Ethan Ring has created the ultimate power to kill . . . but will it consume him? Also included is The Tear, finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novella
Fracters are the next wave in military technology. Developed by a design student named Ethan Ring, they are images that can control the minds of others, giving their users the power to hurt, hypnotize, or even kill.
Witnessing the destruction that his invention has wrought, Ring finds himself guilt ridden and depressed. Seeking redemption, he embarks on a Shikoku pilgrimage across cyber-feudal twenty-first-century Japan, through the eighty-eight sacred sites of Shingon Buddhism. With the help of his friend Masahiko, Ring tours this strange new Japan in search of ways to rid himself of the curse that he has created. In the process, he not only learns about himself, he discovers new ways to use this terrible weapon to help and heal.
With Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone, author Ian McDonald has created an indelible introspective journey through one of the most haunting environments imaginable.
Also included is The Tear, a stunning novella set in a far-future world whose inhabitants develop multiple “aspects:” completely separate personalities that take over when required. The story follows young Ptey as he matures, takes on new aspects, and plays a vital role in a battle against an implacable enemy. The resulting story is tragic, hopeful, packed with ideas, and completely memorable.
From Publishers Weekly
McDonald's fifth novel is a slim but powerful vision of 21st-century Japan and a guilt-ridden man's journey through it toward redemption. Ethan Ring, introspective and plagued by the sins of his past, embarks on the ancient Shikoku pilgrimage--an overland trek to visit the 88 sacred sites of Shingon Buddhism--with his friend Masahiko, hoping to find some peace from his painful memories. Those memories return in flashbacks along the route, and Ring's crimes are revealed: he and some fellow students developed a series of "fracters," superpowerful psychological images that can hypnotize, enrage, heal, blind and even kill on sight. When the security arm of the European common government learns of them, they force Ring to use the fracters as an interrogator and assassin. On the pilgrimage, Ring turns the fracters to good purposes when he can, and searches for a way to escape their curse. McDonald ( The Broken Land ) effectively blends Ring's personal story with his depiction of a future Japan reverting to technological feudalism and haunted by reconstructed "ghosts" of the dead preserved in virtual realities, and he keeps this fine novel tight and well focused. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Ethan Ring is a former graphic design student with a dark and powerful secret. As an undergraduate, he and some classmates developed the ultimate in high-concept visual art: computerized images capable of bypassing rational thought and controlling the mind of the perceiver, whether for good or ill. When the reigning intelligence agency gets wind of Ethan's handiwork, he is forced into its service via the most potent of the images being tattooed on the palms of his hands. Now on a spiritual pilgrimage through twenty-first-century Japan, a guilt-ridden Ethan grapples with the responsibility his power implies and determines to use it for the greatest good by ridding the country of its ubiquitous crime syndicate. A past winner of sf's Campbell Award for best new writer, McDonald now ranks among the genre's leading stylists. In this brief but surprisingly satisfying tale, the full range of his versatile talent is on display as he merges Zen philosophy with cyberspace performance art in a high-tech contemplation of good and evil. A rare combination of suspenseful storytelling and thought-provoking ideas. Carl Hays
Description:
Ethan Ring has created the ultimate power to kill . . . but will it consume him? Also included is The Tear, finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novella
Fracters are the next wave in military technology. Developed by a design student named Ethan Ring, they are images that can control the minds of others, giving their users the power to hurt, hypnotize, or even kill.
Witnessing the destruction that his invention has wrought, Ring finds himself guilt ridden and depressed. Seeking redemption, he embarks on a Shikoku pilgrimage across cyber-feudal twenty-first-century Japan, through the eighty-eight sacred sites of Shingon Buddhism. With the help of his friend Masahiko, Ring tours this strange new Japan in search of ways to rid himself of the curse that he has created. In the process, he not only learns about himself, he discovers new ways to use this terrible weapon to help and heal.
With Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone, author Ian McDonald has created an indelible introspective journey through one of the most haunting environments imaginable.
Also included is The Tear, a stunning novella set in a far-future world whose inhabitants develop multiple “aspects:” completely separate personalities that take over when required. The story follows young Ptey as he matures, takes on new aspects, and plays a vital role in a battle against an implacable enemy. The resulting story is tragic, hopeful, packed with ideas, and completely memorable.
From Publishers Weekly
McDonald's fifth novel is a slim but powerful vision of 21st-century Japan and a guilt-ridden man's journey through it toward redemption. Ethan Ring, introspective and plagued by the sins of his past, embarks on the ancient Shikoku pilgrimage--an overland trek to visit the 88 sacred sites of Shingon Buddhism--with his friend Masahiko, hoping to find some peace from his painful memories. Those memories return in flashbacks along the route, and Ring's crimes are revealed: he and some fellow students developed a series of "fracters," superpowerful psychological images that can hypnotize, enrage, heal, blind and even kill on sight. When the security arm of the European common government learns of them, they force Ring to use the fracters as an interrogator and assassin. On the pilgrimage, Ring turns the fracters to good purposes when he can, and searches for a way to escape their curse. McDonald ( The Broken Land ) effectively blends Ring's personal story with his depiction of a future Japan reverting to technological feudalism and haunted by reconstructed "ghosts" of the dead preserved in virtual realities, and he keeps this fine novel tight and well focused.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Ethan Ring is a former graphic design student with a dark and powerful secret. As an undergraduate, he and some classmates developed the ultimate in high-concept visual art: computerized images capable of bypassing rational thought and controlling the mind of the perceiver, whether for good or ill. When the reigning intelligence agency gets wind of Ethan's handiwork, he is forced into its service via the most potent of the images being tattooed on the palms of his hands. Now on a spiritual pilgrimage through twenty-first-century Japan, a guilt-ridden Ethan grapples with the responsibility his power implies and determines to use it for the greatest good by ridding the country of its ubiquitous crime syndicate. A past winner of sf's Campbell Award for best new writer, McDonald now ranks among the genre's leading stylists. In this brief but surprisingly satisfying tale, the full range of his versatile talent is on display as he merges Zen philosophy with cyberspace performance art in a high-tech contemplation of good and evil. A rare combination of suspenseful storytelling and thought-provoking ideas. Carl Hays