difference engine

Robert Thornton · 14 May 2008, 10:00 · from 2008-May.txt.gz

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From: oblate777 at speakeasy.net (Robert Thornton)
Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 06:00:38 -0400
Subject: (urth) difference engine
In-Reply-To: <0AF988B9-CEB1-4B11-88E7-C761425E7265 at gmail.com>
References: <821849.49873.qm at web81403.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
	<8763thk8tq.fsf at windlord.stanford.edu>
	<0AF988B9-CEB1-4B11-88E7-C761425E7265 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <A6A0455A-D02A-48C1-89A3-50D7013A9FC1 at speakeasy.net>


I agree about Schismatrix. It is a great book and his most ambitious  
work though later books are better written IMHO. As far as his later  
work, I am a big fan of Distraction but otherwise I'm not very fond of  
them. I think his short stories are better. Of course I like the older  
story where my hometown Rockville, Maryland becomes the center of  
global power thanks to biotech....

As for Difference Engine, I'd agree with the majority view. The ending  
was interesting but you had to slog through a lot of dreck to get there.

rob t.

On May 13, 2008, at 11:30 PM, Lane Haygood wrote:

> Sterling is a good writer; just not all the time!
>
> I, too, liked Heavy Weather, but more for seeing my native land  
> portrayed in fiction (not by Cormac McCarthy) and because it was a  
> decent cyberpunk novel, but largely derivative.  His Schismatrix  
> stuff is lightyears beyond the other books I've read by Sterling.
>
> Lane
>
> On May 13, 2008, at 7:50 PM, Russ Allbery wrote:
>> Stuart Hamm <hammstu at sbcglobal.net> writes:
>>
>>> Hmm...should I go back and re-read it?
>>
>>> I am a huge W Gibson fan...my 2nd CD was "Kings of Sleep",,,but I  
>>> really
>>> didn't like DE and read a book by the co-author (Islands in the  
>>> Net ??)
>>> and thought it was, as Roddy Doyle says.."A Gob of Shite"
>>
>> I personally have not read it, but from having discussed SF quite a  
>> bit in
>> other places, my estimate is that about 95% of the people who have  
>> read it
>> didn't like it and only about 5% liked it.  So probably not.
>>
>> The general consensus seems to be that it was a low point for both
>> authors.  I've read other things by Bruce Sterling that I quite  
>> enjoyed
>> (_Heavy Weather_, for example, although it's not what I'd call great
>> literature).
>>
>> Sometimes the collaborations work and sometimes they just don't.
>>
>> -- 
>> Russ Allbery (rra at stanford.edu)             <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/ 
>> >
>> _______________________________________________
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>
> Best,
> Lane
>
> _______________________________________________
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