Mindplayers
Philip K. Dick Award nominee 1987.
It is an era of mind-wipe and franchised personalities... a bad time to be caught fooling around with technologically induced psychosis. For Alexandra Victoria Haas, the choice between prison or psychological service is no choice at all; she opts for the grueling months of pathos-finder training.
Plugging into so many disturbed psyches could have powerful and dangerous aftereffects for Allie. For in the volatile world of mindplay, the rules change when they change, and everything is true... unless it isn't.
Pat Cadigan
Pat Cadigan (born 1953) is an American-born science fiction author, who emigrated to England in 1996. Her work is described as part of the cyberpunk movement. Her novels and stories all share a common theme, exploring the relationship between the human mind and technology.
Pat Cadigan's first novel, Mindplayers (1987), introduces what becomes the common theme to all her works. Her stories blur the line between reality and perception by making the human mind a real and explorable place. Her second novel, Synners (1991), expands upon the same theme, and both feature a future where direct access to the mind via technology is possible. While her stories include many of the gritty, unvarnished characteristics of the cyberpunk genre, she further specializes in this exploration of the speculative relationship between technology and the perceptions of the human mind.