INTRODUCTION

I honestly don't know much about this guy's work. He's been around forever, but it's hard to say what he's been up to for the past decade (I do know he is credited with having written the screenplay for The Crow, which was later mangled though still produced). And so I refer to the handbook (Mirrorshades) to get some background. Apparently Shirley (who last lived, or may still, in the L.A. area) is a prolific writer who moonlights as a musician in the punk scene (or maybe he moonlights as an author). Or at least that was all true a number of years ago. He is certainly well known within the cyberpunk crowd for his Eclipse trilogy (collectively labeled A Song Called Youth), which, though now quite dated, is an exciting trip. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to track down any of his works; I only recently got my hands on two of the three books after owning only one for about five years. Apparently Eclipse will soon be released by Wired Press (projected spring of '98), but finding the rest of the series may take years of your life. I any case Shirley should at least be noted for making an important impact on the genre (Sterling names him as one of the Big Five), even if one cannot actually find his novels . If you have Mirrorshades read "Freezone", which takes place in the same universe.

For all you lucky kids at Brown U. the Rock does have one of his novels: A Splendid Chaos: an interplanetary fantasy (copyright 1988). Sounds wacky. Maybe I'll write a little blurb on it eventually.

==JPC==