Reading – Last Tango in Cyberspace

I wasn’t familiar with author Steven Kotler before I picked up this book based on title alone (though the barcoded human on the cover did reinforce that I’d made a good choice) but apparently we swim in similar culture. Dune, Temple Grandin, and Rainer Maria Rilke aren’t just referenced, they form central plot elements in this cyber-noir novel.

The Pitch

Former journalist Lion Zorn is an em-tracker, a new level of awareness in humanity, sensitive to picking up on shifts in culture and see emerging futures. Sure enough, he’s a fan of Dune (and that’s not the only reference made to it) and recites the Litany Against Fear often. He’s been hired to investigate something that’s just the tip of the spear …

Judah “Lion” Zorn is the kind of protagonist that would sit comfortably at a Wok & Bagel emporium with an 80s synth pop blues covers band playing on stage, sipping his triple Americano alongside the likes of gonzo journalist Spider Jerusalem, empathic envoy Takeshi Kovacs, and language hacker Hiro Protagonist. The hard boiled counter culture retro infused text sizzles like a William Gibson odyssey, a sea of poly-culture writ in tattoos and juxtaposed neon Atari’s and fruit instead of mirror shades and a sky the colour of a dead television channel. Gibson even gets a name drop, and rightfully so as Last Tango in Cyberspace has a similar gritty mirror shades rebel with a cause feel to it.

Apparently there’s already a sequel, The Devil’s Dictionary, so I expect to be reading that soon enough. Other novels cut of similar cloth:

• Altered Carbon (Richard K. Morgan)
  Set in a distant future of being able to back up and later upload entire consciousness; Takeshi Kovacs, a soldier with highly specialized intelligence and military training before he turned rebel, is called upon to solve the murder of one of the nigh immortal ultra rich Methuselahs. The book has also been adapted for television.
• TransMetropolitan (Warren Ellis / Darick Robertson)
  A comic series following the brilliant gonzo journalist Spider Jerusalem, fuelled by nicotine and other drugs, as he rallies against authority and corruption.
• Virtual Light (William Gibson)
  First of a trilogy, cyberpunk in themes if not quite there in tech yet.
• When Gravity Fails (George Alec Effinger)
  A classic and often overlooked cyberpunk novel; also the first of a series. Think Casablanca if Rick was forced to get cyber-modded in order to track down a killer.
• Zodiac (Neal Stephenson)
  Chemist and part time environmentalist Sangamon Taylor finds himself caught in a storm of conspiracy and cover ups. He also huffs nitrous oxide on the side. A much quicker read than Snow Crash, another Stephenson cyberpunk novel of language, religion, and brain hacking.

How am I going to use this at my table …

• When it comes to making moves that provoke answers and insights, I immediately think of the Powered by the Apocalypse systems. Ironically, Last Tango has little in the way of traditional cyberware or body modding, focusing more on the social aspects of a future crashing into the present and how technology interacts as an influence rather than an upgrade. Fun fact, Kotler in the acknowledgements at the end of the book notes how almost all of the technologies appear in the novel are either in current use or lab development. If nothing else, it’s priming me to think about other emotional tells to convey answers to sense motive and similar moves in other games.

• The descriptive window dressing of poly-cultures are a good inspiration point, building on clashing cultures mashed together and the resulting style over substance and I can see cribbing a few of the settings and character descriptions for a game.

• At the core, this novel is an investigation delving for clues and data points. The violence doesn’t happen often and when it does, the protagonist gets hurt badly. Gumshoe is but one of several good investigation models out there. Last Tango in Cyberspace owes as much to Neuromancer as it does to Sam Spade, going down dark alleys and doing less than savory things to crack a case wide open, taking tough hits along the way. It helps show that a cyberpunk story can be a mystery and not just street samurai with monofilament blades and cyber-limbs.