Islands in the Net

Rating:
Summary: With respect to the other reviewers...
Review: ...I found value in this work by Sterling. I don't remember a whit of the plot machinations or the characters ten years after reading it. I do remember, however, the author's gift for thoughtfulness about the mechanisms of the future--the "sunglasses" in particular are something I think about often, being used to confer with "board members" all over the globe.

I think Islands in the Net is a valuable read in that the author put a lot of thought into the technology itself of his "future." It's regretful that the book itself is turgid, but an awful lot of cyberpunk at the time was plot- or "feeling"- heavy, with the technology needed by the plot just "there," and little thought given to how and if it would work and be used.

This book was very interesting at the time I originally read it if you were thinking about how to build the future, and what to build and how it could actually be used in practical fashion, rather than say, the kevlar dusters and mirrorshades.

Rating:
Summary: Some Good ideas, but ultimately disappointing.
Review: About 100 pages into "Islands in the Net", I was extremely interested in what was happening. By the time I got to the end of the book (around page 400), I was reading only because I had already invested so much time.

It's difficult to express exactly what went wrong with this book, but there are a few flaws that stand out in my mind :

#1) The length.

I'm not afraid of reading longer texts, but does this story really justify 400 pages? It seems like Sterling doesn't understand what is important to the progress of the story and what is simply clutter. Many scenes/locales have far too many pages and words dedicated to them. It's obvious that Sterling is good at putting a scene into words, but brevity is the soul of wit (or interesting prose. Notably, the ending was rushed and weak for a book as long as this is.

#2) The characterization is generally weak.

I found myself caring more about Sticky, the dying girl, Winston Stubbs and David (all relatively minor characters) than I did about the protaganist. Laura seemed to be more of a vehicle for the background story than the compelling character that Sterling seems to want her to be. If I'm going to be reading a person's inner dialouge for 400 pages, she better be interesting.

#3) The "resolution" of the story is not a resolution in any way.

I reached the end of the book with the feeling that I had just wasted my time reading 400 pointless pages. Nothing is really different at the end of the book than at the beginning. The same people are in control, the same stupid games are being played and none of the "action" really makes any difference.

In conclusion, I thought that this book was better than many books out there, but ultimately a failure. Sterling touches on a number of interesting ideas, locales and characters but fails to bring them together into a book that serves as anything more than entertainment. The unfortunate pacing, however, severely diminishes the entertainment value.

Rating:
Summary: Some Good ideas, but ultimately disappointing.
Review: About 100 pages into "Islands in the Net", I was extremely interested in what was happening. By the time I got to the end of the book (around page 400), I was reading only because I had already invested so much time.

It's difficult to express exactly what went wrong with this book, but there are a few flaws that stand out in my mind :

#1) The length.

I'm not afraid of reading longer texts, but does this story really justify 400 pages? It seems like Sterling doesn't understand what is important to the progress of the story and what is simply clutter. Many scenes/locales have far too many pages and words dedicated to them. It's obvious that Sterling is good at putting a scene into words, but brevity is the soul of wit (or interesting prose. Notably, the ending was rushed and weak for a book as long as this is.

#2) The characterization is generally weak.

I found myself caring more about Sticky, the dying girl, Winston Stubbs and David (all relatively minor characters) than I did about the protaganist. Laura seemed to be more of a vehicle for the background story than the compelling character that Sterling seems to want her to be. If I'm going to be reading a person's inner dialouge for 400 pages, she better be interesting.

#3) The "resolution" of the story is not a resolution in any way.

I reached the end of the book with the feeling that I had just wasted my time reading 400 pointless pages. Nothing is really different at the end of the book than at the beginning. The same people are in control, the same stupid games are being played and none of the "action" really makes any difference.

In conclusion, I thought that this book was better than many books out there, but ultimately a failure. Sterling touches on a number of interesting ideas, locales and characters but fails to bring them together into a book that serves as anything more than entertainment. The unfortunate pacing, however, severely diminishes the entertainment value.

Rating:
Summary: Not Sterling's Best
Review: Having read and liked The Difference Engine, I wanted to try something else by Sterling (writing solo). While I didn't find the book to be as bad as some earlier reviewers, I do have to say sheer stubbornness is what got me to the end. This book, by the way, is not cyberpunk or even science fiction, it is more political thriller ficton or whatever. In spite of the title, the few oblique references to the "Net" in the book seem to refer generally to modern communication technology including television and the phone. I was pretty bored until the main character got out of Texas, and even though you want to care about her, there is nothing about her that really grabs you. Some of the minor characters are a lot more interesting. Some intriguing socio-political ideas are hazily touched on, but this was NOT one of those books that are hard to put down, which may help explain why it is out of print as of this writing.

Rating:
Summary: Thoughtful & entertaining tale of near-future world
Review: I agree with some other reviewers' criticisms that the protagonist is poorly characterized and the narrative sometimes drags, but this is nevertheless an excellent book, more than redeemed by its wealth of ideas about the world's technological, social and political future, illustrated through lively and colorful incidents, dialogue and settings. Offshore data havens in the global information web; the abandonment of Africa to poverty and anarchy; the rise of transnational corporations and international organizations and networks; the withering away of governments; terroristic chemical and electronic warfare: The treatment of these near-future motifs is rich, sophisticated, and interesting, and stands up very well in comparison to their handling by other writers who have exploited them since this book was published in 1988.

Rating:
Summary: Not the worst I've read. But close.
Review: I finished this book mostly out of sheer bloodymindedness... It was way too long, and it DIDN'T GO ANYWHERE. It's an ongoing sermon about how technology and nonviolence will overcome the more basic aspects of humanity that have dominated civilization since the beginning of time. But the story doesn't support this assertion, which makes me wonder what the point of writing this book in the first place was.

Rating:
Summary: Reply to [e-mail]
Review: I found Laura, the protagonist, not at all a stock character. Certainly she was an ordinary everywoman, as intended, but this is exactly the type of character you almost never see in science fiction. She's not a technical uber-guru or a speed-freak street-warrior, but those stock types are hardly a benchmark for realism in characterization. As for the settings, I've lived most of my life in Texas, and could sense how comfortable Sterling was with Texan characters in the first few pages. While I've never been to the other settings, I found the story evocative, and especially felt like he was working from a substantial map of Singapore in his head from having spent a fair amount of time there.

Rating:
Summary: Better than Neal Stephenson and William Gibson's early works
Review: I have read all of Neal Stephenson's and William Gibson's books and only some of Sterling's. I thought that this book was better constructed, although the tech is a little lower, than the early books of the others. I was confused by why, when the main character is described as small and blonde, the book jacket displays a Paula Cole look alike. Just free form marketing I guess.

Rating:
Summary: I'm really surprised at this book.
Review: I have read most of Sterlings other works of fiction and loved all them (The Difference Engine, Heavy Weather, Global Head, Holy Fire, Good old fashioned future, Zeitgeist).

This book surprised me. The title has nothing to do with the book. I had to force myself to read the whole thing and I only did that because it was hard to get (I know now why was out of print).

The main character, Laura, and those that surround her are probably the most annoyingly self-righteous cast of characters I've seen. They live in the future, think they know everything, have genetic engineering, yet they still do natural child birth. The criminal element in this book is way more interesting and believable.

I re-read my favorite science fiction when I either see it on my self and forget what it was about or every couple of years. Islands in the net is a laborous read that I wouldn't repeat.

Rating:
Summary: Still Sterling's best (so far)
Review: Now that cyberpunk seems to mean simply 'fiction with virtual reality', it is worth looking back to when it had more depth. Sterling's best novel to date (I haven't read 'Distraction' yet), is fundamentally a serious novel of global politics disguised as a sci-fi adventure story. It has its faults, notably lack of editing and occasional lapses in characterisation, which is why I only give it 4 rather than 5 stars, but it is still refreshing to read an intelligent novel with anarcho-socialist leanings in a sub-genre which has become increasingly apolitical and irrelevant.