Scan barcode
rocketiza's review against another edition
2.0
The quality of the narrative of this was very disappointing. While I know they were trying to create atmosphere, it frequently went into tangents that did nothing to further the story. Gibson's ability to build worlds in his other novels stands in stark contrast to how poorly it was done here.
Also, many of the characters decisions and actions don't really make any sense for them to be doing, and the larger background events seem to come out of nowhere and are forced into the story instead of being built up to.
Also, many of the characters decisions and actions don't really make any sense for them to be doing, and the larger background events seem to come out of nowhere and are forced into the story instead of being built up to.
quantumcrayons's review against another edition
2.0
For me, The Difference Engine's biggest flaw is that it doesn't deliver what it promises. Yes, it establishes one of the earlier steampunk worlds and yes it creates many of the tropes that would become well used by later authors - but what it doesn't particularly do is make use of the Engines themselves.
The Engines, the main draw and the title of the book, end up merely as MacGuffins which move the world. The people most heavily associated with their creation - Babbage and Ada Byron/Lovelace - are side-lined as distant political figures for the majority of the novel. Rather than a single end-to-end novel, instead the book is more like a series of novelettes, tied together by the world and some artefact which is both critical to the plot but has its true impact barely explained.
One thing that I should credit the book with it the world it creates. It is wonderful - a world where a computer was introduced a century earlier, which revolutionised a world of steam and brass, where Victorian values and social systems come up against the efficiency and rigour of rapidly advancing technology. Unfortunately, the adventure that happens within the world is lacklustre and not for me.
The Engines, the main draw and the title of the book, end up merely as MacGuffins which move the world. The people most heavily associated with their creation - Babbage and Ada Byron/Lovelace - are side-lined as distant political figures for the majority of the novel. Rather than a single end-to-end novel, instead the book is more like a series of novelettes, tied together by the world and some artefact which is both critical to the plot but has its true impact barely explained.
One thing that I should credit the book with it the world it creates. It is wonderful - a world where a computer was introduced a century earlier, which revolutionised a world of steam and brass, where Victorian values and social systems come up against the efficiency and rigour of rapidly advancing technology. Unfortunately, the adventure that happens within the world is lacklustre and not for me.
erika_is_reading's review
4.0
Wow, and oh my. I know my British history, but I expect I still missed about half of the nuances in this amazing book. The second half (well, the last quarter) really has to be savored and thought about. And I didn't actually see the bit at the very end coming. Anyway, very impressive. And like Canticle for Liebowitz, needs to be reread in a few years.
merrysociopath's review against another edition
1.0
Mi ci è voluto oltre un mese per leggerne l'80% e poi convincermi che non ne valeva la pena e abbandonarlo. Un romanzo tedioso, sconclusionato, che dice settecentomila cose senza dire in realtà niente. Voglio dire, non dovrei stupirmi, visto che uno degli autori è Gibson, ma pensavo che Sterling lo avesse tenuto a freno, invece no.
shane_tiernan's review
1.0
My wife and I read 400 pages of this before we gave up on the last 30 pages. We kept hoping it would get better, that it would start making sense, but it never really did. Around page 300 there was a satisfactory ending that probably would have earned it 2 stars, but then it droned on for another 100 pages in a kind of REALLY FREAKING LONG epilogue (though it wasn't labeled as such). Then the last 30 pages looked like random tidbits, very experimental kind of setup and we just couldn't take it anymore.
The writing wasn't bad, the setting was interesting, but it seemed that each section just completely jumped away from the last just occasionally mentioning characters, almost like it was 3 different interconnected stories. We kept thinking it would get back to the earlier characters but it didn't.
Very disappointed that we wasted so much time on this.
The writing wasn't bad, the setting was interesting, but it seemed that each section just completely jumped away from the last just occasionally mentioning characters, almost like it was 3 different interconnected stories. We kept thinking it would get back to the earlier characters but it didn't.
Very disappointed that we wasted so much time on this.
rebeccacider's review
3.0
One of the first steampunk novels, and a fun ride through an intriguing, if occasionally unbelievable, Victorian Britain that has stumbled early into the Information Age.
Most of the interest here is in the worldbuilding, the rambling adventure-story plot, and the novel's reflection on the anxieties of big data and government centralization that were in the air when the book was written (1990).
The characters are flat and sometimes not terribly sympathetic, but I grew to appreciate their Brechtian realism. The writers succeeded in making them products of their time and not allowing their stories to play out as simple heroic quests. They're a little unreal, but so is the story itself, with its shootouts and convenient coincidences.
I don't know if this book wholly succeeds in its attempts to make profound statements about chance, history, and human patterns, but there is definitely some food for thought in here.
Most of the interest here is in the worldbuilding, the rambling adventure-story plot, and the novel's reflection on the anxieties of big data and government centralization that were in the air when the book was written (1990).
The characters are flat and sometimes not terribly sympathetic, but I grew to appreciate their Brechtian realism. The writers succeeded in making them products of their time and not allowing their stories to play out as simple heroic quests. They're a little unreal, but so is the story itself, with its shootouts and convenient coincidences.
I don't know if this book wholly succeeds in its attempts to make profound statements about chance, history, and human patterns, but there is definitely some food for thought in here.
loxbridge's review
4.0
The Difference Engine is a complicated book to review, as it embodies both some of the greatest heights and most introspective dialogues of steampunk, yet still has cringeworthy lows which can interrupt the reading experience. To me, The Difference Engine is a sort of holy grail of steampunk texts in that it has the nuance, quality, and above all historicity which most other expressions of steampunk misses. What 'steampunk' means will always be subjective, but to me it must be rooted in the history or themes of the Victorian period, as it is the societal change at the heart of the industrial revolution which powers its outward-facing analog technology. The Difference Engine has this in spades, moving from Luddites to imperialism, industrial squalor, Victorian politics, technological innovation, the Great Game, and new fields in mathematics and natural sciences across its narratives. Yet at the same time this book can be overly masculine and inconsistent in writing quality in the worst of ways.
All the same this book is capable of leaving the reader in awe at the questions it asks, which may lead you down a rabbit hole of mathematics research and academic articles dedicated to this book. As such I must greatly recommend this book with a grain of salt. Any reader of this book must be wary of how dated the authorial voice of this book can at times be. Sometimes this book will replicate Victorian concepts of masculinity and faith in progress without being critical of those. However, if the reader is able to get past this I hope that they will agree that this novel belongs at the core of any steampunk canon.
All the same this book is capable of leaving the reader in awe at the questions it asks, which may lead you down a rabbit hole of mathematics research and academic articles dedicated to this book. As such I must greatly recommend this book with a grain of salt. Any reader of this book must be wary of how dated the authorial voice of this book can at times be. Sometimes this book will replicate Victorian concepts of masculinity and faith in progress without being critical of those. However, if the reader is able to get past this I hope that they will agree that this novel belongs at the core of any steampunk canon.
dnschmidt's review
3.0
Didn't enjoy this one as much as his cyberpunk works, but steampunk isn't my favorite genre.
nyx_belial's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Really slow paced book, didn't enjoy it