About the Book
Years ago, the last desperate hopes of Earth were crushed as corporate
Orbital blocs ruling from on high devastated the planet's face. Today,
the autocratic Orbitals indulge in decadent luxury far above the
mudboys, dirtgirls, zonedancers, and buttonheads who live out violent
lives of electronic distraction and dependence amid the flooded, ruined
cities and teeming slums of a balkanized America.
But there are heroes; those who would stand against the Orbital powers
and keep freedom's cause alive. Two such heroes are the metal-eyed
ex-fighter pilot turned panzer-driver Cowboy, and Sarah, the cybernetic
assassin desperate to find a better life for her drug-addicted brother.
Together, Cowboy and Sarah embark on a high-octane odyssey across the
shattered face of the American west.
From Walter Jon Williams comes Hardwired, the hard-hitting,
seminal classic that feels as prescient today as when it was first
published. Like a steel-guitar fueled Damnation Alley, as
directed by Sam Peckinpah, Hardwired demonstrates how Williams's
singular vision helped defined the cyberpunk genre.
"Hardwired is a tough, sleek juggernaut of a story, punctuated by strobe light movements, coursing to the wail of jets and the twang of steel guitars – glittering, nasty, and noble – and told in a style perfectly suiting its content. It has all my favorite things – blood, love, fire, hate and a high ideal or two. I wish I'd written this one." – Roger Zelazny
