Book Review: Hardwired

Book Review: 'Hardwired' by Walter Jon Williams

1 / 5 Stars

'Hardwired' (343 pp.) was published by Tor Books in April, 1987, and features cover art by pinup artist Luis Royo.

 

'Hardwired' is set in the 21st century. The United States is under the hegemony of the Orbitals, the oligarchs who control the space stations circling the globe. A recent war between the so-called 'dirt' people on the Earth's surface, and the Orbitals, easily was won by the latter, through the expedient of dropping kinetic weapons down onto cities and military installations. Now all commerce on the Earth is governed by the Orbitals, who are in competition with each other to acquire the lion's share of the planetary resources.

 

Lead character Cowboy once was a member of the military elite, the pilot of a delta-winged fighter plane. Equipped with sockets in his skull and jacked into the cutting-edge computer that controled the delta fighter, Cowboy soared the skies, living on the edge. But in the short-lived war with the Orbitals, the deltas got the worst of it. Now Cowboy is a 'panzerboy,' carrying clandestine cargo aboard a specially armored hovercraft. 

 

In the employ of middlemen, whose allegiances to the Orbitals are mediated solely by avarice, Cowboy makes runs across the middle of the USA, dodging enemy vehicles and aircraft in order to deliver the goods to the waiting middlemen. Cowboy is good at his craft, but it's no substitute for the thrills he experienced as a fighter jock, and he spends his days struggling to find purpose in the postwar world.

 

In the opening chapters the reader also is introduced to supporting character Sara, a 'dirtgirl,' or mercenary, who works as a freelance assassin-slash-bodyguard. 'Wired' with implants that give her superhuman reflexes and strength, Sara hopes that taking risky assignments from Orbital intermediaries someday will grant her a place on one of the space stations drifting far above the cutthroat nature of life in postwar Florida.

 

As the novel progresses Cowboy and Sara cross paths, and form an uneasy alliance with Albrecht Roon, the disgraced former CEO of Tempel Pharmaceuticals, one of the most powerful of the oligarchies. Roon hopes to regain his position as CEO, but his plan will require confronting the Orbitals from a position of comparative weakness. It's an alliance of convenience for Cowboy, Sara, and Roon, with no guarantee of success. But if the action offers Cowboy the chance to fly again in combat in the cockpit of the delta fighter Pony Express, it's a risk well worth taking.........

 

'Hardwired' is a first-generation cyberpunk novel derived from Gibson's 'Neuromancer.' Cowboy and Sara essentially are modeled on Case and Molly, respectively, from 'Neuromancer.' This is not a bad thing, but 'Hardwired' has a number of defects that kept me from giving it any score higher than One Star.

 

'Hardwired' has a very dense, highly descriptive prose, and this is too smothering for a novel with a length of nearly 350 pages. Too many ornate passages, with too many metaphors and similes: 

The words stir a warmness in Cowboy, but it's washed away by the surge of data into his crystal, his extensions. His turbopumps moan, pouring fuel into the combustion chamber of his shrieking heart. Neurotransmitters pulse to a steel beat like Smoky Dacus's drums. "Thanks," he says, his eyes flickering in and out of infrared perception, tracking the glowing path of the shuttle in the sky.

 

The novel is at least 75 pages too long, with too many empty passages, and too many introspective segments that are intended to let us know more about the characters, but in fact slow down the narrative. While the final chapters of 'Hardwired' do culminate in some action sequences, these come too late to rescue the novel from its dilatory pacing. I finished 'Hardwired' with no urge to tackle its quasi-sequel, 'Voice of the Whirlwind.'