Hardwired cover art

Hardwired

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Hardwired

By: Walter Jon Williams
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
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About this listen

 Ex-fighter pilot Cowboy, "hardwired" via skull sockets directly to his lethal electronic hardware, teams up with Sarah, an equally cyborized gun-for-hire, to make a last stab at independence from the rapacious Orbitals.©2006 Night Shade Books (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction Cyberpunk

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Critic reviews

"Hardwired is a tough, sleek juggernaut of a story, punctuated by strobe light movements, coursing to the wail of jets and the twang of steel guitars." (Roger Zelazny)
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This is one of my favourite audiobooks. It is the first I have listened to a second time. The reading perfectly compliments the writing style. Yes the story has plot holes and it stretches credibility a bit, but the pace, energy and drive of the narration are breathtaking.
It creates a future world but does not get bogged down in detail for details sake, which sometimes happens with SF authors...If you are reading a book and you hit a paragraph waxing lyrical over some technical gizmo you have a choice of reading it and revelling in the detail, or letting your eye skip to the start of the next paragraph. You cannot do that so easily with an audio book.
Perhaps an analogy would help. If this audiobook was a picture of an fighter plane going into action it would be 'Whaam' by Roy Lichtenstein - graphic and immediate with just enough detail to carry you into the action, rather than say a Robert Taylor painting - accurate down to individual rivets! Don't get me wrong, I love to look at a Robert Taylor print, but having someone describe it to you ... well you get the picture!


Whaam

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This is one of my favourite cyberpunk books, it's a good introduction to the genre, It's quite old and cyber punk has evolved, but it works nicely for hardwired as it's almost like a story of the early days.

Classic Cyberpunk

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This was written nearly 40 years ago now and it is clear in some of the language use but on the whole it really does stand up to the test of time. Narration is good though difficult to translate some of the features of the book into audio, such as the adverts that usually accompany a perspective shift. Recommend for those interested by the origins of Cyberpunk.

Elements are dated but still a good read.

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Great story, awesome performance. At first I was taken aback by Rudnicki's deep voice, then I loved it. A personal favourite now.

Exceptional

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This is probaly the best audiobook I've ever heard. It's like it was written specifically as an audiobook, the narrative, the imagery, the flow of the language are all great. I wish I could un-hear it and experience it again.



Story, context and characters are high quality and make sense, in the terms this kind of story can make sense. For me, a clear five star up there with my all-time favorites Altered Carbon, Old Man's War and the Mars trilogy.

Awesome

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loved it, I read the book 30 years ago, and it's as exciting now as it was then. Add to that, a narration that seems at first a stereotype, then grows on you, and in the end seems perfect.

So, onto the sequels. let's see what Reno can do....

Cyberpunk meets the a wild west

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It's Cyberpunk and this is the best I can say about it.
I did get definite Sprawl/Neuromancer vibes from it but it's far form them.
And compared to Snow Crash it has 0 humor. No fun at all. It tries to be all serious and grim.
Some terms get overused to the point that I had enough of "Crystal" and "shooting Torpedoes".
The world is interesting at first but after a wile it just becomes an expression of how much power and money can twist people.

It's ok but there are far better books to spend your time on.

Just Meh

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This is cyberpunk but it was a bit to hardcore for me, I just couldn't get into it. Just not for me.

Cyberpunk

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An old favourite, the audiobook really made me aware of the almost poetical description of the ‘face and Cowboy’s panzer and delta trips.

Classic cyberpunk

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The book itself is a well known classic of the cyberpunk genre and needs little introduction except to say that it's a must read.

I was at first unsure of the performance of this audio version. but I must say by the conclusion his performance had completely won me over. I think this guy has become the voice of cowboy in my head from now on. :D

A damned good delivery of an absolute classic

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