Rating: 
Summary: The Artifical Kid really did change my life...
Review: I found this book in the library, of all places, back when I was in junior high school in 1982. Crouched between all that hoary Silverberg and Simak that I didn't want to read, it said "Psssst!". I haven't been the same since. The Kid jumped out and smacked me across the forehead with his lush, tweaked-out postpunk setting and sweeping, interconnected plot. A little bit of old-world pangalacticism, a little futuristic DIY chopsocky, a bunch of toungues in cheeks, and loads of high-tech wetware polymers and lurching biomasses, from before wetware polymers and lurching biomasses were cool. And all the while, Sterling's trademark core of optimism shines through. It's taken the world about ten years to catch up to this baby, and it's about damn time. If you don't know Bruce Sterling, this is a fine place to start. Now, where's my Smuff? John Zero (jzero@onramp.net), Dallas, Texas
Rating:
Summary: The Artifical Kid really did change my life...
Review: I found this book in the library, of all places, back when I was in junior high school in 1982. Crouched between all that hoary Silverberg and Simak that I didn't want to read, it said "Psssst!". I haven't been the same since. The Kid jumped out and smacked me across the forehead with his lush, tweaked-out postpunk setting and sweeping, interconnected plot. A little bit of old-world pangalacticism, a little futuristic DIY chopsocky, a bunch of toungues in cheeks, and loads of high-tech wetware polymers and lurching biomasses, from before wetware polymers and lurching biomasses were cool. And all the while, Sterling's trademark core of optimism shines through. It's taken the world about ten years to catch up to this baby, and it's about damn time. If you don't know Bruce Sterling, this is a fine place to start. Now, where's my Smuff? John Zero (jzero@onramp.net), Dallas, Texas
Rating: 
Summary: Love the hair
Review: Although The Artificial Kid is not my favorite of SF books, it was thoroughly enjoyable. The Kid himself was a fascinating character with the neatest hair I've ever imagined.
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Summary: Reading this book was like eating a cardboard box
Review: I typically will give a book 50 to 100 pages to get really interesting. With Sterling I gave it the entire book and what a waste of good ink. I enjoy reading junk mail more than this dribble. I typically enjoy Sterling and think he has done well for the craft - but this is a stinker. The Kid is uni-dimensional, Moses-Moses never reaches his potential to impact the story and Twice-borne rounds out a crew that never really endears the reader to struggle to the next page. The plot wanders around from one disjointed event to another without interest or credibility. I secretly hoped for a flock of flying talking dogs to carry them away from the floating island - anything to add some reality and substance to the plot. Thank death this book is out of print; someone has a brain. Sorry Bru everyone has a bad hair day once in a while.
Rating:
Summary: Sterling's Best
Review: I'd have to say the artificial kid is my favorite Sterling Book. That Revolution one was kind of lame so I'd have to call this his first book.
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Summary: An anime-like adventure with hyperkinetic action.
Review: Sterling's The Artificial Kid works best as an adventure story with intense action, whose closest relatives would be Japanese anime pictures. He also tries to make this a novel of ideas (longevity, personality worship, identity politics), but they remain largely undeveloped. Nevertheless, its an entertaining book.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, entertaining
Review: The Artificial Kid was a fairly short but fun read. The Kid himself is a great character and his friends were all pretty original as well. For the first few chapters it looks like it might be a highly entertaining adventure. After that it gets sort of bogged down and takes a new direction, but on the whole I found it worth the effort. I liked the various warring clans, the individual combatants, the follicle mites and the whole concept of televised (or the equivalent) combat art. Things I didn't like about the book (don't worry, nothing really revealing here): the Flying Island, Crossbow and the Chairman's transformation, a climax you wouldn't exactly call exciting. Also, the Crossbow Body was a pretty shaky and only vaguely accounted-for concept.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, entertaining
Review: The Artificial Kid was a fairly short but fun read. The Kid himself is a great character and his friends were all pretty original as well. For the first few chapters it looks like it might be a highly entertaining adventure. After that it gets sort of bogged down and takes a new direction, but on the whole I found it worth the effort. I liked the various warring clans, the individual combatants, the follicle mites and the whole concept of televised (or the equivalent) combat art. Things I didn't like about the book (don't worry, nothing really revealing here): the Flying Island, Crossbow and the Chairman's transformation, a climax you wouldn't exactly call exciting. Also, the Crossbow Body was a pretty shaky and only vaguely accounted-for concept.
Rating:
Summary: It's the Def, Bruce!
Review: The only problem I had with this book is that the exclamation of "Death!" and/or "Thank Death!" was not slurred as in "That's the Def, man!" which is a common slang term heard on New York City playgrounds.
Other than that, I was gripping the pages wide-eyed in fear for my life at whatever was going to happen next. For real.
Rating:
Summary: Sterling's Beginning
Review: This is Bruce Sterling's first novel. It is rough, unpolished, and uncompromising. It is vastly better than his more mature works. Highly recommended
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