I didn't see anyone mentioning Jeff Noon. Then again he's not the
biggest thing in North America. In my cyberculture cosmology the
trajectory is Gibson > Stephenson > Noon.
His major works: Vurt, Pollen, Automated Alice, Nymphomation,
Cobralingus, Needle in the Goove, Pixel Juice (short stories),
Falling Out of Cars are simply astounding. Cobra's actually written
in a form of code. Noon is the only cyberwriter I would gush
endlessly over. I'm putting together an annotated bibliography of
research on him (though it is presently in rough notes), and will be
republishing Noon's short story "Chromosft Mirrors (v.4.2)" in _The
International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments_ that Joel
Weiss and I are editing.
His world is very much a restructuring of _Through the Looking
Glass_, as Celia Hobart (Alice's doll) actually is credited with
having invented the Vurt Feathers (cyberspace). And stylistically
Noon is heavily influenced by early JG Ballard (1950s, 1960s).
Noon can't be missed, though he's hard to find. Check on amazon for
used copies. I'm collecting a class set of Vurt... slowly.
J
