It is difficult to surmise the "true" purpose of Mondo 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge, it appears, from it's title to be a dictionary for the unhip to learn current terminology of the new 'technoworld'. All of the words I would have used to review this book seem already taken by anyone who has ever reviewed Mondo 2000 magazine and its predecessors. I believe this monograph was partially a response to much of the press this group has received especially to the thousands of times these pioneers in cyberology have been asked questions such as "What is cyberpunk-can you define it for those of us who don't speak the language?" This book is more a monument than an individual monograph. It is a monument to its authors, and toMondo 2000 magazine's writers, idols, and history. An explanation for the "necessity" of this book might be found in a lengthy article entitled "The History of Mondo 2000" from SF weekly, October 11, 1995 (Volume 14 #35).
The aesthetic of this book is an important part of its components. It is as if it was designed as a web page, with suitable links colored within the black main text. Each page has two columns, the left column in black letters which is supposed to act as the main text, the right column, which is actually the inner margin, acts as the "links" or footnotes to colored reference words within the black left column text. This absorbing aesthetic is complimented by no straight margins in either column. Each page has a waving pattern within each column which I found mesmerizing, and at times, nauseating. But it is, no doubt, a great deal like reading on the web itself, which is something we should all be getting used to by now.
Mondo 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge is not a dictionary or a glossary or even a "users guide" by any stretch of the imagination, it is a history and a story. The magazine "Contents" page listing is the closest thing to a structure this book has. The many subtitles range from "Aphrodisiacs" and "DNA Music" to "Geek Humor" to "Smart Drugs" to "Wetware" and finally "Vines". There is no index in this book, and it is very difficult to find something specific unless you already know what heading the authors might place it under. For example, if you wanted to look up Philip K. Dick , the science fiction writer, where would he be placed? The only place I found him was under "Electronic Music" as a footnote to an entry written by Tod Machover, a professor of music and media best known for his opera version of Dick's book Valis. (I might never have made that connection myself....)
Instead of actually defining what the terms are, the book interprets them through the context of who is doing something within them. The entries mainly consist of conversations with important people within a specific field, or quotes from previous Mondo 2000 magazine articles. For example, the subtitle "Crackers" (page 54) is introduced with some words from author R. U. Sirius, but followed by four entries from Michael Synergy (the title of the piece "On Theft of Information" in black text in the left column is enclosed in a red box which refers to a footnote in the right column "... Michael Synergy, a Mondo 2000 associate editor. Aside from being a legendary ex(?)-cracker, Synergy holds down serious work in the computer industry. He's currently part of the team working on making IBM and Apple compatible.")
Therefore, we are not getting definitions, but opinions. Since we are in an age of changing tides by the time everyone understands a definition, the term is out of date, or no longer 'hip'. In the future this book might serve as an important reference to the social history of the 1990's. It shares the next best thing to a definition of terminology; it gives the context of the terms, along with the views of those who coined them.
The closest thing I found to a review of this book was in the Anachron Library Web site. It is hardly a review, just a standard indexing to the work, but it does give links to author bios and other related works.
For those who enjoy the book but want something MUCH more current, try alt.culture which is "an unprecedented research project: an encyclopedia of '90s youth culture that spans grunge and gangsta, ... cyberpunk and street fashion ... alt.culture both documents and participates in the nexus of popular culture and digital media..." Paper (book) copies are available in book stores in the US, published by Harper Collins. The site and book are authored by Nathaniel Wice and Steven Daly.
Of course, one of the basic truths about our current culture is that within a few years, it's no longer valid. Much of the User's Guide is already out of date. That's what makes the alt.culture site so important, and this book rather static. But isn't it nice to know that the paper of this book will survive to document the history of this generation that might be lost with one pull of a plug?