Rating: 
Summary: Sterling's newest isn't his best, but it's his most _human_
Review: "Holy Fire" features Sterling's most perceptive and haunting take on humanity that he's ever written. There's still the expected plethora of gadgetry and weird landscapes, but the bulk of this simply told story takes place in the cryptic inner-space of gerontocrat Mia Ziemann, one of the author's most sophisticated creations.
Rating: 
Summary: Sterling's Best Recent Work Depicting A Plausible Future
Review: "Holy Fire" is unquestionably Sterling's finest novel to date. Not only is it a fine novel of ideas percolating on virtually every page, it is also a powerful, extremely well written mediation on aging and the role of the elderly in a post-modern society. Mia Ziemann is one of Sterling's most intriguing creations, though admittedly, as one previous reviewer noted, her actions seem quite arbitrary, as though they were written just to move the plot along. And I was a bit dismayed with how Sterling reintroduces a major character towards the very end of "Holy Fire", after allowing her to vanish without a trace for most of the tale. Still, these criticisms are minor in stark comparison to the richly conceived future and intriguing characters Sterling has wrought. His vision of an early 22nd Century Europe is among the most plausible I have yet read. Fans of Sterling's previous work won't be disappointed. Without a doubt, it is one of the most important science fiction novels published in the last decade of the 20th Century.
Rating:
Summary: Sterling's best!
Review: A true post-human, post-Chapel masterpiece. Light, pleasant, exquisite, intelligent.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Bruce Sterling ( and William Gibson) has almost abandoned plot in their novels. There is a plot in this book but it is of the most perfunctory " Macguffin" type.
If you are looking for a book where you will be grabbed by the plot and pulled through the book desperate to finish it, then look elsewhere.
Sterling writes wonderfully in this book of the ennui of age. This is one of his best themes, and can be traced back to his earliest work. The extrapolations he makes are great such as the Fashion industry consisting of the eternally cosmetically altered young are great.
If you liked "Involution Ocean", "The Artificial Kid", or "Distraction" then you should love this book. Otherwise especially if you are more a fan of the more plot driven SF books
you may be a little baffled and disappointed by this book.
Still one of my favourites though.
Rating:
Summary: Sterling's Best
Review: Bruce Sterling ( and William Gibson) has almost abandoned plot in their novels. There is a plot in this book but it is of the most perfunctory " Macguffin" type.
If you are looking for a book where you will be grabbed by the plot and pulled through the book desperate to finish it, then look elsewhere.
Sterling writes wonderfully in this book of the ennui of age. This is one of his best themes, and can be traced back to his earliest work. The extrapolations he makes are great such as the Fashion industry consisting of the eternally cosmetically altered young are great.
If you liked "Involution Ocean", "The Artificial Kid", or "Distraction" then you should love this book. Otherwise especially if you are more a fan of the more plot driven SF books
you may be a little baffled and disappointed by this book.
Still one of my favourites though.
Rating:
Summary: Sterling reverses ageing process
Review: Bruce Sterling provides a vision of the future which is both unpleasant and compelling -Biological and medical advances used to prolong life with quantity not quality. The plot revolves around Mia Ziemann - a "gerontocrat" in Sterling's words, who undergoes a medical procedure which reverses her aging to that of a twenty year old. In the process Mia's brain is changed and she decides to disappear - she calls herself Maia and ends up in Prague, there plunging into a world of sex, designer drugs, programmers, and young artisans.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful imagery, vivid description, no action
Review: Bruce Sterling steps to the opposite end of the spectrum from some of his earlier high-energy works to write this almost lacksadical piece. Holy Fire is a story of a successful "life extender" who regains her youth and really has nothing to do with it other than go sightseeing. Brilliant paean to Sterling's descriptive talents and imagination, but this is a book where not much happens other than the scenery. I had hoped for a lot more.
Rating:
Summary: Gen-X Female with Grandma Lurking in Her Mind.
Review: Bruce Sterling's ("Aristoi", "Islands in the Net", "Mirrorshades" editor) new novel "Holy Fire" is very good.
The novel postulates a gerontocracy developing through the perfection of geriatric medicine. As old people live longer, they hold onto the positions of responsibility and power longer. Since old people are inherently conservative, innovation and societal evolution slows down. Resources are funneled into geriatrics medical technology. In addition, the young (under 60 years old) become an underclass.
The story is about an old women who becomes young. The fountain of youth responsible for this is a revolutionary, rejuvenating medical procedure. The conflict is between her new, "vivid" (novel slang for hip), hormonally driven, post-op self (Maya) and the asexual, "posthuman", pre-op, personae's (Mia's) memories and habits. Call her Gen-X with grandma lurking in the back of her mind.
The book was good, right down to the nuances of potential 2070 tech. Maybe he should have cranked back and set the novel a little closer to the present. About the only problem I have is "how well can a male author write a female main character?". It could be argued that a posthuman female is asexual, but Stirling's 20-something Maya had the fingerprints of a 40-something male on her.
Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Sterling's best; one of the all-time great sf novels
Review: Holy Fire is Sterling's best book and occupies a place on my small shelf of sf classics. The compelling hook is Mia's psychological journey in search of satisfying life, in both the physical and creative sense. The choices she makes lead to an explosively unstable mix of anguish and pleasure, horror and contentment. The book's structure is episodic, with little or no plotting (a quality Sterling himself has commented on). The descriptions of future technology are unfailingly inventive and convincing; I particularly enjoyed the "obsolete" computers which would be wondrous to the present age. A heroine with zest and adaptability, Mia is a sublimely bittersweet and engaging central character.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Holy fire is the second book I had read by Sterling and now my opinion of Sterling is in question. Heavy Weather by the same author was definitely in the area of 4 stars, while this book paled into insignificance by comparison. This book seemed to meander and stop and meander some more as though the author was just trying to fill the pages. The central character even had no vision or goal set and I think this was where the book failed in my opinion. There was no goal. There was little challenge and there was no ambition to the character. I kept hoping that there was going to be some massive revelation around the corner and instead it just fizzled out at the end. I was disappointed, but went into this book expecting to love or hate it based upon other reviews that I read before buying it.
|
