John Shirley's seminal "Song Called Youth" back in print

BB pal Gareth Branwyn sez, "Just wanted to alert you, in case you were unaware, that my old cyberpal John Shirley's seminal series A Song Called Youth just came out in a new omnibus edition with a new introduction by Richard Kadrey and a biographical note by Chairman Bruce Sterling."

In a near-future dystopia, a limited nuclear strike has destroyed portions of Europe, bringing the remaining nation-cities under control of the Second Alliance, a frighteningly fundamentalist international security corporation with designs on world domination. The only defense against the Alliance's creeping totalitarianism is the New Resistance, a polyglot team of rebels that includes Rick Rickenharp, a retro-rocker whose artistic and political sensibilities intertwine, and John Swenson, a mole who has infiltrated the Alliance. As the fight continues and years progress, so does the technology and brutality of the Alliance... but ordinary people like the damaged visionary Smoke, Claire Rimpler on FirStep, and Dance Torrence and his fellow urban warriors on Earth are bound together by the truth and a single purpose: to keep the darkness from becoming humankind's Total Eclipse - or die trying! John Shirley was cyberpunk's patient zero, first locus of the virus, certifiably virulent."-William Gibson. An omnibus of all three novels-revised by the author-of the prophetic, still frighteningly relevant cyberpunk masterpieces: Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra, and Eclipse Corona.

A Song Called Youth

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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mwiik

This is tremendous. I recall reading these when they first came out. Now, is this the edition that was “revised and updated” in 1999?

Oh never mind, I see that it is.
slow car

yeah! bought it instantly, it was one of my first cyberpunk books as a youth
bytefyre

just bought the digital edition, haven’t read anything by this guy, although I have too much college stuff atm to do to read it, I did read Richard Kadrey’s introduction, and it gave me goosebumps
daen

I’ve been lucky to get to know John here in SF through a mutual acquaintance, and he is not only an excellent author (I read “In Extremis” cover to cover in one sitting - it’s an amazingly collection of horror stories, especially “Skeeter Junkie”, which is also rather beautiful), but a splendid fellow to boot.
http://www.facebook.com/sean.j.nelson Sean J Nelson

John Shirley is reading at the Anarchist Book Fair today, on a panel with Rudy Rucker, Terry Bisson and Pat Murphy called “Occupy the Future”.
- daen
  
  Ah! I missed the ABF, but I caught up with Terry, and Trina Robbins and Judy Gumbo Albert (who I believe were also at the ABF), and a guy whose name I unfortunately can’t remember (Jay someone …) at SF in SF last night, for a discussion of the sixties underground press. Glad I got to go to that, at least.
http://twitter.com/jessek Jesse K.

just bought the kindle edition to augment my paperbacks. I only have the originals to compare to, not the 1999 versions, but it seems like this copy has been updated to included contemporary references to things like facebook, wifi, etc.
Gatto

John Shirley is one of my long time faves. His short fiction, esp. his very early stuff is just amazing. After reading his “Heatseeker” collection, I spent *years* trying to find all the Eclipse/Song Called Youth books ( Ah, the days before the web ). So glad to see they are getting reprinted! ( Little known fact: Shirley also did the screenplay for “The Crow” upteen years ago. )
I have to disagree with Gibson though, “Shockwave Rider” by John Brunner is by far the first novel that could be called cyberpunk, it predates “City Come A Walkin” ( Shirley, 1980 ) and “True Names” ( Vinge, 1981 ) by five years ( 1975! )
bjacques

I remember when these came out. Great read, but I thought a re-fascist Europe was a bit of a stretch. After the waves of rightwing and center-right governments taking European parliaments in the last few years, I wasn’t so sure. Greed and fear would be sufficient; a nuclear dustup wouldn’t be necessary. Now there’s sort of a backlash to the rightwing backlash, but it’s still an open question.

If K.W. Jeter’s “Dr. Adder” had been published when it was finished (1972) instead of 12years later, it would have beaten the above.

But everything old is new again, like the 1980s war on reproductive freedom and the God-botherers trying to get one of their own into the White House.