8.4 /10 1 Votes
9/10 Fantasy Book Review Cover artist Joe Magee Language English OCLC 30734475 Genre Science Fiction Awards Arthur C. Clarke Award | 4.1/5 Goodreads 4.1/5 Pan Macmillan Country Great Britain Series Vurt series Originally published October 1993 Followed by Pollen ISBN 978-1-898051-03-9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type print (paperback and hardback), audiobook Similar Nymphomation, Automated Alice, Pixel Juice, Falling Out of Cars, Needle in the Groove | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Vurt jeff noon 1 8 audiobook read by paul mcgann tape 1 side a
Vurt is a 1993 science fiction novel written by British author Jeff Noon. Both Noon and small publishing house Ringpull's debut novel, it went on to win the 1994 Arthur C. Clarke Award and was later listed in The Best Novels of the Nineties.
Contents
Vurt audiobook
Plot summary
Vurt tells the story of Scribble and his "gang", the Stash Riders, as they search for his missing sister Desdemona. The novel is set in an alternate version of Manchester, England, in which society has been shaped by Vurt, a hallucinogenic drug/shared alternate reality, accessed by sucking on colour-coded feathers. Through some (never explained) mechanism, the dreams, mythology, and imaginings of humanity have achieved objective reality in the Vurt and become "real".
Before the novel begins, Scribble and his sister take a shared trip into a vurt called English Voodoo, but upon awakening Scribble finds his sister has disappeared. Out of that trip comes an amorphous semi-sentient blob which Mandy, a fellow Stash Rider, nicknames "The Thing from Outer Space". From that point on, Scribble is on a mission to find a rare and contraband Curious Yellow feather so that he might find his sister.
Characters
Literary significance and reception
Vurt achieved both critical and commercial success, attracting praise from the science fiction community as well as the literary arena. It has been stylistically compared to William Gibson's cyberpunk novel Neuromancer, as well as Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange.
In High Anxieties, a book exploring the modern concept of addiction, Scribble is used as an example of a character who has traded addiction for a chance at transcendence. Brodie et al. liken Scribble's incorporation of Vurt technology into his biological body as a metaphor for the revelation potentially gained through drug use. They point out that the exchange rate between the real and the Vurt is tempered by Hobart's Constant, or "H"—which is "not incidentally", Brodie argues, "slang for heroin."
The book has attracted criticism due to its implausible science and "wild and kaleidoscopic" yet unsatisfying plot. Entertainment Weekly felt Vurt was undeserving of receiving the 1994 Arthur C. Clarke Award, saying the book's "sentimental incest and adolescent self-congratulation...is never really startling or disturbing."
Comic books
There have been a few comic adaptations of the novel, most notably Vurt - The Comic Remix, with art by Lee O'Connor.
Games
In August 2015, Ravendesk Games conducted a Kickstarter campaign, successfully funding a tabletop role-playing game version of Vurt. The campaign reached its goal in only ten days, suggesting an ongoing public awareness and cult-like fondness for the novel.
Film and television
Although Noon began the screenplay for the film version of Vurt in 2002, with Iain Softley scheduled to direct, he has since stated on his public website that "Of the Vurt film, all has gone silent at the moment. Don’t hold your breath."
Stage
In 2000, Liam Steel directed Vurt: The Theatre Remix, which ran for three weeks at Contact Theatre in Manchester.
20th anniversary edition
In 2013, 20th anniversary edition of the novel was published, featuring three new stories and a foreword by Lauren Beukes.