A Song Called Youth Series by John Shirley

Book one of John Shirley's pre-holocaust series, A Song Called Like many works defining the wild cyberpunk fringe in the 1980s, this depiction of a near-future dystopia, here revised and updated since its 1985 debut, seems almost acceptably mainstream today. But Shirley's spiky prose and edgy attitudes, which lately have cultivated a following among horror readers (Wetbones; Really, Really, Really, Really Weird Stories), still hook the reader's attention... moreBook one of John Shirley's pre-holocaust series, A Song Called Like many works defining the wild cyberpunk fringe in the 1980s, this depiction of a near-future dystopia, here revised and updated since its 1985 debut, seems almost acceptably mainstream today. But Shirley's spiky prose and edgy attitudes, which lately have cultivated a following among horror readers (Wetbones; Really, Really, Really, Really Weird Stories), still hook the reader's attention. Tapping anxieties about rising global nationalism, Shirley presents a Goya-esque vision of war-torn western Europe, bombed out and unstable in the early years of the 21st century from a resurgence of Russian militarism and the collapse of NATO. The Second Alliance, a government-sanctioned multinational police force, has rushed in to restore order and revealed itself a nightmarish incarnation of every fascist and fundamentalist power fantasy. The only defense against the Alliance's creeping totalitarianism is the New Resistance, a polyglot pick-up team of rebels that includes Rick Rickenharp, a tripping retro guitarist whose artistic and political sensibilities are sinuously intertwined, and John Swenson, a mole whose soul is blackened through his infiltration of the Alliance. Stitched together from vivid swatches of action and intrigue alternating kaleidoscopically between Earth sites and the orbiting FirStep space colony, the novel offers a thrashy punk riff on science fiction's familiar future war scenario and lays a solid foundation for the subsequent volumes of Shirley's A Song Called Youth trilogy. less

THE SA HAD BEEN HIRED TO MAKE ORDER.AND THEY PLANNED TO KEEP IT…FOREVER.From the beginning, thwarting the Second Alliance had been the first priority of the New Resistance; now the SA had decided it was time to return the favor. Resistance could not be allowed to interfere with the progress of the SA’s master plan... moreTHE SA HAD BEEN HIRED TO MAKE ORDER.AND THEY PLANNED TO KEEP IT…FOREVER.From the beginning, thwarting the Second Alliance had been the first priority of the New Resistance; now the SA had decided it was time to return the favor. Resistance could not be allowed to interfere with the progress of the SA’s master plan. The elimination of the rebels would clear the way for Project Total Eclipse, which in turn would stretch the SA’s shadow over every remaining outpost of humanity, selecting scapegoats, directing violence, and creating an immutable new order.The Penumbra of the Eclipse…it would establish complete SA control over the Grid, the space colony, and the survivors of the war – and decide the fate of humanity itself less

"John Shirley's prophet-in-the-cyberwilderness voice deserves high billing among the best." -- Roger Zelazny This classic of cyberpunk literature brings John Shirley's "A Song Called Youth" trilogy to a thrilling conclusion. After the fundamentalists of the Christian Fascist Second Alliance find themselves discredited in the United States, they make a final, terrifying stand in Europe... more"John Shirley's prophet-in-the-cyberwilderness voice deserves high billing among the best." -- Roger Zelazny This classic of cyberpunk literature brings John Shirley's "A Song Called Youth" trilogy to a thrilling conclusion. After the fundamentalists of the Christian Fascist Second Alliance find themselves discredited in the United States, they make a final, terrifying stand in Europe. Their genocidal program of concentration camps, mind control through media manipulation, and secret treaties goes unopposed -- save for the rebels of the New Resistance. Forging an uneasy alliance between Israeli and Muslim fighters, the guerilla warriors lead the battle to prevent the Second Alliance from sending humanity into the darkness of a total eclipse. A gripping novel in its own right, Eclipse Corona follows Eclipse and Eclipse Penumbra, Shirley's previous tales of a gang of technologically adept rebels with a passion for sex and drugs and rock and roll. The "eclipse" of the titles refers to the shadows that war casts across the light of conventional morality, allowing citizens to tolerate the erosion of their civil rights. Originally published in the 1980s, the Eclipse trilogy has proved chillingly prescient in its anticipation of twenty-first century issues, from drone surveillance to the growth of Europe's radical right movements to an increasingly dark web of media manipulation and propaganda. less

In a near-future dystopia, a limited nuclear strike has destroyed portions of Europe, bringing the remaining nation-cities under control of the Second Alliance, a frighteningly fundamentalist international security corporation with designs on world domination... moreIn a near-future dystopia, a limited nuclear strike has destroyed portions of Europe, bringing the remaining nation-cities under control of the Second Alliance, a frighteningly fundamentalist international security corporation with designs on world domination. The only defense against the Alliance's creeping totalitarianism is the New Resistance, a polyglot team of rebels that includes Rick Rickenharp, a retro-rocker whose artistic and political sensibilities intertwine, and John Swenson, a mole who has infiltrated the Alliance. As the fight continues and years progress, so does the technology and brutality of the Alliance... but ordinary people like the damaged visionary Smoke, Claire Rimpler on FirStep, and Dance Torrence and his fellow urban warriors on Earth are bound together by the truth and a single purpose: to keep the darkness from becoming humankind's Total Eclipse - or die trying John Shirley was cyberpunk's patient zero, first locus of the virus, certifiably virulent."-William Gibson. An omnibus of all three novels-revised by the author-of the prophetic, still frighteningly relevant cyberpunk masterpieces: Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra, and Eclipse Corona. With an introduction by Richard Kadrey and biographical note by Bruce Sterling. less