The Clairvoyant Countess

City Come a Walkin' should be a neoliberal nightmare. The big banks, run by the mob, have displaced the government in the United States (no other country is mentioned). Digital credit, manipulated by the banks, has superseded money, which is all but banned. The final usurpation of power and the consolidation of a new criminal cartel is being plotted by mob bosses in the major cities of the nation. The corporatized criminals... Read Full Review

If you know who Jack Hawksmoor of the Authority is, you will get some of the vibe here. San Francisco is making its own superheroes, to help combat corruption, takeover and neglect of its internal systems, and organised crime control of finance. However, it needs assistants, and ends up possessing those bodies, with their physical forms being destroyed. Other cities are on a similar path, by the end, without the superhero... Read Full Review

This book is definitely an important one as the forward by William Gibson indicates. Still, there is much left to be wanting. Looking back I remember being basically floored by the first fifty pages, and then subsequently let down for the majority of the rest of the book. The main character is hard to like and not in an anti-hero sort of way. I think this probably hints at John Shirley's true talent lying in his short story... Read Full Review

This is probably the most unique concept I've come across. The idea of a the city's consciousness manifesting itself is fresh and interesting. It's hard to believe this title is as old as it is. It seems like recently written cyberpunk. Pretty obvious that instead, all other cyberpunk has taken from it.

For those of you that don't know john shirley, he is the father of Cyberpunk...a master of it. his novel, city come a-walkin', is one of my favorites, telling the story of a club owner who is visited by a representation of a city , in the form of a man. i highly recomend this book for those who are into dark, funny novels...