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 Ciphers by Paul di Filippo
Cambrian Publications/Permeable Press, Paperback, $16.95, 533 pp
Available from BBR Distribution: P.O. Box 625, Sheffield, S1 3GY, UK
reviewed by Underview
Original appearance: Albedo one issue 16, Spring 1998
Paul di Filippo is one of the most outrageous stylists working in the field of science fiction today. His new novel, Ciphers is subtitled A Post-Shannon Rock-n-Roll Mystery and claims to be Composed partially by Sampling, Splicing, Channeling and Reverse Transcription. To your average Joe this may sound pretty strange, but stranger still is the fact that once you have read even a few pages of this dense, intelligent, mind-expanding experience you will tend to believe that this is in no way marketing blurb. The very term marketing is probably anathema to di Filippo and certainly there is no hint of consideration of commercial niceties, or even necessities. This is a novel that just screams for an intelligent and patient and appreciative audience, all the reasons why it could not have been successfully published by one of the major multi-national conglomerates who these days decide with their cowardice and avarice just what we should be allowed to read. Who could have imagined that George Orwell could have been so far off the mark with his visions of the future in 1984. Big Brother is already here. He is the great god Mammon. We cannot escape him. Or can we? Di Filippo may be trying to show us a way. He has chosen to be published in the small press. Which is why you are unlikely to find this wonderful novel in your local neighbourhood bookshop, no matter where your neighbourhood might be. In these miserable islands off the coast of the European continent your only hope of access to this challenging helter-skelter ride through the subconscious of the baby-boomer, post acid, dropped out and turned on, X generation is to slap your money into the post, with BBR's address on it (P.O. Box 625, Sheffield, S1 3GY) and wait for Chris Reed to post it to you... so, run, run to the post office now, run swiftly before your best chance at intellectual salvation this year is sold out. Hurry, while stocks last. Do it now, before our not-so-subliminal advertising rots your brain.
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