inspired the movie blade runner, called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and written by the seminal author Philip K Dick. For the next movie, there are a couple different paths you could take. You could either take your time and go through the most important movies from the older days until now, easing into the more modern movies, or you could jump straight to the most iconic cyberpunk films, which will definitely feel very different in style and special effects but will get you to the classics faster.

Don’t forget your Cyberpunk Anime!

I would also recommend a parallel/intertwined track of anime movies/tv series. Anime can present the genre in a way that basic movies can’t, and the genre has been heavily affected by the medium. For anime, you will want to start by watching the anime movie Akira, which was a big inspiration for some of the elements in The Matrix and other big cyberpunk films later on. Ironically, Akira is set in 2019, so this year is a great year to start. So is Blade Runner.

Let’s Begin

After you consume these important pieces, the rest is really up to you. You’ll want to watch the Matrix trilogy, obviously, and then perhaps the Altered Carbon series on Netflix. You will also want to play Cyberpunk 2077 when it comes out. But this is a good start, and to continue on to the complete, methodical Beginner’s guide to Cyberpunk, simply click here.

News

2018: A Year in Review for Cyberpunk

January 2, 2019 Alexander V Woods 1 Comment

I am grateful for the time afforded to me from Christmas through New Year’s to reflect on what the year has given me, and this year has been particularly giving as far as Cyberpunk is concerned, because it’s the year that I discovered the term. If you take a quick look at the posting history of this blog, you can see that it was born on March 20th, 2018. But my discovery of the term dated slightly before that, right near the beginning of the new year, in February when the legendary Altered Carbon series came out on Netflix. While binge-watching the series I discovered something within myself recognizing a passion that had been born long before that fateful cold afternoon–back when I saw The Matrix for the first time, in the blissful days of my childhood.

My, what a journey 2018 has been since then. After discovering that there was a name for the genre, linking The Matrix to Altered Carbon and then to Ghost in the Shell from the previous year, I dove headfirst into the genre. It was really those three movies that I loved so dearly that created the click in my head, that there was something here that linked them all. After some quick research I found my favorite Cyberpunk blog, Neon Dystopia, from which I found the most comprehensive definition for the term. I then looked up the “founding fathers” of the genre, having a bit of a hard time but finding some common denominators that the entire movement could be traced to. The two main ones that I found were the novel Neuromancer and the 1982 movie Blade Runner. So I read the book, re-watched the movie, and then read the novel that was the loose inspiration of the movie, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I then moved on to more modern Cyberpunk, Snowcrash, while at the same time devouring any tv shows or movies I could get my hands on for the genre. Meanwhile, I read Ready Player One twice, and then went to see it in theaters during opening week. I created a reference book for all the media I was consuming, to help me keep track of what happened in them and the interesting ideas I discovered in each one. I created this blog as a way to post some of these reviews and ideas online, as well. It was also this year that I discovered synthwave, and some of my new favorite synthwave artists like Le Matos and Carpenter Brut.

I wrote to my favorite Cyberpunk blog, and then after months of waiting, I was happily rewarded by joining the writing team for Neon Dystopia, contributing to their weekly Last Week In Cyberpunk (LWIC) but also having my first review of cyberpunk media published, a review for Killtopia. It even inspired me to write my own Cyberpunk novel, for which I’ve already written an outline and have written the first couple chapters.

I wonder what 2019 will bring, but one thing I know for sure is that my love for everything Cyberpunk will continue. I will carry on consuming and writing about cyberpunk media, starting off with this new year with watching the newly released Bandersnatch episode of Black Mirror, and then hopefully from watching Replicas and then Battle Angel: Alita. I’m also excited to read the newest addition to my cyberpunk library, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, as well as learning more about Philip K Dick–his life, his writing, and his philosophy.

What about you, dear reader? When did you discover Cyberpunk, how, and will you be consuming more Cyberpunk media in 2019? What movies, books, TV shows, or music are you excited for?

Happy 2019!

Movies

Replicas: New Upcoming Cyberpunk film with Keanu Reeves to release this month

January 2, 2019 Alexander V Woods 2 Comments

When I wrote in November that Battle Angel: Alita was the next upcoming Cyberpunk film to watch out for, I wasn’t expecting to learn about another big Cyberpunk film that was flying under my radar a month later. But sure enough, here it is: Replicas is the newest new Cyberpunk film to look out for, releasing on the quickly approaching date of January 11th in the United States. An American film from Entertainment Studios, Replicas stars Cyberpunk legend Keanu Reeves, who helped with the production.

The story centers around the efforts of Neuroscientist William Foster to bring his wife and children back to life after they die in a terrible car crash. He tries to do so using cloning and digitizing their consciousnesses into robot bodies, something that is illegal and leads to him being pursued by the government, if the trailer is any indication.

There hasn’t been much news on this film yet, directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff (writer for The Day After Tomorrow and The Tourist), and I’m trying to steer away from any reviews before I see it. But this film looks like it will be a fast-paced thriller and something will assuredly go wrong, as it always does in Cyberpunk tales. I’m excited to see Keanu Reeves in a Cyberpunk film again, since I’ve only been seeing him in various kinds of action flicks of late (John Wick, the Man of Tai Chi).

You can check out the trailer and see for yourself if this will be worth the watch here.

Books

Killtopia: A Fresh Neon-Splattered Cyberpunk Comic

January 2, 2019 Alexander V Woods

Have you sold your ballsack to attend Wreck-Fest X yet? Not to worry, reading Killtopia is the next best thing.

Killtopiais the new upcoming graphic novel by Dave Cook and Craig Paton, published in Glasgow by BHP Comics and under Cook’s own brand of Card Shark Comics. It’s currently still in the crowdfunding stages, but their kickstarter has at least allowed them to publish their first chapter.

Killtopia has all the fun tropes that one might expect or hope for in a cyberpunk comic. Robots, bounty hunters, future tech, Japanese culture, and vivid dystopian futures. It checks all the boxes you want. The authors’ inspirations include Blade Runner, Battle Royale, Pacific Rim, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Borderlands, andMetal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

If any of the above made your mouth water, then you’ll probably love this graphic novel. My first impression of the cover and first few pages of Killtopia was that it felt very reminiscent to Josan Gonzalez, the cyberpunk illustrator and publisher from Spain whose artbooks and prints are similar in their high levels of detail.

It was also fun to see little easter egg items, like the glasses from Transmetropolitan prominently featured on one punk’s face in the beginning pages. This is no coincidence, as the titular cyberpunk comic was what apparently got Cook interested in comics in the first place. They went the extra mile to ask the author Darick Robertson if he would be willing to get involved, and much to their surprise, he agreed to provide art prints to backers of their fledgling comic!

As part of their stretch goals that they would later “wreck”, Cook and Paton ended up giving out to fans who helped back their project a variety of different artwork including a Judge Dredd/Tom Foster art print, retro game cover art postcards, and a Killtopia Original Soundtrack. This was the first time I had ever heard a comic selling a soundtrack along with the comic itself.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YquCKl2mChs?feature=oembed]

Since there’s a lot of discussion and controversy over what constitutes official “Cyberpunk Music” I was excited to hear what type of music they chose to produce. The music itself is atmospheric, relatively simple, and a little reminiscent of Vangelis’ work on the original Blade Runner, if it were all done on an electric keyboard. While not being the best Cyberpunk music I’ve heard, the YouTube video conveniently features a lot of the artwork from the comic itself, so it serves a dual purpose.

Synopsis

Chapter 1 takes place in a futuristic dystopian Japanese metropolis called Killtopia and its surrounding areas. The city is being overrun and terraformed by violent robots that are called “mechs”. As a result, corporations, the military and gangsters hire bounty hunters called “Wreckers” to go into the city, kill the rogue mechs, and then bring back their precious tech in exchange for money and fame. The main character, Shinji, is a poor wrecker who risks his life to obtain and sell tech in order to pay his sister’s medical bills without her knowledge. She has a common disease without a cure called The Rot, which is a mech-caused Nano-Virus that breaks down human cells from the inside out. The other main characters are Crash, a sentient robot who teams up with Shinji, and Stiletto, the #1 wrecker of the city. Shinji believes Crash can help his sister and countless others be cured from The Rot, whereas Stiletto is just looking for more fame, but her character may develop within the comic.

Analysis

I took my time reading this comic because of all the details there were to enjoy in each panel. It felt a bit like a comic version of Ready Player One, in that there were so many references on each page. I mentioned above the nod to Transmetropolitan with Spider’s glasses, but I also noticed eye implants similar to Batou from Ghost in the Shell, and the out-of-panel introductions to each secondary character felt like the introductions a player sees when playing Borderlands and meets a big boss or assisting NPC. The fashion sense of the people in the comic also deserves its own consideration, as it runs the gamut of punk style in very fun, different cyberpunk ways. Capitalistic marketing of Killtopia’s own-world products are front and center, which was very reminiscent of Blade Runner. For instance, we see marketing for “Kaiju Cola” all over the city on billboards and walls, but also slapped on the characters themselves.

Kaiju of course is a nod to Godzillaand the more recent Pacific Rim. There are also Japanese Kanji characters all over the comic, which I wish I could read, but according to the authors they’ve checked the Japanese and Japanese culture elements already by family members and friends living in Japan.

I could also see some budding philosophical issues being raised. In the middle of the first chapter Shinji decides to protect Crash from another wrecker, which raised the age-old question of whether AI life should be spared if it’s not human.

Although this comic is very graphic in some of the deaths of non-important characters, which makes the comic that much more memorable, it also doesn’t take itself too seriously. There were several scenes in the first chapter where something is happening in the background as characters are talking (such as an overpowered robot misbehaving with an interrogation victim, unbeknownst to its owner) which I found very comical and well done. Sure it’s a common humor device, but it’s ubiquitous because it works, and works well.

The cyberpunk visuals are detailed, intricate, and neon-soaked beauties. It’s filled to the brim with cyberpunk themes and references, which makes reading the comic fun if you can catch them all. It’s also clear that the producers of this comic have experience drawing comics—the way the narrator and speech bubbles are drawn, the flow from one box to the next, and the interlinking panels is all done in a very professional way. This of course is for a reason, with Cook and Paton both having experience creating other comics before this one. Cook is actually the founder of Card Shark Comics (under which Killtopia is produced), and backers actually get his previous work (a post-apocalyptic series called Bustand a dark fantasy series called Vessels) along with Killtopia if they support the Kickstarter. It’s too early to tell how well the story will be, but by the end of Chapter one I was drawn in, left on a modest cliffhanger and wanting to read what comes next. The only fault I could give to this comic is the soundtrack that comes with it, being somewhat underwhelming and unoriginal, feeling like a creative reimagining of things we’ve heard before. To learn more about the Kickstarter, check out their extensive page here.

Killtopia #1 – 9/10

(Note: This is a re-post of a piece I wrote for Cyberpunk website Neon Dystopia, where I am a regular contributor.)

Television

Cowboy Bebop: Genre-bending Classic Anime with Cyberpunk elements

November 13, 2018 Alexander V Woods 1 Comment

This is a review and brief analysis of Cowboy Bebop. There seems to be a lot of discussion in the Cyberpunk realm regarding whether Cowboy Bebop counts as Cyberpunk or not. But first, a little bit about the anime itself.

After having seen it often referenced and after having been recommended to me multiple times by various friends, I finally took the time to watch the entirety of Cowboy Bebop’s 26-episode series.

Unfortunately, part of that experience was marked by my move to France, which resulted in me watching the first half of the series in English, and the second half in French. Good thing I can speak French! Although I do feel like the difference in language changes the experience a bit.

Anyways, Cowboy Bebop is an anime that aired in 1998-1999 directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, written by Keiko Nobumoto, and with music by Yoko Kanno. The story centers around a team of bounty hunters that are aboard the spaceship Bebop, comprised initially of Spike (the main character of the series) and Jet, a jaded ex-cop. Later characters that join them on the Bebop include Faye, a flighty hustler who uses her sensuality to her advantage, Edward, a childlike wacky ace-hacker, and Ein, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi with human-like intelligence.

Each episode is able to stand alone, with a loose plot centered on Spike’s departure from the mob and his past that eventually comes back to haunt him. This theme repeats itself with Jet, Faye, and Ed, as many episodes are centered on having them explore their past as well.

The beauty of this series lies in its relaxed form of asking philosophical questions paired with its jazzy music, which results in the effect of combining a lot of different genres into one, making the anime a truly fun genre-bending experience. Loneliness and purpose are explored a lot, as well as the importance of the past in how it shapes someone in the present.

I personally really enjoyed Cowboy Bebop. The stand alone quality of the show allowed me to stop watching and pick up whenever I wanted, which was great. However, after being treated to different shows on Netflix and elsewhere where each episode really builds on each other, I felt that my interest lower than other shows I’ve watched, which also included what I felt was a somewhat anticlimactic ending.

One thing I did like was how different each character was from each other. Going into the anime without knowing anything about it, I was always surprised when a new member joined the crew and actually stuck with them until the end.

The style of the crew, of all characters they encounter, of the different worlds they visit, it’s all very interesting. Some episodes are more cyberpunk than others, with tvs controlling minds (a la Snowcrash) or hacking issues, or AI that seem like they’re humans but aren’t. There is also definitely a punk element with these bounty hunters who live paycheck to paycheck, often going hungry or running out of fuel, but always trying to catch their bounty in their own way and sometimes pissing off the authorities in doing so.

Do yourself a favor and watch this anime, and then check out the great music from the series as well. Describing it will only go so far. I’d give it 9/10 as an anime, but I wouldn’t quite qualify it as a cyberpunk anime since there are too many other elements in it at the same time.

Movies

The Next Big Cyberpunk Movie: Alita, Battle Angel

November 6, 2018 Alexander V Woods 3 Comments

Alita, Battle Angel is an upcoming Cyberpunk movie from producer James Cameron and Jon Landau (Titanic), with director Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, From Dusk Until Dawn). The screenplay is written by Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis (Altered Carbon), and takes its source material from Yukito Kishiro’s manga Gunnm (Battle Angel Alita). You may have seen the trailer to this movie in the theaters earlier this summer, when it was supposed to be released in July. However, its release was delayed until December of 2018, and then sadly further delayed to February 14th, 2019. The exact reason of these delays in release are unclear, but it seems like it has to do with Cameron’s conflict working on his Avatar sequels (he’s filming Avatar 2 and 3 right now, set to release December 2020 and December 2021, respectively). The other reason is because Fox decided to push back its release in order to make way for Deadpool 2’s PG-release that conflicted with the same release date. Personally, I have been looking forward to this movie release for a long time, so I was very sad to hear that they pushed it back even further, especially considering Deadpool 2 has already been out for a while.

I had never heard of the manga Battle Angel Alita before, but I must say, the trailer for the movie looks excellent and very promising. Alita is a film about a cyborg who awakens with no memory of her past or who she is, in a world she doesn’t recognize. A compassionate doctor and scientist takes her in and tries to shield her from her past. However, the world comes beckoning when it becomes apparent that she has unique fighting abilities that are deemed very valuable. Her subsequent actions lead her on an adventure of hope and empowerment as she tries to survive and find her place in this new world.

The cast includes Christoph Waltz as Dr. Dyson Ido, Alita’s character and apparent father figure, and Rosa Salazar (Divergent series, Maze Runner series) as the titular cyborg heroine, portraying Alita with motion capture technology. Mahershala Ali and Jennifer Connelly were also cast. There had been some controversy with the first trailer release, namely centering on the complaint that Alita’s eyes in the trailer seemed too big with the CGI effect, making her seem unrealistic and off. However, I saw no problem with them at all, as the eyes serve as a subtle reminder that Alita is not completely human.

Fast-paced action including CGI effects and impressive choreography and martial arts, existential questions on the blurred line between human and machine, this movie looks very promising indeed and has a lot of elements that remind me of my all-time favorite film, The Matrix. None of which is more apparent than the cyberpunk dystopian setting the film is placed in, and the epic mirrorshades actor Mahershala Ali sports in the trailer.

Check out these trailers and see what you think. The first is the initial trailer that caused the original controversy, the second is improved in my opinion and tells a bit more.

Trailer 1

Trailer 2

Books

Richard K Morgan: Cyberpunk influencer of our time

September 18, 2018 Alexander V Woods

Today’s post centers around my new personal inspiration for Cyberpunk, Richard K Morgan. Most of you may know him as the guy who wrote the source material for the Netflix hit TV series Altered Carbon. Some may know him as the write of the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy, of which Altered Carbon is the first book (and you should definitely read the other two, since Season 2 will be based on the other 2 books!).

But Richard is a very interesting guy, and I think it’s worth delving into this talented writer’s past to get to know him better, and also to help us understand what we might be able to expect from him in the future, as well as gauge what kind of influence he might have on the Cyberpunk genre.

Early Years

So let’s start at the beginning. Richard was born in London and was brought up in the village of Hethersett, near Norwich. He went to good schools, buried himself in reading and music, was rather solitary with few friends, and had no interest in drinking or girls.

He then started his first year at Queens college in Cambridge, and all that changed. He discovered alcohol and drugs, but most importantly, he experienced a heart-breaking first love relationship that wrecked his first year at the university.

So as a result, he shifted his studies to history, scraped by as he struggled with putting actual effort in his studies, and finally finished college disillusioned with no purpose or direction.

Being a writer isn’t easy.

He always knew he wanted to be a writer, but in a comfortable middle-class upbringing, he was sure that it would eventually just happen. “I just assumed I’d wander out into the world and be discovered as a brilliant novelist.”

So with that in mind, he moved to London, planning to become a writer immediately get published with the snap of his fingers, and then travel the world with his royalty checks.

But that didn’t happen. London made sure of that. Everyone wanted to be a writer there, and no one encouraged you to write since it was so common. Morgan had wanted to do two things, to travel and to become a writer, and the latter clearly wasn’t happening.

Fortunately, becoming an ESL teacher is quite easy in comparison.

So he signed up for a 4 week intensive CELTA course in Istanbul to become an ESL teacher, and then easily got a job teaching and being paid at a local salary that was higher than a hospital doctor.

And he ended up staying in the English Language Teaching (ELT) field for 14 years, the field that he fell into to make a living while traveling. He started as a novice, read the literature, joined professional associations, signed up for further training, and before he knew it he became a director of studies, a seasoned ELT pro, and finally a teacher trainer.

As he taught English, he continued writing, as much as he could. Short stories, articles, a screenplay that no one took seriously, a bad first novel, letters to editorial staff, and so on.

Until the day came when he got Altered Carbon published.

And then, in 8 months, Hollywood bought it and he gave up his day job.

Just like that.

The Hollywood figure who came to him? Joel Silver, who produced the Matrix.

Warner Brothers wrote him a seven-figure check to buy film rights for the book.

And then Richard Morgan waited and waited, for seven years every 18 months they paid him more. It eventually fell out of option, and then Laeta Kalogridis snatched it up. After another film option fell through, Netflix stepped up and took it on as a series.

The rest is history.

Between publishing his first book Altered Carbon in 2001 and the series being released on Netflix in 2018, however, Richard kept busy. He finished the 2nd and 3rd book in the series, and then continued writing full time.

Then he wrote two 6-issue miniseries for Marvel about Black Widow.

His screenplay became a novel (Market Forces), and was optioned as a film and won the John Campbell memorial award.

Another novel of his, Black man, won the Arthur C Clark award.

And then he wrote a fantasy trilogy between 2008 and 2014.

Finally, alongside all this work, he had the great opportunity of being brought on board as main writer for both the 2008 cyberpunk video game Syndicate, and for Crytek’s 2011 video game Crysis 2.

What an incredible career, right? And it’s not even close to being finished!

Morgan is now 52 years old, with a wife and a young son. He moved back to the town that he grew up in. He was in his mid-30s when Altered Carbon got published.

When he was asked what was one writing tip he would recommend, he said the following:

“Have your protagonist do something unacceptable early on. You need to step away from him, so he’s not an insert or a wank fantasy. You can take the hero ride, but you’ve got to distance yourself. This is not me, this is not you, this is a man you might enjoy being in some ways, but there’s always a price to be paid. He’s morally compromised, I guess.”

Sources:

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/interview-richard-morgan-on-rebooting-syndicate-7581320.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_K._Morgan

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Television

Altered Carbon: Netflix Series and Book Review

September 16, 2018 Alexander V Woods 5 Comments

Altered Carbon is a 2018 Netflix television series from Laeta Kalogridis (Alexander, Shutter Island) based on the 2002 novel of the same name by author Richard K Morgan. The first season of the series and first novel of the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy are about a dystopian future set in 2384 where consciousness and memories are kept on small metal discs, called cortical stacks, that are implanted into the stem of the vertebrae in humans when they are young. When any human dies, their cortical stack can be put into another body such that the human consciousness can live on, but if their stack is also destroyed, this would result in a permanent death. However, this also means that certain humans with enough wealth can effectively live forever, through the use of human clones and uploading their consciousness to a cloud server via satellite. These elite god-like humans are called Meths, in reference to Methuselah who according to the myth lived 1000 years.

The series centers around Takeshi Kovacs, the last remaining elite soldier of the envoys, a rebel group who were defeated in trying to rise up against the new world order. The the story starts when one particularly wealthy meth, Laurens Bancroft, decides to take Takeshi’s stack out of prison storage and put it into a new body 250 years after the uprising, so that Takeshi may solve the mystery of Laurens’ own (body) death.

Fortunately, Morgan was very active in the creative process of making the Netflix series a reality, as he worked very closely with Kalogridis. Morgan was actually an ESL teacher for over a decade before he wrote and published his novel, and upon its success he quit to become a full time writer. This kind of life experience is something that I aspire to have one day as well, and is indeed quite inspiring since I’m currently an ESL teacher myself.

I should start by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed both the novel and the series, and I would recommend reading the book first before watching the movie, as there are some significant differences in both and I feel like the original should be what gives you the first impression of the story. I also feel like it’s always better to create an image of a story with your own imagination, before having someone dictate that vision for you with a visual medium.

Morgan writes very well, with a great handle on pacing and with excellent action and story line to keep you hooked. Be warned, however, because the plot will be a little confusing (at least, it was for me) as the mystery slowly unfolds itself and will keep you guessing who murdered Laurens. I should also mention that this is definitely an adult book, with some surprisingly graphic sexual scenes written in, which is something new for me in reading a science fiction novel.

The TV series is also very good, but I felt personally that it leaned a little too hard on violence and sexually explicit scenes. It also chose to critically change some main characters which leads to a significantly different ending, one that I felt wasn’t as strong as the novel, but also that somehow was more fleshed out if that makes sense. In some ways the TV series feels like 1.5 books, compared to the 1st book by Morgan, which actually makes sense since Kalogridis decided to put more content in the first season out of fear that the series wouldn’t be renewed, and because she felt there was too much good content to ignore in books 2 and 3 from Morgan.

If you’re a fan of this genre, but feel like you only want to either read it or watch it, I would urge you to reconsider and do both for one main reason: the influence of Netflix on our society is undeniable, and that influence shouldn’t be underestimated when a big series such as Altered Carbon ends up being the big hit that it has been. The series has already gotten a myriad excellent reviews (although not being perfect), and the greenlit second season and subsequent seasons will naturally be drawing from its source material, the books, as well.

So what does this all mean?

It means that Netflix has made Altered Carbon a culturally relevant modern TV series, and subsequently also is bringing Cyberpunk into social awareness and consciousness. The stylistic choices, colors, setting, and film noir feel of Altered Carbon (both the series and the books now) are creating a new modern perception of the Cyberpunk genre for our society in real time. I would venture to say it even has more of an effect than standalone movies such as Blade Runner 2049 or Ghost in the Shell, although the recent increase in Cyberpunk movies just further points to the growing trend that Cyberpunk is quickly becoming mainstream, something that industry favorite Neon Dystopia is quick to mention here and here.

So take the time to enjoy a great series and a great book. I am still trying to get my hands on book 2 and 3 of the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy. Altered Carbon tackles some great existential themes, such as the effect of money on society and the meaning of identity in a world where bodies are expendable sleeves, consciousness can be copied and downloaded, and laws grapple with religion and justice (such as it being illegal to put a stack of a Christian into a new body, even if the previous body was murdered and only that stack can pinpoint who the murderer was in a court of law).

Futuristic weapons, culture, and society, confused senses of identity and self as they relate to new technology, cyber enhancements, neurochemical stimulants, drugs, gangs, Artificial Intelligence and immoral business practices, Altered Carbon is the modern Cyberpunk series that our world needs. I give the novel 10/10, and the TV series 9/10, notching it one point for its gratuitous sexual scenes and violence.

If you’ve read or watched them, please let me know what you thought in the comments below!

Video Games

Cyberpunk 2077: Gameplay review

September 9, 2018 Alexander V Woods

Alright, fine. Since 45 minutes of Cyberpunk 2077’s gameplay has been released, I guess I have to join the bandwagon and give some of my thoughts. I mean, considering how fast Neon Dystopia wrote their review of the gameplay despite their usually very slow write-ups of current Cyberpunk news (they take time to write their content because of the high quality and extensive write-ups, an understandable limitation), I can understand how this is breaking news and indeed very exciting.

I should preface this review, however, by stating that I am very cautious to write about Cyberpunk 2077. The reason for this is that the hype over this game is, honestly, quite exhausting. It seems in the cyberpunk community that every day there’s a new story with gossip about news-that-isn’t-news, from the night/day cycle, featured car that can be driven, characters and their costumes, lighting, if you can imagine an element about the game there’s probably been some write-up about it hyped up in the lack of concrete news about the game. This is why I’ve been hesitant to comment about the game. Hell, if you google “Cyberpunk” and click the news section, all you’ll find will be news about this videogame. I shouldn’t have to tell you, dear reader, that Cyberpunk is a lot more than just one upcoming videogame. It’s one of the reasons why I started this blog, so people can know about synthwave music, Neon music and video festivals, and upcoming movies and news. You know, things other than just Cyberpunk 2077.

It’s my suspicion that Cyberpunk is currently experiencing a revival, facilitated in part by Altered Carbon and the sci-fi push in Netflix, as well as a series of recent box office hits these past couple of years with movies such as Blade Runner 2049, Ghost in the Shell, and this year’s Ready Player One movie adaptation with none other than the great Stephen Spielberg.

If you ask a common person what cyberpunk is, however, I bet they won’t know exactly what it is. That will soon change once this game finally comes out, because it’s in the name of the game itself.

What comes after that is anyone’s guess.

Anyways, on to the review of the gameplay footage.

I think whether or not you’re excited by this game depends a lot on the type of gamer you are. Do you like sinking hours upon hours into a videogame, or do you like having a simple storyline to start and finish because you have a job and responsibilities? Do you prefer stealth games, fighting games, racing games, or first person shooters?

Well, regardless of what you like, it sure seems like Cyberpunk 2077 will have a bit for everyone.

It seems like it has equal parts Grand Theft Auto, Deus Ex, Fallout, and Mass Effect. You can get into cars and drive around, and complete missions, but there are main missions and side missions, and all your choices matter. There is no right or wrong, only grey areas. The game is visually similar to Deus Ex or Mass Effect, with the ability to go a bit into stealth, but an interesting choice is to have the game be exclusively in first person (except for the car racing parts). I personally love this choice, and the fighting gameplay style looks so smooth and fluid that I could mistake it for a cyberpunk-y version of Halo mixed with Gears of War in its cover system (plus it has bullettime!). I’ve always felt that first person games will always make the game more immersive, which is why I played almost all of Skyrim and Fallout in first person when I had the choice.

The dialogue in this game at first glance looks extensive, which is great. The voice acting also looks like it’ll be pretty good. I’m of the impression that too many choices and paths can be overwhelming–I’d rather only have a few options and I usually stick to the main stories before I play through the game again completing more side quests. So I’m concerned the amount of side missions in this game might be too much.

I must say, though, the visuals in this game look absolutely gorgeous. If you’ve read my review for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, you’ll note how much of a missed opportunity I felt it had by making literally everything everywhere orange and yellow (something they remedied in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided). Not so with this game, it seems. I’ve seen in some cyberpunk boards that people wanted night all the time, with even more neon and less bright-harsh-natural sunlight, but I’m perfectly happy with the natural sunlight. There will be plenty of places to go inside that will hide the sunlight, and I think living in a constantly dark world would seem a bit unrealistic anyways.

What are your thoughts on the gameplay reveal? Are you excited for this game as well? Let me know below.

48 minute gameplay video can be found here.