preload
Jul 23

I'm here to chew bubble gum... and put on one hell of a good childrens light show... and I have plenty of gum for everyone!Click for full image

Chuffmunky Comments: The future’s so badass, I gotta wear shades (and a bandoleer of spikes, and a fisher-price cd walkman cabled to my chest for some reason).
Published 1989

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 8.44 out of 10)
Loading...

Tagged with:

33 Responses to “Bad Voltage”

  1. THX 1138 Says:

    Oh, so we’re supposed to make fun of 80s pop videos now, is that it?

  2. Phil Says:

    That’s some bad voltage, Harry.
    I think we’re going to need a bigger voltmeter.

    And other JAWS-inspired weak jokes.

    Cool horizontal-stripey sideburn, Mister.

  3. James Says:

    skull buckle accessory £1.99

  4. The Tag Wizard Says:

    By great Duncan’s moustache, I almost forgot the Skulls a-Poppin’ tag. Mr Herring would have my head for that, and rightly so.

  5. FëaröfMüsic Says:

    Yes children, drugs are bad. ‘Wired for speed’ and ‘Living high’ will make you ‘Crash hard.’ Just Say No! Oh, in addition to which it will lead you to residing in the municipal sewer, wearing ridiculously out of date clothes, with bad hair, and looking like David Bowie. But you will smell like poo.
    Yes children, doing drugs will not turn your life into a Chemical Brothers video, it will trap you in a bad 80’s Near Future Sewer!
    Little kids, run away!!

  6. FëaröfMüsic Says:

    Oh, and thanks feces flavored Bowie clone,(I do mean thanks). I now have Killing Joke playing in my head on an endless loop. Nice chanhe from Daft Punk.

  7. Bibliomancer Says:

    “Resistance is futile! I’m amped-up after reading Bad Voltage … a powerful novel which is currently sparking comments in the science fiction circuit … I’m shocked they didn’t charge more for this!” — Popular Electronics Magazine

  8. SI Says:

    Man: (In heavy London cockney accent) Sorry Miss… you’ve got a case of bad voltage ‘ere…
    Women: Bad… voltage… is that a thing?
    Man: You bet miss… noww… lets talk about how much it’s going to cost to give ya some good voltage eh!

  9. JaunPaul Says:

    “Wired for speed”?
    “Living high…beneath the streets”?
    I think this novel might over my head.

  10. RachelJ Says:

    So the book set in “tomorrow’s world” is “a science fiction novel”? Well, I never!

    But is it an *original* novel?

  11. Tat Wood Says:

    @RachelJ: It could be set in ‘Tomorrow’s World’, a BBC series from the 60s, and be about a streetwise gum-chewing estate agent from the 80s trapped in a studio with James Burke and Raymond Baxter explaining that books will soon be replaced by personal microfilm readers.

  12. Tat Wood Says:

    So Graham Bonnet’s got a bandolero and belt of live rounds, a spark-generator on his wrist and a devil-may-care rictus.

    And a jump-suit. I think this is tag-worthy. Jump-suits are the all-purpose 80s emblem of ‘the future’ and lead to everyone looking like Peter Powell or Sheena Easton. The surest sign of a ‘Just Say No’ campaign being needed was the band-photo of Toto on the back of the OST of ‘Dune’

    I seem to recall sending this comment before. If it’s already posted and not showing, please ignore one or both.

  13. Rags Says:

    Amazing vision of the future. The futurisitc ability to shoot lightning bolts out of your arms is balanced by the simple rubber band holding the device to his wrist. BRILLIANT!!

    @ James – true, nothing says bada$$ like 1.99 skull belt accessory. Just in case we didnt know he was bada$$, the skull lets us be certain!

  14. Rags Says:

    Was this the “inspiration” for the Duke Nukem video game? He sure looks alot like him….

  15. Adam Roberts Says:

    “I have shrunk ELO and their saucer-ship to the size of a saucer, and I shall carry them all away — no more My Blue Sky for YOU, puny humanity! Bwahaha!”

  16. fred Says:

    80’s sewers and no mention of C.H.U.D. yet?

  17. David Cowie Says:

    Could this, by any chance, be a cyberpunk novel?

  18. Lionrock Says:

    Bowie’s little known 80s album Ziggy Stardust and the Spiderman of Mars was not a success.

  19. Lionrock Says:

    Oh and I am definitely shaving horizontal lines into my sideburns tomorrow.

    That’ll look rad.

    Right kids? Kids?

  20. Dead Stuff With Big Teeth Says:

    I’m very interested to know what he’s doing with his left hand…it appears to be ‘turning it into baby carrots’ or some such.

  21. FeäröfMüsic Says:

    Attention Exceptionally Thinly Veiled Illegal Drug Use Reference Dept.:

    The ‘kids’ inform us that ‘wired’ is synonomous with the use of ‘speed’.
    Please make a note of this. We don’t want to appear square. Remembe, hip and groovy is what the kids dig.
    Mgmt.

  22. THX 1138 Says:

    Oh, hang on, this isn’t Nik Kershaw at all. Must have the same tailor.

  23. Jerk of all Trades Says:

    Are we sure this isn’t just the novelization of some embarassingly awful movie from the 80’s?

  24. The Tag Wizard Says:

    Well it’s Littel’s first novel, and about the secret activities that take place in the real life catacombs of cyberpunk Neo-Paris, as I’m sure we could all instantly tell from the cover.

    He didn’t rate it.

    His second novel, The Kindly Ones, then went on to win the extremely prestigious Prix Goncourt and the French Academy’s Grand Prize for Fiction. Not bad, sir, not bad at all!

  25. B. Chiclitz Says:

    @Bibliomancer—the way to avoid the stress of so much bad voltage, obviously, is simply to go down into a sewer, find a nice, relatively dry spot away from rats and other vermin, tuck oneself into the Lotus position, close the eyes, breathe deeply and intone—”Ohm.”

    Ooooooohhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmm

    Current thinking on Ohm’s Law holds that this will conduct you to a better point.

  26. Bibliomancer Says:

    @B. Chiclitz — You da man (V=IR)

  27. HappyBookwyrm Says:

    Hmm…Bad voltage sounds like what happens when you plug in an American toaster in the United Kingdom. (“Oh, no, I forgot to plug in the converter!”)

    Also, something about this cover makes me want to Rick-roll someone…I think it’s the shades.

  28. Jaouad Says:

    So apparently he wrote this when he was 21, right at the tail end of the cyberpunk rage, no doubt thoroughly impressed by it, trying to squeeze in his own novel before mirrorshades went out of fashion for good.

    According to Wikipedia, he considers it a very bad SF novel. Or course, no one who has won the Prix Goncourt would ever admit to having written a good SF novel, so that’s okay.

  29. Claire Says:

    @Tat Wood. I remember seeing an episode of said show *cough* some years ago where they talked about e-ink. What happened to that stuff eh? And the good bacteria that were going to do away with toothpaste, obviously done for by the dentists.

  30. anon Says:

    A. Science. Fiction novel.

  31. A.R.Yngve Says:

    What — it’s a “SCIENCE FICTION” novel?
    Well, I never.

  32. JJYoyo Says:

    THIS is the Back to the Future sequel I wanted. Michael J Fox with mirrored shades and a Gay Pride disc man that can also apparently shoot depleted uranium porcupine quills. I can’t even begin to express how awesome this is.

  33. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @JJY: Your idea is probably 1000% better than the plot of this book.

    What’s coming out of his wrist-gun-thing? Amyl nitrate because it’s a giant popper?

Leave a Reply