[Liam Sharp]

Vurt by Jeff Noon I thought was a real gem, and I'd say Matrix 2 owed a lot to it - the Game Cat is VERY close to the architect, they even look the same...
Strange, engaging, and with an aweful lot owed to Alice in Wonderland (another Matrix ploy) I'd recommend it to anybody with a taste for the unusual and exotic. Tightly written too.
I've not found another Jeff Noon I liked so much though...

[Luke_B]

Actually, when you posted about Will Self I was going to recommend Jeff Noon to you. This is a good book. I borrowed it off a mate a few years ago and I've been scouring secondhand bookstores for a copy so I can have a reread. I agree about the Matrix connection, but we should emphasise this book is actually good.

(Okay, I like the first Matrix, but the other two were pretty lame).

[Liam Sharp]

I just met the Matrix Twins (tm) at a show - and they were seriously decent guys actually. No pretentions, no arrogance, and an open, friendly take on life. Turns out they were born less than two weeks after me in the same year, and they're both dyslexic too (like me). We hung out for the three of the evenings, very pleasant. I'll remember them fondly if I never hear from either of them. :)
I think their characters were massively under-used in the second movie. It was the so-called burly brawl and Zion rave that blew it for me, plus the racially steriotypical set-up there...

Anyway, that's right off topic!

VURT!! Fantastic book. I think (and this is a comics ref.) that Warren Ellis was heavily inspired by this book too. It has his kind of imagery and characters, not to mention language.
Droid-locks anyone?

[ArthurFrayn]

Aptly put.
The Zion rave was a gross miscalculation. It took a long time to get back into the film after that, and I never saw the third one because of it.

Appallingly wrong.

Anyway...

[ArthurFrayn]

I enjoyed Vurt though!;)

[Yobmod]

Vurt didn't really do it for me. I loved some of the ideas and the future world, especially how the robodogs and dogmen and zombies and robozombies et al were all explained using one mechanism, and that apart from that the origins of the world were so vague.

However, the Vurt itself, and all the dreamworlds weren't great IMO - and mostly felt unneccesary. The 'real world' was strange enough. The characters were lacking too, i can't really remember anything apart from vague outlines (ie one is a kind-hearted drop-out, one is a slut, one is intense etc).

but vurt is still much better than the one sequel i've read: Pollen

[ArthurFrayn]

I'll admit the ending kind of peters out, but I liked the characters, and the whole Irvine Welsh/Drugstore Cowboy/A Scanner Darkly/Neuromancer amalgam.
I know you were nonplussed about this one and genuine miffed about Pollen.

I think Jeff Noon might have something going on though. With my aversion for reading sequels in mind, I'd probably skip Pollen and Nymphomation for a few, and give Automated Alice a shot.

[Nim]

All of jeff Noon's novels are fantastic, all of them, my favourite being Pollen - it left me with a darkly apocalyptic feel- but the end coming from the Vurt alternate universe entering our own- isn't that the scariest vision ever? I have found his Novels to be increasingly less non-sensical which may or may not be a bad thing, depending on your state of mind I guess