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John Shirley
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City Come A Walkin' Paperback – January 4, 2001

by John Shirley (Author), William Gibson (Introduction)
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 30 ratings
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Stu Cole is struggling to keep his nightclub, Club Anesthesia, afloat in the face of mob harassment when he's visited by a manifestation of the city of San Francisco, crystallized into a single enigmatic being. This amoral superhero leads him on a terrifying journey through the rock and roll demimonde as they struggle to save the city.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    224 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Running Press
  4. Publication date
    January 4, 2001
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1568581912
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1568581910
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Running Press; Revised edition (January 4, 2001)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1568581912
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1568581910
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 30 ratings

About the author

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John Shirley

John Shirley

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John Shirley won the Bram Stoker Award for his story collection Black Butterflies, and is the author of numerous novels, including the best-seller DEMONS, the cyberpunk classics CITY COME A-WALKIN', ECLIPSE, and BLACK GLASS, and his newest novels STORMLAND and the historical western AXLE BUST CREEK. His newest story collections are THE FEVERISH STARS and the special updated reissue of REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WEIRD STORIES. His next novel, available for pre-order, is the technothriller SUBORBITAL 7, coming Summer 2023 from Titan Books.

He is also a screenwriter, having written for television and movies; he was co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He has been several Year's Best anthologies including Prime Books' THE YEAR'S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR anthology, and his nwest story collection is IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY. His novel BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE telling the story of the creation and undoing of Rapture, from the hit videogame BIOSHOCK is out from TOR books; his Halo novel, HALO: BROKEN CIRCLE is coming out from Pocket Books.

His most recent novels are STORMLAND and (forthcoming) AXLE BUST CREEK. His new story collection is THE FEVERISH STARS. STORMLAND and other John Shirley novels are available as audiobooks.

He is also a lyricist, having written lyrics for 18 songs recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult (especially on their albums Heaven Forbidden and Curse of the Hidden Mirror), and his own recordings.

John Shirley has written only one nonfiction book, GURDJIEFF: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND IDEAS, published by Penguin/Jeremy Tarcher.

John Shirley's many story collections include BLACK BUTTERFLIES, IN EXTREMIS, REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WEIRD STORIES, THE FEVERISH STARS and LIVING SHADOWS.

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
30 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Notty Boy
4.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat clunky execution; rather interesting ideas
Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2008
Verified Purchase
In a nutshell, the plot can be summed up as follows: The Mafia conspires to take over San Francisco. The citizen's collective unconscious, as embodied in City, fights back.

While the plot and prose can be awkward in places, the concepts, and how they are explored, kept me strongly interested. The work is also permeated with little details that give it a distinct cyberpunk atmosphere. This can be fascinating in its own right in light of later works in the genre.
2 people found this helpful
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Edith Wharton II
5.0 out of 5 stars NeoLiberal Nightmare
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2010
Verified Purchase
City Come a Walkin' should be a neoliberal nightmare. The big banks, run by the mob, have displaced the government in the United States (no other country is mentioned). Digital credit, manipulated by the banks, has superseded money, which is all but banned. The final usurpation of power and the consolidation of a new criminal cartel is being plotted by mob bosses in the major cities of the nation. The corporatized criminals - the Mafioso-bankers - work in clandestine conjunction with culturally right-wing vigilantes, who brutally repress alternative forms of popular expression from pop concerts to prostitution. (Sound familiar?) Cities and their populations have been ravaged by the mob and their fascist conspirators. The venal destruction of the rich historic urban texture of the old is brilliantly contrasted to the enervating banality of the new.

Those who love urban life and who constitute its originality are represented in the novel respectively by Stu Cole, a hard-bitten classic noir individualist and club owner and his star performer Catz Wailen. Both use their particular geniuses to resist the irresistible cultural depredations of the mob. The most memorable character of the novel is, however, City. City is the reified psyche of San Francisco's population, the personification the city's communal angst. It is the city come to life. City, manifesting himself to Cole on a television explains himself: "A TV is a media outlet for the city. A neuron in my brain. The means I use to transfer the image from video to electron-patterns, bring it through the wires and feed it into you TV--it's a form of telekinesis. Manipulating electronics with thought. At night I have the power in every cerebral battery in the city. A brain stores electricity. I can tap in, when they sleep. During the day I have only the power of those who sleep in the day--far fewer, so I am limited. Though I'm bolstered by people watching TV, since that's a form of sleeping. I'm the sum total of the unconscious cognition of every brain in the city. And I'm Rufe Roscoe [the mob's CEO], too--I'm his self-hatred." (58)

The human characters of the novel are moral creatures: the protagonists are moral, the villain is immoral. In contrast, City, like the population from which he draws his life, is amoral. He acts, often savagely and indiscriminately, only in his own interests, in defense of the creative diversity that sustains urban life. Shirley's story is compelling not because of the plot and only partially because of the pace and grittiness of his writing. It is powerful because of its uncanny evocation of the dangers that affect the cities we love to inhabit.
5 people found this helpful
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Mac Tonnies
3.0 out of 5 stars The parameters of urban morality
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2001
Shirley's early novel "City Come A Walkin'" takes us on a surreal (and frequently brutal) jaunt through a near-future San Fransisco where the city's overmind has the ability to manifest as a mirrorshades-wearing techno-shaman with a marked dislike for bad guys. The brilliance and terror behind this straight-forward tale is Shirley's refreshing refusal to cling to genre conceits. "City Come A Walkin'" challenges the nature of identity as well as the parameters of urban morality.
13 people found this helpful
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Auntikrist
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2015
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Thx!
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MJ
5.0 out of 5 stars Cyberpunk Wonderful
Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2018
Verified Purchase
Grab this book, sink into it. I don’t usually say stuff like this, but, “Whoa!”
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Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Super Reader
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2007
If you know who Jack Hawksmoor of the Authority is, you will get some of the vibe here. San Francisco is making its own superheroes, to help combat corruption, takeover and neglect of its internal systems, and organised crime control of finance. However, it needs assistants, and ends up possessing those bodies, with their physical forms being destroyed.

Other cities are on a similar path, by the end, without the superhero manifestations. This is superhero in the Authority sense, too.

The protagonist is an aging music club owner, deeply in debt to his mob, who, of course, has a thing for the singer in one of his support acts. The problem is, that City does not trust her.
One person found this helpful
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Tanstaafl
5.0 out of 5 stars There Goes the Neighborhood
Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2008
Literally! What a book. In itself it's not scary - but its implications are terrorizing. William Gibson wrote the Forward in the edition I read - acknowledging Shirley's primary influence on cyberpunk. This is an early book of his, but while some of the writing is rough, the thoughts he puts to paper are powerful.

Other reviews will tell you about the book (the Amazon description is horrible). There are three main characters. The interaction and flow among them is very fascinating. I couldn't wait for the book to end so I could know how Shirley tied up the loose ends; I didn't want the book to end because I was having so much fun.

If you enjoy reflecting on a book after you have read it, then this is a very good catalyst. I heartily recommend it.
3 people found this helpful
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D. K. Jackson
4.0 out of 5 stars Ups and Downs
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2007
This book is definitely an important one as the forward by William Gibson indicates. Still, there is much left to be wanting. Looking back I remember being basically floored by the first fifty pages, and then subsequently let down for the majority of the rest of the book. The main character is hard to like and not in an anti-hero sort of way. I think this probably hints at John Shirley's true talent lying in his short story writing abilities. If I could do it again I would probably try to find some of those first, but overall this one is worth checking out.
7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Annette Santner
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 15, 2016
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Very god!!
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