Distraction
Set in a fractured near-future America after the collapse of the information economy, the novel follows political fixer Oscar Valparaiso as he is drawn into a web of elections, corporations, military power, and genetic engineering. Its sharp satire and technological critique capture the anxiety of a country worn down and being remade.
Work Information
In a collapsing nation, an election campaign and genetic engineering unsettle a political operative's world.
Following Oscar Valparaiso through a near-future America marked by political chaos, collapsing infrastructure, and the intrusion of corporations and the military, the novel turns Sterling's irony and technological imagination into a satire that feels sharply post-cyberpunk.
Review Summaries
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Readers often value the sharp political satire and the way the novel anticipates later social and technological anxieties. At the same time, some find its expansive structure and cool narrative distance more challenging than immediately immersive.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Spectra
- Published
- 1998-12-01
- Pages
- 448 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 16.51 x 3.81 x 24.77 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780553104844
- ISBN-10
- 0553104845
- Category
- 洋書/Science Fiction & Fantasy/Science Fiction
From Bruce Sterling, bestselling author of Heavy Weather and Holy Fire, comes this startling, disturbing, and darkly comic vision of the future of America. It is the story of a once great nation coming apart at the seams while an unending spectacle of politics, science, sex, and corruption has everyone too busy to notice.... It's November 2044, an election year, and the state of the Union is a farce. The federal government is broke, cities are privately owned, the military is shaking down citizens in the streets, and Wyoming is on fire. The last place anyone expects to find an answer is the nation's capital. Washington has become a circus and no one knows that better than Oscar Valparaiso. A master political spin doctor, Oscar has been in the background for years, doing his best to put the proper spin on anything that comes up. Now he wants to do something quite unusual in politics. He wants to make a difference. But Oscar has a skeleton in his closet: a grotesque and unspeakable scandal that haunts his personal life. He has one unexpected ally: Dr. Greta Penninger. She is a gifted neurologist at the bleeding edge of the neural revolution. Together Oscar and Greta know the human mind inside and out. And they are about to use that knowledge to spread a very powerful message: that it's a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. It's an idea whose time has come...again. And once again so have its enemies: every technofanatic, government goon, and reactionary laptop assassin in America. Like all revolutionaries, Oscar and Greta might not survive to change the world, but they're determined to put a new spin on it.
Bruce Sterling is the author of the nonfiction book The Hacker Crackdown, as well as the novels Holy Fire, Heavy Weather, Schismatrix, and Islands in the Net. With William Gibson he co-authored the acclaimed novel The Difference Engine. He also writes popular science and travel journalism. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Austin, Texas.
Reviews
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This is a sparkling read, funny from the start, and in its near future dystopic world view, a brilliant satire on American politics. Contains the immortal line "[he] was never a Catholic, but he'd always admired the church's political track record."
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Excellent product, arrived right on time and with better than expected quality.
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Reading this novel and you quickly see why Bruce Sterling has the reputation he has. Whether it is the turn of phrase in a single paragraph or the giant macro themes that take apart how society could degrade, the thinking is smart and the writing really funny.
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Bruce Sterling is a fairly interesting writer. His vision of the future is well-thought out and he's got somewhat of a decent track record in seeing where things are going. The downside to his writing is that he often seizes on a phrase and beats it into the ground. In this book, 'doable' and 'krewe' suffer from over over use. The last problem is inherent in the vision of the future. The world keeps moving faster and fractionating and everyone becomes more and more self aware of their movement in the media flow, so that eventually life turns into a disjointed series of fragments of events that are analyzed and spun into the ground. Which certainly is a plausible vision of the future, but it's not terribly fun for me to read. I take that back. It is fun to read, but not for 600-some pages and not with no goal that the story is building toward, just random noodling about the future. If this was a short story or a shorter novel it would be much more enjoyable. But it's still pretty good.
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I have to admit that I've read very little cyberpunk - Neuromancer comes to mind - but I generally enjoyed this book. I did find the pace a bit uneven, though. Slow going for the first 2-3 chapters, then hyperactive after that. Sterling's vision of a dystopic future is scary, because it seems all too possible. As another reviewer wrote, this book sets out to paint a picture of a near-future environment, rather than concentrating on a specific plot line.