Vurt-ually Awesome (Vurt - Jeff Noon)

Member Name: 666disturbed

Product:	Vurt - Jeff Noon
Date:	23/08/02 (460 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic Fantasy

Disadvantages: Unimaginative people beware

Jeff Noon wrote this rather bizarre novel as a tribute to Manchester where he was born, it won the Arthur C. Clark Sci-Fi award in 1994 !

I was going to write a review on Strangers by Dean Koontz that I’ve just finished, but there’s no category for it, so until those DY egg heads sort out a slot for that I thought I’d review a favourite book of mine.

Sit back and let your imagination run wild, you’ll need to if you read this book it’s absolutely crackers !

It’s a very “druggiefied” book, set in the near future in a rather disturbing Manchester backdrop.
The book follows the adventures of the Stash-Riders a small group of Vurt users who are about to have the adventure of their lives.

This is going to be tough to describe and I definitely don’t want to spoil this one for anybody. So I’ll describe the plot and a few interesting scenes and I’ll try and describe what Vurt is, but I won’t give too much away, otherwise I’m likely to get moaned at !

The head of the Stash Riders is called Scribble. Scribble is desperately in love with Desdemona, who is rather disturbingly his sister, (I did say it was bizarre), There are other members of the Stash Riders, Twinkle, she’s cute and empty headed and Beetle, who drives the Stash Mobile around at considerable pace whilst of his face on a Vurt trip and greased up to the hilts on Vaz.

What is Vurt ? Well, Vurt is a VR trip brought about by placing a Vurt feather into the mouth and allowing it to take you on a “Vurt Trip”, it’s close to LSD as it creates hallucinogenic effects but far more dangerous as the effects are not only hallucinogenic but actually take you to a VR world where there are different set of rules to the usual reality ! Ok so far ? I’ll talk feathers for a minute :

Blue Feathers, these are legal and usage will not result in a robo-police chase
or any injury or uncontrollable happening they are easy to snap out of.

Pink Feathers, illegal pornography feathers, the user evidently ends up as horny as Peter Sringfellow at an Anne Summers party !

Black Feathers, very dodgy bootleg feathers highly illegal, usage would precipitate a police chase immediately, they are violent feathers and are often uncontrollable, a user could end up psychotic and lost in the VR world for a long time.

Yellow Feathers, Ah, Curious Yellow, very rare feathers also very very dangerous and the cause of Scribbles current nightmares, if you die whilst in the VR world on a yellow feather, you die for real !

Silver Feathers, Operators Feathers, only an operator of the VR world is authorised to us this kind of feather.



The plot !

Desdemona and Scribble have taken a Yellow feather, whist Scribble returned from the trip, Desdemona did not, she is lost in a Vurt world and cannot get back. A thing from another planet, kind of like a spaced out octopus has come back in her place, apparently the operators saw it as fair trade, but you’ll have to read the book to find out more on that.
The Stash Riders are determined to get Desdemona back and go in search of another Curious Yellow Feather in order to try and retrieve her, but as I said Yellows are rare and they encounter all kinds of unsavoury characters along the way as well as a few slightly odd ones too. The most unusual being dog people, they are part human, part dog. Some have human bodies and a dogs head others have human torsos and dogs legs, apparently all combinations are possible but all dog people have one thing in common, there gross, they smell and they hang around in packs.
Shadows are a strange lot, they tend to be police informers who can move in and out of the VR and real worlds without the aid of Feathers, a nasty crew who are neither alive or dead.
Robo-police, bit like Robocop really, but in tr
ue “Noon-ian” style they are very weird.
All the Stash Riders adventures take place in Rusholme and other surrounding Mancunian areas from Didsbury to Moss Side and beyond; Noon describes future Manchester with an eerie canniness that is strangely accurate.

The whole story consists of weird drugged up experiences of Vurt users on different feathers and having different states of mind all under control of a mysterious guy called Game Cat. Game Cat is the controller of the Vurt world and the owner of the Silver Operator Feathers, it is he that Scribble must get in contact with if he is ever to retrieve his beloved Desdemona. A yellow feather being the best way to get close to the game cat.

I could write so much about the Fantasy worlds Noon creates when people take feathers, or about what happens to people who OD on feathers or are shot by the police. But, I’m afraid that would be spoiling the fun, and I don’t want to be doing that now do I ?!
I could even write pages on the two characters that are so in love with each other that there hair becomes entwined with each other and they haven’t been separated in over 20 years, but again it would be revealing too much !

So I’m sorry for the brief and unusual review, but you’ll just have to absorb this amazing adventure/fantasy story to make your own mind up, it’s probably not for everyone, but it does make fascinating reading, if your imagination can handle it ?????

Does Scribble get Desdemona back ?
Do the Stash Riders make it to a better day ?
Does the game cat play by the rules ?

Nah……………I’ m not telling !

Cheers for reading,
:O) The disturbed one

Summary: