Only About 80%

Paul Pope has created a very interesting look into the future with 100%, but only parts held my attention. Although I did enjoy the cyberpunk feel and the interesting take on the new sexual fetish of stripper guts, I did not feel fulfilled by the end. In the end, this collection of short interconnected stories never fully came together for me. Perhaps my cynical nature wanted more than what seemed to be a happy ending.

I was very excited to get my hands on this work simply because I used to love cyberpunk. Yes, I said used to. After The Matrix, my cyberpunk infatuation came to an end but only because everyone now thought it was cool. Anyways, Pope tries to take us into the seedy underworld of the future where life is more like that residue on the inside of your car windows from smoking too many cigarettes in it and then never washing them than anything remotely better. What makes 100% better than a lot of other books is the interconnected storyline. It really was like reading short stories that just happen to include overlapping characters. That was the best part of the whole novel. Having said that, I do have some criticisms.

First, I really do not like that the stories themselves could be set anywhere and that the cyberpunk feel is nothing more than window dressing. I know that seems very direct, but the love stories are just love stories without any “cyber” vibe. Okay so the stripper shows her guts (no I am not going to reveal what that means), but it has no impact on the story itself. Hopefully Pope takes this next sentence as both a comment and a criticism: this is very similar to the way Shakespeare took very basic themes and wrapped them in different towels while retaining the same plots. We all know that William is still very popular, so even though it does bother me; at least Pope is giving the reader a sense of universality.

The artwork is decent but will definitely not sell the book. I think in this instance it is more important for the art to compliment the intricate plots rather than distract from them. I was also left wanting by the endings. As with most short stories, there is never enough time to develop characters to great extremes and their is rarely enough time to fully engross the reader. The story has to be immediate. 100% is just a few breaths away from being immediate but just doesn’t get there. This really does not take anything away from the novel or Pope, but can be chalked up to a valiant attempt.

I do plan on reading more by Pope because I am interested to see where his style goes from here. Although I was not exuberant about 100% it was good enough to hold my attention and want more. Give this one a chance if you want to see stripper guts (I am still not telling) or you want that quick short story read.