Good world-building, but tails off, 18 Mar 2002

A pity, but towards the end the book really tails off. Sterling pans back from the main characters and devotes whole pages to reciting the off-stage action like a history book. The plot resolution seemed to resolve almost nothing.

Buy this book. Read it. The first 4/5ths is amazingly good. But don't worry if you can't plough through the last fifth. I get the impression that Sterling had to fight his way through it as well.

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One of those books you cant resist quoting from, 3 May 2001

By	J. Hind "John Hind" (London, UK) - See all my reviews

"I really hate to dismiss that idea out of hand. It's so modern and photogenic and nonlinear."

How to succeed in a chaotic world:

"'Hmm. You're absolutely right about that, Yosh. That was not plannable. But it was doable.' Pelicanos sat down and knotted his hands. 'You know what your problem is? Every time you lose sight of your objective, you redouble your efforts.'"

And finally the terrible truth about modern politics:

"We don't have roots. We're network people. We have aerials."

Great stuff: Funny, intelligent and horribly convincing.

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Fun interesting visionary near-future sociopolitical mayhem, 13 Dec 2000

It's so excellent it seems mean to say things like "less stylish than..." - so don't get me wrong - this is a great book.

Bruce Sterling takes some interesting strands of present-day politics/society (spin doctors, Seattle-style anti-capitalist demos etc) and extrapolates a quite realistic (though obviously exaggerated for narrative fun) near future.

The lead character is a very likeable political backroom guy, very smart, and the book is about his power-broking exploits and their trail of mayhem. Oh, and his odd romance with a nice scientist.

Then, just as the book is drawing to a close and it all seemed as straightforward as that, the "villain" (who appears superhuman in his ability to pre-empt our hero at all times) - throws in a classic twist which has nothing to do with the story so far and is yet another amazing Bruce Sterling idea - to do with changing the way we think (but I can't say more without spoiling it).

If you like Bruce Sterling, if you find current politics interesting, or you like "social experiment" sci-fi, you will enjoy this excellent book. I did!

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