Phil Nichols

post-cyberpunk adj.	1988 P. Nichols Paperback Inferno (British Science Fiction Association) (#75) Dec. 1988–Jan. 1989 8/1 (review of Michael Weaver’s Mercedes Nights) The other Dick-like feature of the novel is a group of drug-crazed characters who gravitate about Arthur Horstmeyer, whose weird paranoia/conspiracy theory concerning 'vacuum fish' recalls Dick himself. Unfortunately, Horstmeyer has no depth and serves merely to give this novel of the 80s a feel of the 60s and 70s; references to LSD, Pink Floyd and David Bowie abound. Far from being the forward-looking post-cyberpunk novel one expects, MERCEDES NIGHTS is ultimately backward looking in both its style and content.