Distraction

Rating:
Summary: Sterlings most mature and best work yet?
Review: While I love Bruce Sterling and read everything he writes, he dissapoints me as often as he astounds me.

Dissapointments: Heavy Weather, Difference Engine.
Astonishments: All short story collections, Islands in the Net (to some extent), Holy Fire (to some extent), and now Distraction, which I love.

This book is, by far, my favorite of his long works.

The insight into today's world as it becomes tomorrow is brilliant (infowar).

The inverted racial status quo seems obvious and yet no one has done it before (that I have read) and it is very funny.

The ending is so sad and yet so full of hope-- not on a societal but on the human scale of the characters. It is this mature frisson of happiness without having acheived one's early dreams that reeks of maturity (in a field known for its arrested emotional development). This impressive acheivement so eclipses the "despite all of the banal existential angst in the last 200 pages, got married, moved to Austin, and lived happily ever after" of Heavy Weather (gee, where did he get those ideas? Hint: check the bio in the back of the book.) that I cannot believe they were written by the same person.

But be warned! I read the first chunk of the book under the influence of mind altering substances, and my decreased intellectual capacity interacted with the text in a dissatisfying way. It was only when I read it straight, with full mental faculties, that I comprehended its brilliance. For this reason I say perhaps the low average rating it has received here speaks to the fact that it is a book for people with some brains left working.

If you are looking for a sophisticated intellectual confection of idea and character, with a healthy sense of humor, I recommend this book highly.

Rating:
Summary: amazing novel about future
Review: The author can keep the situations to the limit and surprise everybody with the conclusion of them. Bruce Sterling doesn't need to explain in detail the changes in the world to introduce the story, making quick the action. He uses a direct way to make himself understood, a cinematographic language. We expect to know some things about the main character for many pages and suddenly we arise the explanation. It's the best I have read for many time.

Rating:
Summary: It was essentially a cyberpunk political romp
Review: I really liked this book. Probably because it was essentially a cyberpunk political romp (and lord knows I love politics). A bit quirky, but with a fairly rational plot and a readable coherent writing style. I did think it dragged a bit in the middle (don't they all), but definitely a worthwhile read.

Rating:
Summary: Long and pointless speculation
Review: Carl Sagan once wrote that good science fiction is about ideas. You find very few ones in this book. The plot is slow, boring, concentrates too much on shallow characters and there are just a handful of somewhat original futuristic speculations. From around page 50, I had to browse over the rest very quickly, to have the book finished. Avoid it, better try Barne's "Mother of Storms".

Rating:
Summary: A most welcome distraction
Review: Politics, passions, genetics and biochemistry combine in this tour de force from a stunningly intelligent, articulate and humorous author. This is an extremely clever and funny book, with a lot to say about American society and where it is heading, a breathless pace and intriguing, cataclysmic storyline, wonderfully uncompromising characters and a good deal of honest analysis of the human condition. Hilarious in parts and tragic in others, I enjoyed and savoured every word of this book, carried it around with me everywhere and, great climax notwithstanding, was bereft at coming to the end. Not styled as a comedy, but funnier than most novels that are, I thoroughly recommend this one. I don't want to spoil the plot, but just to give you an idea: a brilliant political campaign specialist with a troubling, ironic and irksome personal secret takes on a great deal more than he intended when he decides to champion a self-contained biogenetic research dome and to school one of its most brilliant scientists to become an, albeit unwilling, political success. Events escalate, with tribal submarine warfare breaking out in the Louisiana swamps, the cold Net-based war with the Dutch heating up as their country slowly sinks, and our unlikely hero and heroine attempting to bring their individual concepts of order to an impossibly disordered nation. A most welcome distraction, and one to relish.

Rating:
Summary: A Mess--Steer Clear
Review: For the life of me I can't figure out what people saw in this novel. It was an unwieldy mess, not that believable a depiction of the near future, and not even a good political satire, which is what it purports to be. It is a boring and chaotic mess of a book and I wish I hadn't bothered to finish it. I have to admit I am not a huge Sterling fan in general -- but this is not one of his better efforts. Unless you are a die hard fan of Sterling, steer clear of this one.

Rating:
Summary: A Plausible Near Future Marred By a Poor Plot
Review: "Distraction" was a genuine distraction for me, no pun intended. I was surprised that Sterling's exceptional writing slipped a bit here. He can usually be counted on for writing great characters and placing them in scenes filled with vivid, lyrical imagery, but I didn't care much for his characters and thought his writing was a bit haphazard. However, I was quite intrigued by his interest in information warfare; his scenario may be plausible. Those who have been satisfied with his past literary efforts may enjoy "Distraction", but it is a far cry from his finest work, most notably "Schisimatrix", "Holy Fire" and "Heavy Weather".

Rating:
Summary: A fun book, despite the plot
Review: I picked this book up, because of the promise of a funny cold war story between the USA and the Dutch. Being Dutch this sounded quite appealing. Unfortunately this is not the major plot line in the story. I won't focus on the plot too much, it's a mildly interesting view on what could happen if we don't stop global warming. The thing I found most interesting and funny in the books were the little details, the road blocks, details about money etc.

This is not a true page turner that will grip you from page 1, yet it's interesting enough to finish.

Rating:
Summary: Fun to read
Review: Bruce Sterling is a fairly interesting writer. His vision of the future is well-thought out and he's got somewhat of a decent track record in seeing where things are going.

The downside to his writing is that he often seizes on a phrase and beats it into the ground. In this book, 'doable' and 'krewe' suffer from over over use.

The last problem is inherent in the vision of the future. The world keeps moving faster and fractionating and everyone becomes more and more self aware of their movement in the media flow, so that eventually life turns into a disjointed series of fragments of events that are analyzed and spun into the ground. Which certainly is a plausible vision of the future, but it's not terribly fun for me to read. I take that back. It is fun to read, but not for 600-some pages and not with no goal that the story is building toward, just random noodling about the future.

If this was a short story or a shorter novel it would be much more enjoyable. But it's still pretty good.

Rating:
Summary: Great title
Review: Watch that last step, it's a lu-lu!

Distraction is the story of a political operative at loose ends - both professionally and socially. It's 2044, and Oscar has just orchestrated a decisive victory for a new, idealist Senator and many close to him speculate that he himself would make an excellent candidate were it not for his ... background problem. With the campaign over, Oscar craves some new challenge where his considerable talents can be directed. He stumbles on to a simmering situation with a rogue governor and a localized struggle for politcal power over an erroneously shut down Air Force base and a huge biotechnology lab. He manages to build a luxury hotel next to it, and proceeds to...

Got you hooked yet? Distraction got me early on. The plot, setting and ideas covered in this book really are creative and varied. The futurist outlook (take it with a dose of black humor) is surprising and not unrealistic. I found that I was looking at current events in a whole new light, and I couldn't wait to read more. As the pages wore down to the final chapter, however, I found that the character's coldness wasn't acceptable any longer, and I kind of wanted a bit more from their actions besides brilliantly scripted confrontation.

I enjoyed this book until about 3/4 the way through, then it kind of fell apart, stressed by its own velocity. If you like this sort of thing, it's very well-written and creative. Outside of its own cyberpunk environment, it doesn't hold up as well.