- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; paperback / softback edition (12 April 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1857987101
- ISBN-13: 978-1857987102
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,266,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
This is a paperback collection of seven short stories by former cyberpunk guru turned socio/cultural prognosticator Bruce Sterling. Most of the works here come with impressive pedigrees, ranging from a Hugo Award for "Bicycle Repairman" to Hugo nominations for "Maneki Neko" and "Taklamakan". Another piece, "Big Jelly", was co-written by Sterling's fellow cyberpunk, Rudy Rucker.
These stories have a lot in common. They all take place in the near future, and most are action oriented, involving colourful characters such as secret agents, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, mafiosi and revolutionaries. But they are also personal tales that tend to focus on individuals rather than ideas, which makes them hit home more often than standard SF fare. The best of the bunch is probably "Taklamakan", a high- concept piece about two freelance spies sent to a central Asian desert called Taklamakan, where the Asian Sphere is doing some sort of secret research into space flight. "Bicycle Repairman" is set in the same world but instead of an Asian desert it takes place in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the spies in this story aren't the good guys. It's a less successful piece than "Taklamakan" but also a good read.
Not all of the stories in this collection have the edgy, this-is-what-tomorrow-will-be- like quality that typifies Sterling's best work. But even when Sterling isn't at his best he's entertaining, and A Good Old-Fashioned Future is certainly that. --Craig E. Engler --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
Book Description
A new short story collection from 'SF's most consistently simulating 'futuriste provocateur' (Locus)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good stuff from Sterling.,
By
This review is from: Good Old Fashioned Future (Mass Market Paperback)
This collection contains seven stories, all previously published in magazines between 1993 and 1998. One story, "Big Jelly" was co-authored with Rudy Rucker.I liked this anthology a lot despite the fact that a couple of the stories were rather weak. Some of the stories seem to have been written by extrapolating current events into the future and these, like "The Littlest Jackal" are the weakest in the collection. Also, in that story, the author mis-places Helsinki north of the Arctic circle and so he has the sun not setting in the summer, that was just sloppy writing. The stories such as "Maneki Neko" (my favourite) and the "Deep Eddy" series, that extrapolate technology are the ones that make the book worth while. In these, Sterling's wry view of the way that technology might change our world is both thought provoking and funny. The last three stories are all set in the same world and they follow the largely unrelated exploits of a group of people living on the edge of a highly technological society. I felt as though the author was taking some of the people that he met while writing "The Hacker Crackdown" and then dropping them into the middle of the 21st century. These are three great stories.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Neat near-future stories,
By A Customer
This review is from: Good Old Fashioned Future (Mass Market Paperback)
Seven nice, fairly low-key stories set in near future worlds on the verge of becoming terribly strange . . . though not necessarily terrible. If there's a common theme here, it's that life will go on -- and may be a bit more fun -- if the corporate, social, and governmental status quo had some holes blown in it.The best is "Maneki Neko," a genial story set in a Japan where the traditional gift economy has become fantastically enhanced. This one's up for a Hugo. The weakest story is "The Littlest Jackal," another entry in the Siggy Starlitz sequence. Here the underground opportunist finds himself in the company of mercenaries trying to overthrow the local government and establish an off-shore banking haven. Not bad, but not up to the rest of the collection. Strangest is a collaboration with Rudy Rucker about a Silicon Valley startup, synthetic jellyfish, and trouble in oil country.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Bruce Sterling Sampler,
By
This review is from: Good Old Fashioned Future (Mass Market Paperback)
This book contains seven science fiction stories by Bruce Sterling. Each is written in the high-tech, intense-action, near-future style one expects of a Bruce Sterling story. These stories are well-served appetizers for readers not quite ready to commit to the full meal of Schismatrix or Black Swan.
All of these stories are good. Three are particularly so-- "Maneki Neko" takes us into a future high-tech, high-touch Japan. We all use personal networks to get things done. As they become smarter about how they do this, who is using who? Does it matter? "Bicycle Repairman" has become a cyberpunk classic. More than anything it is a portrait of a low-key, high-tech social outcast. Well, there is more than one, actually. In "Taklamakan" we accompany two deniable government operatives on a high-tech, behind-the-lines, undercover insertion into... something that has gone awry. Did I mention that everything is high-tech? These are good stories and representative of Sterling's larger body of fiction. Take a deep breath and give them a try.
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