Joe Jarvis

Vancouver 2036. For the characters in Jim Munroe's latest book, "the world is losing relevance." In "Everyone in Silico," Kinko's does organic duplication, smog levels make gas masks commonplace as umbrellas, holographic ads appear mid-air and "emorph" based on your mood, and thugs with tattooed teeth pitch you the new line of marijuana Marlboros at McDonald's, which boasts ninety-nine billion served.

But there's a way out. Opt for corporeal suspension and transfer consciousness to Frisco, the crimeless cyber reality where you choose your physical features and setting and never have to get sick or lose loved ones. If you've heard this all before in "Vanilla Sky," you haven't.

"Everyone in Silico" traces three storylines: the aged Eileen fighting to rescue her grandson from Frisco; Doug, the has-been information engineer who dreams of landing Self technology's Gold Package Frisco plan; and Nicky, the gene-splicing hustler whose pack of updated culture jammers attempts to reintroduce vegetation and wildlife to Vancouver. All good genre work, whether otherworldly fantasy or distant-future sci-fi, isn't about then and there but here and now, and as Munroe intersects the three storylines, we're left with a grim understanding of how near we already are to Frisco. Obviously no one's about to teleport anywhere anytime soon, but we've planted the seeds of the book's sweat camps, where Microsoft assigns Friscoans' unconscious bodies. While Munroe adorns the surface of "Everyone in Silico" with alternate dimensions and digitized rhinoplasties, underneath he takes a surgeon's lancet to the still-kicking corpse of e-culture. It's almost a shame Munroe writes within his genre. To the public he will remain a Trekkie nerd more concerned with terminology than substance and the hardcore will dis him--just as they did Bradbury--because a character's teleport didn't adhere to Avogardo's Law. Delete the "sci-fi" tag; the man is a writer proper.

When Munroe last visited Chicago, he hit Quimby's to promote his second book "Angry Young Spaceman," in which protagonist Sam teaches English on planet Octavia. Instead of simply reading, Munroe presented the same slide-show Sam watched before his trip, the event somehow perfectly complemented by Quimby's shrieking fire alarm, triggered by the faithful's cigarette exhaust. When he returns, Quimby's will offer whatever performance Munroe's engineered for his new book. According to Quimby's Website, "when (Munroe) finished the manuscript and saw how many corporations got free ad space in his novel, he decided to invoice them for product placement. When they failed to remit cheques, he wrote Past Due letters, which he will be reading aloud at the launch for 'Everyone in Silico.'" Bring your own beer and enjoy Munroe, along with Todd Dills, "the2ndhand" editor, who reads from his new fiction collection, "For Weeks Above the Umbrella."

Jim Munroe will be appearing at Quimby's, 1854 West North, (773)342-0910, on November 29 at 8pm.

Everyone in Silico

By Jim Munroe

Four Walls Eight Windows, $13.95, 256 pages

(2002-11-26)

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