Distraction

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.


Mixed feelings...   June 8, 2001
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Read this book cover to cover, and yet, I'm sorry, I barely rate it: fascinating ideas, a media- and socially-fragmented and believable future USA...

...and yet I found it dull, uninspiring and ultimately depressing, the characters unbelievable and unsympathetic, and the politics farcically pointless. Or was that maybe the point? In which case, the joke fell flat.

Sterling's writing here is, well, dare I say a little over-smug in its intelligence? I have followed Sterling ever since 'Islands In The Net' (delightfully anarchic), but the recent indifferent combination of 'Distraction' and his short-story collection 'An Old Fashioned Future' have pretty much bored me to a standstill.

Recommended if you like the bright-but-facile style of Rudy Rucker, who can also disappear unmissed as far as I'm concerned.


One of those books you canyt resist quoting from   May 3, 2001
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

The ultimate marketing wonk put-down:

"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.


If you think politics is mad now, read this book.   March 5, 2001
For those of you who think the activities of the people in Westminster, or Washington, who run our lives become less and less relevant by the month, this book should provide welcome support. Bruce Sterling presents yet another distopian future, here focusing on the possible effects of biotech and environmental collapse rather than the more usual cyberpunk fare of AI's and the internet. What starts off as a grim future of displaced, disenfranchised people lorded over by an ineffectual elite spins off into a Heinlein-esque odyssey as the characters reveal a seemingly endless list of unexpected skills and abilities. With people this good around its hard to believe the world could have ever got that bad. Ultimately unbelievable it's still a reasonably good romp and fans of the genre should enjoy it.