Synopses & Reviews
The autobiography of Rudy Rucker begins in Louisville, Kentucky, with a young boy growing up with a desire to be a beatnik writer, a businessman father who becomes a clergyman, and a mother descended from the philosopher, Hegel. It continues through his college years, his romance with his wife, graduate school, rock music, and his college teaching jobs as a math professor. All the while Rudy is reading science fiction, beat poetry, and beginning to write some pretty strange fiction, a blend of Philip K. Dick and hard SF that qualifies him as part of the original circle of writers in the early 1980s, including Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, John Shirley, and Lew Shiner, who founded cyberpunk. He becomes known for his wild-man behavior, in the beatnik tradition.
Later, Rucker renames his fiction Transrealism (and now there is at least one academic book on the subject). In the mid-1980s he switches from math to computers, just in time for the computer revolution. By then he is living in Silicon Valley and teaching in Santa Cruz. As the '90s go by and his life evens out, he keeps writing and producing a unique and wildly imaginitive body of work in SF, usually math-based hard SF. And he's still doing that today. This book is sweet and gentle and honest, and intellectually fierce.
Review
"Rucker is an artist well worth discovering, reading, and keeping up with... [His novels] sparkle with deadpan wit and a natural storytellers flair.”
--The Washington Post
"Science Fiction author-hero Rudy Rucker is an oddity and a treasure.... In these days of neat little marketing categories, few writers attempt to cover so much ground.”
--Wired
"Rudy Rucker is the most consistently brilliant imagination working in SF today."
--Charles Stross
Review
“Nested Scrolls is immensely entertaining, spirited, and deep. This is Rudy Rucker at his thoughtful best.”
—Greg Bear, author of Eon
“Rudy Rucker is the most consistently brilliant imagination working in SF today.”
—Charles Stross, author of the Merchant Princes series
“Like all the best memoirists, Rudy Rucker allows us to glimpse through him the contours of our own lives, and to ponder, a little wistfully, why they couldnt have been more like his.”
—Paul Park, author of A Princess of Roumania
“Travel through a roller-coaster life from the viewpoint of an imaginative boy who grew up to be a mathematician and then moved on into the many-dimensional world of a multi-universe traveling writer. Dont forget to hang on to the rails.”
—Donald Kingsbury, author of Courtship Rite
Synopsis
The life and times of Rudolph von Bitter Rucker, original Cyberpunk, math and computer science professor, inventor of Transrealism, twice winner of the Philip K. Dick Award, and a colorful character. This autobiography reveals how he wanted to grow up to be a beatnik, but grew up stranger than that.
Synopsis
Nested Scrolls reveals the true-life adventures of Rudolf von Bitter “Rudy” Rucker—mathematician, transrealist author, punk rocker, and computer hacker. It begins with a young boy growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of a businessman father who becomes a clergyman, and a mother descended from the philosopher Hegel. His career goals? To explore infinity, popularize the fourth dimension, seek the gnarl, become a beatnik writer, and father a family.
All the while Rudy is reading science fiction and beat poetry, and beginning to write some pretty strange fiction of his own—a blend of Philip K. Dick and hard SF that qualifies him as part of the original circle of writers in the early 1980s that includes Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, John Shirley, and Lewis Shiner, who were the founders of cyberpunk.
At one level, Ruckers genial and unfettered memoir brings us a firsthand account of how he and his contemporaries ushered in our postmodern world. At another, this is the wry and moving tale of a man making his way from one turbulent century to the next.
Synopsis
The honest and intellectually fierce autobiography of one of the most acclaimed voices in science fiction
Synopsis
Nested Scrolls reveals the true life adventures of Rudolf von Bitter “Rudy” Rucker—mathematician, transrealist author, punk rocker, and computer hacker. It begins with a young boy growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of a businessman father who becomes a clergyman, and a mother descended from the philosopher Hegel. His career goals? To explore infinity, popularize the fourth dimension, seek the gnarl, become a beatnik writer, and father a family.
All the while Rudy is reading science fiction and beat poetry, and beginning to write some pretty strange fiction of his own—a blend of Philip K. Dick and hard SF that qualifies him as part of the original circle of writers in the early 1980s that includes Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, John Shirley, and Lewis Shiner, who were the founders of cyberpunk.
At one level, Ruckers genial and unfettered memoir brings us a first-hand account of how he and his contemporaries ushered in our postmodern world. At another, this is the wry and moving tale of a man making his way from one turbulent century to the next.
Nested Scrolls is like its Author - sweet, gentle, honest, and intellectually fierce.
About the Author
RUDY RUCKER lives in Los Gatos, California. He has written a number of novels and popular science books, including The Fourth Dimension. He is a retired professor of mathematics and computer science at San Jose State University. His SF novels have twice won the Philip K. Dick Award for best paperback original SF book.