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EUROPE'S MOST VISITED SF/F WEB SITE |
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The Difference Engine by William Gibson
and Bruce Sterling check out website(s): www.orionbooks.co.uk
Even odder, it wasn't set in the future but in the turn of the last century in a reality where Charles Babbage's computer is brought to fruition then instead of becoming a museum curio here.
The book covers the world from this Victorian perspective and how things have changed compared to our own period of time. Babbage's Analytical Engine makes one major appearance to do a calculation - a massive steam-powered brute that you couldn't fit in your house like alone on a desk. The lead character, Edward Mallory, doesn't even appear until the second section of the book as he gets involved in the search for some missing computer program cards. The events are still primarily British but slightly more technologically advanced. It is the attention to detail from this time period that makes it worth reading for any neo-writer to learn something from. Pollution has worsened with smog over London hanging around for days. The only thing that seems a tad gratuitous is a near-porno sex scene that appears to have been put in to titillate the reader rather than move the story forward. Whatever, this book is recognised as being one of the peaks of the 'steampunk' period and with its re-release allows you an opportunity to see how it was written. GF Willmetts
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OTHER REVIEWS - June 2003
The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror edited by Stephen Jones Cerulean Sins by Laurell K. Hamilton The History Of The Runestaff by Michael Moorcock The Mammoth Book Of 20th Century Science Fiction edited by David G. Hartwell The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Eye In The Sky by Philip K. Dick Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel: Monster Island by Christopher Golden Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Lost Slayer by Christopher Golden Children Of Dune/God Emperor Of Dune by Frank Herbert Exploring The Matrix: Visions Of The Cyber Present edited by Karen Haber The Tomorrow People 3: 1: Secret Weapon The Wreck Of The River Of Stars by Michael Flynn The Weavers Of Saramyr by Chris Wooding Pure Dead Brilliant by Debi Gliori Felaheen: The Third Arabesk by Jon Courtenay Grimwood The Usurper's Crown by Sarah Zettel Prince Of Ayodhya by Ashok K. Banker HARDBACK TO PAPERBACK The Praxis (Book One of Dread Empire's Fall) by Walter Jon Williams Shadow Puppets (Book 3 of The Shadow Saga) by Orson Scott Card
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With both Gibson and Sterling involved in
creating the 'cyberpunk' SF sub-genre, it was hardly surprising
that they would write a book together back in 1990. 
No
doubt both authors had a jamming session and decided to go 'steampunk'
which is what this book is recognised as than stay futuristic and
one or the other of the pair would have to defer to the other's
ideas. 
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