Rating: 
Summary: visionary, mystical, sci-fi as it must be
Review: I've read hundreds of good books in my life, books that have altered my ideaologies, infused my writing style with subtle energy, reinvented my understanding of character, and reaffirmed my love of life and creation. Then every once in awhile a book comes along that makes me what to give up writing because I'll never be able to write that well. Schismatrix is the second kind of book.
I took the time to write this review in the hopes that others will see its preternaturally bright bonfire in the darkness and come to its call, moth like, fluttering. I'm still reeling from this book, deconstructing it and rereading it again and again. The images contained in its leaves are better then the ones in my own damn head! Its been so influential in my own writing that sometimes I can't think outside of the still drying borders that its constructed in my mind.
Sterling manages to step outside some of the major problems that have plagued sci-fi since its incept date. For one most sci-fi prose is boring, horribly boring, recitlinear prose, laid out as if it were some hypercontroled mathmatical equation. The massive wads of techno-jargon that riddle most sci-fi have a habit of spilling over into the character descriptions and scene desriptions, making them Mars-dry. Asimov is a monster of the imagination but lets face it his prose is dull. It doesn't have to be this way as proved by some of the earlier sci-poets like Bradbury and Le Guin and the early work of A.C. Clark and now as proved by the crammed prose, acid bright style of cyberpunk idoru, Bruce Sterling. Some of his sentances are woven together with such alien majestry that the shock of the word-blasts are still felt pages later. I found myself asking what secret deal had he made with the devil to be allowed to write with such superfluidity.
The second problem of most sci-fi is that it confines itself solely to hard science. While a hard science background is admirable it is utterly limiting. The power of sci-fi to evoke the undiscovered mindscape of the deep brain are what I read sci-fi for, not sure about you. The major problem with basing all of your future book on "known' science is that what we "know" is severly limited and limiting. Look back just 100 years and what was considered state of the art is laughable. "We don't know one millionth of one percent about anything," said Einstein. If a person were fired into the future today (assuming that he could possibly get to 'our' future and not some alternate Sliders-bootstrap like universe) he would probably come back insane due to the unseen technological flourishes and the way they have altered kown space. Sterling knows all this and masterfully threads superstrings of as yet undiscovered science into the tapestry of known science.
And with all this Sterling still manages a nucleus of larger then life characters. Many sci-fi stories such as Ender's Game acheive master character protraits that would make the Greeks weap, but only by sacrificing the science that goes with it. In Schismatrix the characters develop with the technology and change over time together. By the end of the book, a 200 year scope, society, its technology and its characters have changed drastically from the first page, in a way that is so eeriely realistic that you feel as if you have aged with the book. Very few novels can capture the passage of time this beautifully. By the end I found myself wondering about what I would do without the main character in my life, as if he were some how palpable.
I'd need a whole new page to go in depth on the masterful word play he employs. His sense of double entendre rivals Hemingway and at a lower octaves Vriginia Woolfe.
Not one word can be cut from this smoothly bulking word trip. Every character, gadget, development, is essential to the story as a whole. Sadly Sterling has never acheived this kind of mastery again in any of his novels. After closing the book I went out stalking for more Sterling, only to find that he had stripped away his crammed prose style and panoramic scope for small niche futures that seemed to crib heavily from his earlier work. The divine fire of creation that he had once infused his prose seemed to have burnt itself out. I'm deeply sorry to have to say this because I wouldn't want to cause any harm to an author who made me fall in love with reading again. But maybe he'll take this as a challenge and rise to his former height as I have taken the challenge that his book offers me. In the words of one of his characters "Don't be afraid Pilot. Its done you a favor. You've seen the potential. Now you'll have something to aim for." Maybe he is never again meant to acheive something like Schismatrix. Perhaps it is like final dance of a warrior at his death in Carlos Casteneda's Journey to Ixtalan. I hope not. People are always demanding more Shaper/Mechanist work from him. Though sometimes I am tempted to join in the shouting, in my heart I agree with Sterling that this should be all there is. Like a human life it is fleeting and that very transience is what makes it so powerful. That there will never be another Schismatrix is terrible is heart-wrenching just as there will never be another you. But that doesn't mean that he can't go for the potential again, in a new way. Here is to hoping that like his sun dog rebel hero Abelard Lindsey, he'll embrace the ultimate once more, and be back up where he damn well deserves to be, cutting fresh swaths in a field of stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Deeply umm...interesting
Review: ?Schismatrix must rank as one of the most interesting, unentertaining books I've read in
sometime. I approached this with a of bias of course. I got turned on to Cyberpunk like most through
Neuromancer, but quickly moved on from Gibson to more unconventional (who would have
thought Gibson would become part of a convention) work like Noon's Vurt books. Come from
Noon's 'vazed and vurted out' world back to Sterling was...jarring. Sterling manages to paint an incredibly intricate society here, the philosophies and factions of
Shapers and Mechanists, Neo Serotonists and Catyclysts are complexly compelling. The book however lacks a certain flair that expected, after having read Gibson and Noon.The
book has no sense of humor, the philosophies are too dense to allow it. It took me about two
weeks to finish the ?Schismatrix? portion. Reading it almost became work, I found myself
scheduling time to finish it. The book is worth reading if for nothing else, the chapter on Kitsune?s Dembowska. A city made
of living flesh. The description made my skin crawl. Farscape fans should also note the cameo appearance of two characters near the end that are
undoubtdly the inspirations for Pilot and Moya. Recommended, but not for relaxing reading.
Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for the short fiction, 3 for the novel
Review: A sweeping history of man's future in space, a time when humanity has reworked itself in dozens of different ways at the fundamental levels of thought, biology, and technology in order to adapt to its new environment. These scattered, interrelated communities exist within two general, mutually antagonistic factions: the Shapers, who rely on genetic manipulation, and the Mechanists, who rely on advanced technology. Bruce Sterling is an inventive writer with a lively intellect, but his novel often introduces such a barrage of names and factions that it was difficult for me to orient myself. Furthermore, the action sometimes leaps years forward with scarcely any attention given to what happened in between. Sterling's focus is more on developing his complex history than his characters and the novel suffers as a result. Fortunately, this volume also contains Sterling's short fiction set within the same universe. Every one of them is a gem--a rabbit punch to the mind with sharply drawn characterizations. I would recommend reading the stories before the novel. They supply an introduction to the Shaper/Mechanist universe and a firm grounding in its realities that probably would have increased my appreciation of the novel.
Rating:
Summary: Just excellent
Review: A very good book. Not an easy read, really, but an excellent and rewarding book. Very philosophical. I agree that it's not really cyberpunky... You'll be confused if you go into it expecting it to be Neuromancer. It's not, but it's still amazing.
Rating:
Summary: Too hip to last, too geek to be hip, too true to happen.
Review: Amazing. While friend Bill Gibson was turning out cyberpunk parables of the human condition, Sterling produced this reflecting jewel. This is a story that uses the same alchemy as its Hard SciFi predecessors, wherein technology is the lense by which we are shown the nature of those create, shape, and use it. This is an epic tale, spanning centuries. Over its scope first contact with aliens is made, and humanity becomes an alien thing itself. Overshadowing all is a rivalry that drives the politics of each passing age blindly, madly ahead, in the classical tragic mode. The story is, at its finale, a transcendent one, offering not answers to its readers, but only a place to watch from. P.S. If you like this sort of thing, where technology and the human spirit reflect each other, I can only recommend "Holy Fire" (also by Sterling) and "The Stars My Destination" most highly.
Rating:
Summary: One of Sterling's Great Cyberpunk Epics
Review: Bruce Sterling hit his stride as a fine writer of ideas capable of writing vivid, incandescent prose with his early novel "Schisimatrix". Much to his publisher's credit, it has been combined with the other stories set in Sterling's Shaper/Mechanist future history. His saga is a novel re-invention of one of science fiction's oldest subgenres, space opera, coupled with the hip sensitivity of cyberpunk's computers and nanotechnology. Here he successfully conjurs a future where mankind has split into those interested in genetic enhancements "Shapers" versus those intrigued with prosthesics. Both factions struggle across the desolate landscapes of distant moons and space stations in the Solar System, while aliens watch with a slight degree of interest. I strongly disagree with others who think Sterling's writing is a bit dated and old fashioned. Having recently re-read "Schisimatrix", I have found his ideas, characters and setting as memorable as when I first read them years ago. It ranks with his recent novels "Heavy Weather" and "Holy Fire" as among his finest literary efforts.
Rating:
Summary: One of Sterling's Great Cyberpunk Epics
Review: Bruce Sterling hit his stride as a fine writer of ideas capable of writing vivid, incandescent prose with his early novel "Schisimatrix". Much to his publisher's credit, it has been combined with the other stories set in Sterling's Shaper/Mechanist future history. His saga is a novel re-invention of one of science fiction's oldest subgenres, space opera, coupled with the hip sensitivity of cyberpunk's computers and nanotechnology. Here he successfully conjurs a future where mankind has split into those interested in genetic enhancements "Shapers" versus those intrigued with prosthesics. Both factions struggle across the desolate landscapes of distant moons and space stations in the Solar System, while aliens watch with a slight degree of interest. I strongly disagree with others who think Sterling's writing is a bit dated and old fashioned. Having recently re-read "Schisimatrix", I have found his ideas, characters and setting as memorable as when I first read them years ago. It ranks with his recent novels "Heavy Weather" and "Holy Fire" as among his finest literary efforts.
Rating:
Summary: So good, it's hard to believe it's Sterling!
Review: Bruce Sterling is an author who is best known as William Gibson's sidekick. During the heady cyberpunk rebellion of the 80's, Gibson & Sterling lectured together, edited together & even co-wrote a book("The Difference Engine" which introduced the "Steampunk" genre). As can be seen from reading "Schismatrix Plus", Sterling's association with Gibson warped his writing permanently. "Schismatrix Plus" gathers the first stories written by Sterling along with the novel inspired by them. These were written during the period when the author was a fan with a day job, not a professional writer (& not hanging with authors). It is simply one of the finest, most original examples of true science fiction to be published since The Golden Age ended. Of course, it's not classic space-opera in the Heinlein/Asimov sense, but "Schismatrix" is what most readers first loved about SF: stories that take place outside of Earth, in deep vacuum. In "Schismatrix Plus" we orbit Luna, attack with space pirates, live in the Rings of Saturn, terraform Mars & much more. We learn about Prigogenic Leaps, meet a geisha turned-banker-turned space habitat (really!) & watch humanity make cosmic choices. This is what science fiction should be, & it's very disappointing that Sterling has turned away from this early promise to deliver such non-thought provokers as "Heavy Weather" & "Holy Fire". Maybe if enough of us read "Schismatrix Plus" & let Bruce Sterling know how much more we enjoy this type of novel than what he currently turns out, then maybe he'll return to writing them. Life is hope, so buy "Schismatrix Plus" & maybe he'll get the message!
Rating:
Summary: Good book...
Review: But not amazing. Sometimes it read like a history text book (ie rather flat though conveying interesting information) and other times sucked me in till I found myself 50 pages down the road and well into the wee hours of the morning ^_^ Some of the ideas have definitely not aged well (in terms of being quite as believable) but it's still a good collection. 1 220 page novel and 4-5 short stories comprise the book, plus an introduction. I still like Heavy Weather better than any other Sterling book, but this will still be a goof addition to your scifi library.
Rating:
Summary: Ambitious
Review: For me, Ambitious is the very word that describes Schismatrix Plus. It aims very, very high, whether Sterling's aim was accurate, is for everyone to judge individually. I had very high expectations from this book. I've previously read Sterling's 'The Swarm', the very first Shapers/Mechanist story, in Gardner Dozois's anthology, THE GOOD NEW STUFF, and liked it alot. Furthermore, the last two books I've read were very different from each other, and both really good - George R. R. Martin's new Fatasy Epic A Storm of Swords, and Stephen Zweig's The Royal Game. In between those two masterworks, I've read the prologue to Schismatrix, and loved it. What impressed me most about the prologe, about the Swarm and indeed about the novel itself, was the scope and the vividness of Sterling's Future. The Shapers/Mechanist universe is clearly one of the most fascinating and exotic worlds created in Science Fiction. So I came to Scismatrix with exteremly high expectations, believing I was about to read a classic on par with Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, Frank Herbert's Dune, or Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos. The first 80 pages cured me of that hope. I'm not a passionate Cyber-Punk fan, quite the contrary, and the first 80 pages consist of a Cyber Punk story set in Space. A well written Cyber Punk, no doubt - others have commented on Sterling's prose, and he has a great deal of talent, but a traditional Cyber Punk story nonetheless, and thus somewhat out of date. However, after those 80 pages, Sterling changes the style fo the novel, and returns to the issue of the introduction - the wide spread political sweeps that take the universe, as Sterling's hero, Lindsay, finds his peaceful life threatens by both his ideology and his long time friend turned bitter enemy, Constantine. And then, the novel changes again, this time becomes a generational story, of the hero passes through a universe which changes in terrifying speed. Sterling attempts the kind of paradigm shifting SF story telling, as evident in such works as Clarke's Childhood's End, and in the process comes up with some very nice touches - a particularly lovely scene is the final meeting between Lindsay and his long friend/Archi Nemesis Constantine. All in all the novel, and the stories, portray a wonderfully realised world. But they lack the kind of plot structure and advances necessary to make this kind of work appealing to me, and the ideas, while sometimes fascinating are often reduced to merely new Jargon versions of old clisches. My own high expectations damaged my enjoyment of the novel, but Í have enjoyed it nonetheless, and would recommand it to others. Schismatrix is a seminal work of Cyber Punk, and an immaginative attack on the age old tradition of SF - and for that it deserves to be read.
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