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dan1066's review against another edition
3.0
This is one fascinating but frustrating novel. The Sterling sociology lesson is in full swing, but between his many treatises there is a sort of plot about a solar system torn in two by the genetically altered (Shapers) and the technically life-enhanced ("Mechanists"). They wage a political war and perform dirty deeds for the entire length of the book, meeting an alien race along the way. The main character, Abelard Malcolm Tyler Lindsey, survives the ages and finally just drifts off as an entity (a la Dave Bowman). There is a fascination to this novel--there are beautiful passages and interesting ideas, but this is hard-core Sterling and not at all an easy read.
mburnamfink's review against another edition
5.0
This is it. This is my very favorite book, one of the immortal classics of 20th century science fiction, and a work that is as live and thrilling as the first time I read it.
Sterling captures the epic of sweep of posthuman history, following Abelard Lindsay, diplomat, playwright, scholar, defector, through centuries of adventures across the vast expanse of the solar system. Space-faring humanity has been blown apart by their technology, drifting into the major camps of the cybernetically enhanced Mechanists and the genetically altered Shapers. The two sides engage in constant covert war, pushing at the very limits of what it means to be a cohesive human community, and evolving towards something as far beyond humanity as life is beyond dead matter.
Against this incredibly imaginative cosmological speculation, Sterling tackles very grounded questions. How do much do we love? How much do we hate? Can we be freely redefined, or are some things (ideals, scars, destinies) fixed? How can we measure ambition, power, accomplishment, the value of a life? This book, with the novel and handful of Shaper/Mechanist short stories included, is Sterling's masterpiece-the high voltage work of an author at the top of his game. Read it.
***
Updated for Jan 8, 2017: Still perfect.
Sterling captures the epic of sweep of posthuman history, following Abelard Lindsay, diplomat, playwright, scholar, defector, through centuries of adventures across the vast expanse of the solar system. Space-faring humanity has been blown apart by their technology, drifting into the major camps of the cybernetically enhanced Mechanists and the genetically altered Shapers. The two sides engage in constant covert war, pushing at the very limits of what it means to be a cohesive human community, and evolving towards something as far beyond humanity as life is beyond dead matter.
Against this incredibly imaginative cosmological speculation, Sterling tackles very grounded questions. How do much do we love? How much do we hate? Can we be freely redefined, or are some things (ideals, scars, destinies) fixed? How can we measure ambition, power, accomplishment, the value of a life? This book, with the novel and handful of Shaper/Mechanist short stories included, is Sterling's masterpiece-the high voltage work of an author at the top of his game. Read it.
***
Updated for Jan 8, 2017: Still perfect.
lsneal's review against another edition
2.0
The only reason I finished this book is because it was my job and I was being paid to do it. I run a SFF book club for my library, and I try to come up with cogent questions to start the discussion and keep it moving if there are ever any lulls (which happens rarely, in a group of smart and opinionated SFF fans), but these were literally the first two questions I came up with to share with the group:
1. WHAT HAPPENED
2. LITERALLY WHAT IS ANYONE’S DRIVING PHILOSOPHY OR MOTIVATION
I agree wholeheartedly with another review that called this book under-theorized, but with sharp descriptions. The problem is, the descriptions go nowhere. None of the factions and why they are fighting are ever explained in any coherent way, and the main character is a bit of a feckless Gary Stu. It also suffers from that common yet unpleasant trope of its time, wherein the most amazing thing is that the hero manages to accomplish anything at all, what with all the Space Babes throwing themselves at him and demanding he make the sex with them IMMEDIATELY upon meeting him. These women are then usually killed off, to spur the hero on to further righteous accomplishment (maybe...since it's hard to tell what he is doing or why he is doing it the whole time). This, plus the exceedingly dodgy "science" and the extremely Arthur C. Clarke ending, make me question why this is commonly classified as hard/cyberpunk sci-fi, as we are clearly well into fantasy territory here.
The short stories at the end of this edition have much tighter writing and more coherent plotting (except for the very last, which is literally a list of 20 bullet points about a character, and seems more like an outline for another book/story than anything else). All in all, it seems like Sterling should have stuck to the short story format, because the novel hangs together not at all.
1. WHAT HAPPENED
2. LITERALLY WHAT IS ANYONE’S DRIVING PHILOSOPHY OR MOTIVATION
I agree wholeheartedly with another review that called this book under-theorized, but with sharp descriptions. The problem is, the descriptions go nowhere. None of the factions and why they are fighting are ever explained in any coherent way, and the main character is a bit of a feckless Gary Stu. It also suffers from that common yet unpleasant trope of its time, wherein the most amazing thing is that the hero manages to accomplish anything at all, what with all the Space Babes throwing themselves at him and demanding he make the sex with them IMMEDIATELY upon meeting him. These women are then usually killed off, to spur the hero on to further righteous accomplishment (maybe...since it's hard to tell what he is doing or why he is doing it the whole time). This, plus the exceedingly dodgy "science" and the extremely Arthur C. Clarke ending, make me question why this is commonly classified as hard/cyberpunk sci-fi, as we are clearly well into fantasy territory here.
The short stories at the end of this edition have much tighter writing and more coherent plotting (except for the very last, which is literally a list of 20 bullet points about a character, and seems more like an outline for another book/story than anything else). All in all, it seems like Sterling should have stuck to the short story format, because the novel hangs together not at all.
amber_insight's review against another edition
2.0
I... really didn't like this. This was a very disappointing discovery, given how highly praised the book is within the sci-fi genre. But the fact is that I didn't care at all about any of the characters. The plot, while it referenced sci-fi elements perpetually, didn't actually have a thing to do with those concepts in and of itself. And what it was about was not my genre at all. The story was also just full of tedious, but largely uninteresting, detail that made it drag on endlessly... I even found myself skimming periodically, which I never do. It's just not the book for me, apparently.
useriv's review
3.0
A lot of the philosophy felt forced and/or just made up. A lot of pretentious speech, not enough pragmatism and need driving the schisms. A little dated, too, every time cassettes were mentioned, I cringed a little. Still, an impressive piece of SF, deserving a place in the history of the genre. Accelerando riffed a lot on its themes.[b:Accelerando|17863|Accelerando|Charles Stross|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309198110s/17863.jpg|930555]
will_sargent's review
4.0
It's clearly early Sterling, but you can see the bones of his themes there -- world building led by a politician and thought leader rather than a technologist, bizarre pointillist relationship patter, the youthful mad urge to self-immolate, the tendency of the old to placid routine to better hide their terrifying competence in the face of chaos.
That being said, there's mawkishness in here as well -- the conflict between Abelard and Constantine is manufactured and handled like a set piece and it would be damn near impossible to confuse identities and pasts given the ubiquity of DNA and general curiosity of the public -- but it stands up much better than most other futureshock.
That being said, there's mawkishness in here as well -- the conflict between Abelard and Constantine is manufactured and handled like a set piece and it would be damn near impossible to confuse identities and pasts given the ubiquity of DNA and general curiosity of the public -- but it stands up much better than most other futureshock.
lordofthemoon's review
3.0
This volume collects the novel [b: Schismatrix|161297|Schismatrix|Bruce Sterling|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1286902384s/161297.jpg|953952] and all the short fiction set in the universe, starting with the novel. I'm not sure that it might not have been better to reverse the order and put the short stories first, giving you a more gentle introduction to the world, since the novel does throw you in at the deep end. It follows a natural born human called Abelard Lindsay, who is trained as a diplomat by the Shapers - those who have genetically reshaped their genetic heritage, in opposition to the Mechanists - those who use mechanical augmentation to enhance themselves. Lindsay is exiled from his home and finds himself travelling the solar system in order to, er, well, I'm not really sure. Survive? Thrive? Get revenge?
The action jumps around from lunar orbit, to the outer planetary rings, and there are sometimes large jumps in time. This sort of stuttering narrative makes it difficult to get a handle on what's happening (not helped by my own intermittent reading of the book) and made it less likely for me to want to pick it up again. I did eventually get properly into the story towards the end of the novel, but it took quite some time.
The short stories are easier, both because they focus on a single story, without the sprawling feel of the novel, and perhaps because several of them touch on characters or themes that I had previously read about from a different angle in the novel.
I mostly read this because several authors whose work I like cited this as an inspiration. I think this may reward rereading but to be honest, I don't feel that, for me, it would be worth the effort.
The action jumps around from lunar orbit, to the outer planetary rings, and there are sometimes large jumps in time. This sort of stuttering narrative makes it difficult to get a handle on what's happening (not helped by my own intermittent reading of the book) and made it less likely for me to want to pick it up again. I did eventually get properly into the story towards the end of the novel, but it took quite some time.
The short stories are easier, both because they focus on a single story, without the sprawling feel of the novel, and perhaps because several of them touch on characters or themes that I had previously read about from a different angle in the novel.
I mostly read this because several authors whose work I like cited this as an inspiration. I think this may reward rereading but to be honest, I don't feel that, for me, it would be worth the effort.
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