If the release of the omnibus Live Robots is any indication, publishers thought that Rudy
Rucker’s Ware series was at an end. Software and Wetware capable of being seen as something resembling a closed
loop, Rucker nevertheless returned nine years after Wetware to continue the story of the world turned upside down by wild
technology.
Switching gears, Freeware
(1998) breaks new ground in the Ware world.
Set many years after Wetware,
the boppers have been destroyed by humanity, and a new form of sentience has
appeared. Something akin to
algal-plastic beings, “moldies” live alongside standard humans, but not always
in friendly or approved fashion. A
traditional religion based on Christianity called Heritagism rising to power, followers
disapprove of human-moldie relations, and have even been known to burn the
smelly beings in public. But the real
tension in the novel results from the development of a new form of imipolex—a
substance key to moldie existence. A
complex, crystalline plastic, when a new form of the product slips onto the
market, the world, and universe, really opens up.
Freeware is
largely told through the eyes of three characters. Randy Karl Tucker is a young man without a
father and raised in the rural areas of Kentucky. Redneck to the core, his sexual experiences
with a local woman lead him down the path of a cheeseball: a man who loves sex
with moldies. His lustful desires, along
with plumbing skills dictating his path in life, Randy finds himself in the
employ of Emperor Staghorn Enterprises, one of the world’s largest producers of
imipolex. Tre is a Californian surfer
strung out on weed most of the time, but who happens to posses the intelligence
to discover a new type of virtual overlay.
Caught up in a commercial venture with imipolex, it isn’t long before
Randy and Tre’s worlds collide. And
lastly is Monique. A moldie, she works as
a maid in a hotel, trying to stay out of the way lest any of the locals get any
ideas in their head about torturing or killing her. Little does she know the
role she will play in world politics as imipolex research takes off.
With Freeware,
Rucker takes the Ware universe (if there ever were such a notion) in a new
direction. Gone are the boppers and
prevalence of Sta-Hi Mooney (though he does make some key cameos), and in their
place are the moldies—a group, like the boppers, who have their own agenda—and
an American population even more conservative than that previously
portrayed. Moldies and cheeseballs
rolling off the tongue with as much glee as boppers and meaties, Freeware may move in a new direction,
but it’s a fun one—and one that enlivens rather than exhausts the original
conception.
A pet peeve rather than true problem with the novel, about 85%
through Freeware, a change occurs
that blows the doors off Rucker’s universe.
The possibilities exponentially more numerous than what existed previously,
what was wacky becomes absurd—at least in my humble view; for sure there are
readers who will love the development.
Not a gamestopper, however, the story moves on, as…
Rucker’s wit and wackiness remains wholly in place. Perhaps more fun than the previous two Ware
novels, it’s highly possible the reader will laugh out loud encountering the
sardonic take on religion and dildos, the women’s boy toys and moldie
love-making, Randy Karl Tucker’s redneck scenes and the many interesting uses
for amipolex—and who can forget perplexing poultry? As Amazon reviewer albemuth
states, Rucker“writes straight from his
subunconscious pool, winging it with gusto and joy. Engineers beware, this
works on dream-logic and grabs you by the jellyfish.” Floaty, indeed.
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