Rev. of Agrippa: A Book of the Dead, by William Gibson. Publishers Weekly 29 June 1992: 28.

Straightforward review of Agrippa with valuable observations from Begos and Gibson.

“At the center of Agrippa, which is housed in an elaborate binding that looks as if it has been much worn by time and burned in the bargain, is a computer disc that can be played on IBM or Apple machines. This contains Gibson’s text…It is only the length of a short story, and takes about 15 minutes to scroll by. But as it does so, the text disappears, never to be retrieved. It has been specially encrypted with a program that destroys it even as it is being read. Related etchings by Ashbaugh of genetic codes, printed in the book housing the disc, have been done in special inks that mutate when exposed to the light, so that they change subtly over time, appearing and disappearing. The whole creation is thus in the process of alteration, like human perception and memory.”