ISBN 0-575-04498-5 (UK pbk)

"Jonny had been barely six when the first of the Protein Rebellions took place. The riots were put down, but not until ten days of fighting had left Los Angeles an open wound. The official body count was something like 10,000 civilian and military dead.

"The authorities had not been caught unprepared. The select few began their silent pilgrimages deep into the desert to government-sponsored havens.

"The rest of the city had remained behind, with control in the hands of a paramilitary organization, the Committee for Public Health. Several armed members of that organization were waiting for Jonny when he left Carnaby's Pit.

"Spotlights hit Jonny and Cyrano from across the street.

"Jonny dropped to the ground, pulling his gun. Cyrano awkwardly wrestled a Mexican Barretta from his belt and got off one shot before a Futukoro blast ripped into his chest. The little man fell on Jonny, bleeding everywhere, looking horrified. He clutched at the wound, as if by holding it closed he could keep his life from slipping out." [excerpt from book]

"Streetsmart high-resolution imagery, headlong action, and a convincingly textured future L.A.; combines the requisite edge of noir urgency with a sophisticated grasp of the contemporary global popcult." --William Gibson.

"Metrophage has the texture of a fast-paced action story, but it's also a collage of literature, art history, and Kadrey's own striking images of wonderful drugs and beautiful weapons... a dazzling pinwheel of a book that spews out eyeball kicks on every page." --Rudy Rucker.

"A fast-paced, hard-edged novel with plenty of nasty action... densely populated by a kaleidoscopic torrent of bizarre characters whose gut-level interactions have the feeling of real if superheated life... Portrays the future with the realistic specificity of a Raymond Chandler but also with a genuine speculative passion." --Norman Spinrad.

"Richard Kadrey's first novel, Metrophage , is a flawlessly-styled cyberpunk thriller." --Peter Lamborn Wilson (in Semiotext(e) SF 14 , 1989).

"In the midst of mayhem there is still art." --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , 1995).

Hardcore cyberpunk.
Highly recommended.