Synners
Pat Cadigan
1991 Bantam Spectra
F
This a long, tedious novel written by a very amateur author who has no clue
about her subject matter.  It is obvious she knows nothing about computers,
hackers, programmers, or systems.  Instead of a plot, we get over four hundred
pages of scenes that can only be described as a cross between a drug trip and
a warped dream.  And somehow, the characters in the novel use these drug trips
to create music videos and fight computer viruses.  The book has other problems
as well, including one of time.  You never know how much time has passed from
one scene to the next.  In the middle of the book everything gets so boring
and pointless that even the author throws her hands in the air and presses
fast-forward for a few months, as the discovery of brain socket technology
turns into a popular business for music videos.  In the first 300 pages of
the book, the author tortures us by opening each chapter inside another 
character's mind, but you don't get to find out which mind until several
pages have gone by, so you're not really sure who she's talking about.  The
end result is one long boring disaster.