John Sundman.
John Damien Sundman.
John Compton Sundman.
John. F. X. Sundman.
Who is this man of mystery? I haven’t seen him since early in 2005, when he and I had dinner with Dan Dennett and Doug Hofstadter. But 19 years earlier, we had been an unbeatable team working together at Sun, first on PC-NFS and then the 386i. While I stayed at Sun, John followed a strange journey which ought to be documented some time (but not by me). Two oddly compelling books emerged along the way: Acts of the Apostles, in which I felt that I and all my friends had been sucked into John’s fantasy, and Cheap Complex Devices, in which I felt that a computer’s fantasy had been sucked into my brain. I bought several copies of each to give to friends.
Now comes the latest from John: The Pains. You can read it online, or buy it in dead tree format. Or both. (No Kindle version yet – sigh.) Like Acts of the Apostles, it is set in the mid-80s. No, delete that. It defies easy classification, which is the way I like my novels these days. (Oops – I just classified it as a “novel”. My bad.) Just jam your headphones on, crank up Fig.15 by Human Sexual Response, and read it. When you get to the last chapter, switch the music to Leonard Cohen. (John: what’s the playlist for this piece? I’m serious.) You’ll be glad you did.