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A review by charles__
Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling
4.0
Cyberpunk/political/space opera crossover, picaresque novel. In which Abelard Lindsey born amongst humans who have fled a dead Earth are living in artificial habitats, asteroids and moons, eventually a few of them live long enough to become Posthuman.
O’Neill cylinder-style habitat like the Mare Tranquillitatis People’s Circumlunar Zaibatsu
My yellow paged, dead tree, trade paperback version was a modest 319-pages. It had a US 1996 copyright.
Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author. He has written more than ten novels, and numerous works of short fiction. This was the author’s third and breakthrough novel. I have read almost all the author’s books, including previously this one. However, I can’t recall the last one I read in the dim past.
I found this yellowed paperback low on a crowded shelf of a used bookstore I was prowling. I remembered reading this the first time in the static-laced, black leather, mirror shades and brushed stainless heyday of the now dead Cyberpunk genre. I barely remembered the story, but did remember it causing my eggshell, fragile mind to asplode. In that dimly lit, aisle, amongst dusty, shelves crammed with old books, its time had come again.
Note, I read the Schismatrix Plus version of the book with a 1996 copy write. This bundles the original novel of 236-pages, with the five short stories Sterling wrote in the Schismatrix Universe 11-years after the novel’s publication. The short stories are not included in this review.
TL;DR Synopsis
Abelard Lindsay, a young, dilettante of good family and Shaper-trained diplomat of a neutral circumlunar hab, falls afoul of local politics in the Shaper (psychologists and bio-engineers) and Mechanist (technocrats) factions Cold War rending the Solar System.
The Review
Schismatrix is vintage cyberpunk. It starts with the classic disorientation of the reader à la [a:William Gibson|9226|William Gibson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1373826214p2/9226.jpg]. You’re thrown headlong into the deep-end of the world building pool with your clothes on, wallet and mobile still in-pocket. You need to figure out a lot of what has gone on-before by yourself—quickly. This includes puzzling out a very inventive new vocabulary. Some folks hate this. It’s likely why Cyberpunk was extirpated from main-stream science fiction? I chowed on it. I would have been a Mechanist in the novel.
Writing was good, close to excellent. The narrative was in a fractured chronological order. Some chapters followed closely, others could be decades apart. The narrative starts in lunar orbit, and reaches Jupiter’s moon Europa after about 200-years. There was a short diversion sunward to the proscribed Earth. Descriptive narration was highly imaginative, and richly detailed.
One thing I noticed with this almost 40-year old novel, was how complete a story the author told using a scant 236 pages. It’s rare to find a contemporary science fiction novel with less than 350 pages. I’ve even been exposed to several recent sf novels with 500-1000 pages by first time published authors. Forty years ago, talented authors, knew how to do more with fewer words.
Picaresque novels are written in the first person, that being the protagonist Abelard Lindsay’s POV. Contrary to the novel's type, the Lindsay character develops significantly over 200-years, abetted by rejuvenations and Mech hardware. Lindsay’s politics change several times. He goes from a young Shaper activist, to a Mechanist, to different flavors of Independent, and finally an elder, Posthumanist. In the process, he makes and leaves behind: friends, allies, enemies, wives and lovers. The elderly, cyborged and meticulously medicated senior statesman character at the end was unrecognizable as the young Shaper con-man, surviving by his wits of the story’s beginning.
Plotting. Picaresque novels are a loosely plotted series of adventures. Lindsey’s adventures advance outward from the sun, taking place on artificial habitats, asteroids, and moons. Sometimes the location is used only briefly, and others it’s for decades. Each location addresses a change in: human politics, societal evolution or Lindsey himself. A few times, it’s Lindsey affecting the political change. In others it’s Lindsey who’s changed or was changing. I noted an interesting theme on Aging as the story got long too.
There was: “Sex, drugs, and rock’n roll music, along with violence in the story.
Folks had sex. It was tastefully done, although it was of the fade-to-black type. Sexuality was part of the narrative, but it was always heterosexually oriented. The fluidity of gender or non-gender found in modern sf was almost completely absent from the story. I found this unaccountable considering the degree of societal and biological change described. Intoxicants, particularly synthetic drugs were widely in use. In general, there was a bewildering array of medicinals in-use. Old fashioned alcohol was consumed in social settings, sometimes in excess. Music was almost pervasive in social situations. In ranged from the ancient (Classical) to the undescribed then contemporary.
The body count was modest. This was despite a centuries Cold, sometimes Hot war going on. I frankly thought that there would likely have been more deaths by malice or misadventure? Vacuum Kills!. Most of the violence in space vessels or habitats was physical, or impact weapons to avoid holing the environment. The violence was moderately graphic. As the story got long the majority of it was Administrative Violence.
World building was exceptional in its breadth and detail. Several of the technologies were “sufficiently advanced technologies indistinguishable from magic”. Many elements of the world building have since become tired tropes. Others left me wondering, whey they didn’t have legs. However, there were a few anachronisms that survived. For example,
Summary
I’m a fan of old timey cyberpunk. I loved this book. It’s a story contemporary with [b:Neuromancer|6088007|Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1)|William Gibson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554437249l/6088007._SY75_.jpg|909457], although it’s more like Vacuum Flowers (my review) in its space opera aspect.
You may have noticed I was generous with quotes in this review? The story was also very well written in that edgy and gritty style cyberpunk borrowed from hardboiled. I’m glad I Eye-read this, so I could, at points, linger over the prose.
The author packed an enormous amount of ideas into 236-pages. The story was also an embarrassment of world building riches. Just about every chapter contained one.
However, the book was an artifact of science fiction at its time (1985). Politics, technology and human limitations are not popular themes in contemporary science fiction. Whilst themes absent from this book, like gender now are. In which case, reading it felt fascinatingly, old fashioned, like viewing a Tesla coil.
Still I really liked it. It was packed full of ideas and a great piece of narrative craftsmanship. A recommended read for those interested in artifacts of a bygone science fiction genre.
O’Neill cylinder-style habitat like the Mare Tranquillitatis People’s Circumlunar Zaibatsu
My yellow paged, dead tree, trade paperback version was a modest 319-pages. It had a US 1996 copyright.
Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author. He has written more than ten novels, and numerous works of short fiction. This was the author’s third and breakthrough novel. I have read almost all the author’s books, including previously this one. However, I can’t recall the last one I read in the dim past.
I found this yellowed paperback low on a crowded shelf of a used bookstore I was prowling. I remembered reading this the first time in the static-laced, black leather, mirror shades and brushed stainless heyday of the now dead Cyberpunk genre. I barely remembered the story, but did remember it causing my eggshell, fragile mind to asplode. In that dimly lit, aisle, amongst dusty, shelves crammed with old books, its time had come again.
Note, I read the Schismatrix Plus version of the book with a 1996 copy write. This bundles the original novel of 236-pages, with the five short stories Sterling wrote in the Schismatrix Universe 11-years after the novel’s publication. The short stories are not included in this review.
TL;DR Synopsis
Abelard Lindsay, a young, dilettante of good family and Shaper-trained diplomat of a neutral circumlunar hab, falls afoul of local politics in the Shaper (psychologists and bio-engineers) and Mechanist (technocrats) factions Cold War rending the Solar System.
”The Shapers, the Mechanists—those aren’t philosophies, they’re technologies made into politics."He sundogs it, escaping outward into the system, surviving, succeeding and failing, whilst changing vocations, identities, and locations over two centuries. In the process, he changes, whilst affecting the far-future human history in times of even greater change.
The Review
Schismatrix is vintage cyberpunk. It starts with the classic disorientation of the reader à la [a:William Gibson|9226|William Gibson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1373826214p2/9226.jpg]. You’re thrown headlong into the deep-end of the world building pool with your clothes on, wallet and mobile still in-pocket. You need to figure out a lot of what has gone on-before by yourself—quickly. This includes puzzling out a very inventive new vocabulary. Some folks hate this. It’s likely why Cyberpunk was extirpated from main-stream science fiction? I chowed on it. I would have been a Mechanist in the novel.
Writing was good, close to excellent. The narrative was in a fractured chronological order. Some chapters followed closely, others could be decades apart. The narrative starts in lunar orbit, and reaches Jupiter’s moon Europa after about 200-years. There was a short diversion sunward to the proscribed Earth. Descriptive narration was highly imaginative, and richly detailed.
They had that peculiar Shaper magnetism, an acrobatic smoothness and fluidity. Yet something in the set of their shoulders, their slim, dexterous hands, kinetically displayed Constantine’s genetic heritage. They wore outlandish finery: round velvet hats, ruby earrings, and gold-laced brocade coats.Action was likewise good. Although, this was not an action-heavy novel. Dialog was terse in comparison.
”There is no war. This is evolution in action.”In addition, the writing was well-groomed. I found only one mistake. The old Timey Arbor House publishers, who published a lot of the original cyberpunk, had good editors.
One thing I noticed with this almost 40-year old novel, was how complete a story the author told using a scant 236 pages. It’s rare to find a contemporary science fiction novel with less than 350 pages. I’ve even been exposed to several recent sf novels with 500-1000 pages by first time published authors. Forty years ago, talented authors, knew how to do more with fewer words.
Picaresque novels are written in the first person, that being the protagonist Abelard Lindsay’s POV. Contrary to the novel's type, the Lindsay character develops significantly over 200-years, abetted by rejuvenations and Mech hardware. Lindsay’s politics change several times. He goes from a young Shaper activist, to a Mechanist, to different flavors of Independent, and finally an elder, Posthumanist. In the process, he makes and leaves behind: friends, allies, enemies, wives and lovers. The elderly, cyborged and meticulously medicated senior statesman character at the end was unrecognizable as the young Shaper con-man, surviving by his wits of the story’s beginning.
Plotting. Picaresque novels are a loosely plotted series of adventures. Lindsey’s adventures advance outward from the sun, taking place on artificial habitats, asteroids, and moons. Sometimes the location is used only briefly, and others it’s for decades. Each location addresses a change in: human politics, societal evolution or Lindsey himself. A few times, it’s Lindsey affecting the political change. In others it’s Lindsey who’s changed or was changing. I noted an interesting theme on Aging as the story got long too.
They believed in what they saw in him: an older man, a bit slow, perhaps, without the fire of genius others had, but generous and with the tang of mystery. With that mystery came glamour: Doctor Abelard Malvrides [Lindsey] had set his share of trends.Typically, I eschew story’s with a lot of venue changes. Here with a novel containing the theme of change, I saw the value of them. At the end, I was surprised by both a crucial reveal, and Lindsey’s last story choice.
Spoiler
Once a pícaro, always a pícaro.There was: “Sex, drugs, and rock’n roll music, along with violence in the story.
Folks had sex. It was tastefully done, although it was of the fade-to-black type. Sexuality was part of the narrative, but it was always heterosexually oriented. The fluidity of gender or non-gender found in modern sf was almost completely absent from the story. I found this unaccountable considering the degree of societal and biological change described. Intoxicants, particularly synthetic drugs were widely in use. In general, there was a bewildering array of medicinals in-use. Old fashioned alcohol was consumed in social settings, sometimes in excess. Music was almost pervasive in social situations. In ranged from the ancient (Classical) to the undescribed then contemporary.
The body count was modest. This was despite a centuries Cold, sometimes Hot war going on. I frankly thought that there would likely have been more deaths by malice or misadventure? Vacuum Kills!. Most of the violence in space vessels or habitats was physical, or impact weapons to avoid holing the environment. The violence was moderately graphic. As the story got long the majority of it was Administrative Violence.
World building was exceptional in its breadth and detail. Several of the technologies were “sufficiently advanced technologies indistinguishable from magic”. Many elements of the world building have since become tired tropes. Others left me wondering, whey they didn’t have legs. However, there were a few anachronisms that survived. For example,
An adhesive coffee table held a flip-top inhaler and a rack of cassettes.A sticky horizontal surface in low-gravity habs was a brilliant idea. Although, Sterling's future had a fondness for the now defunct tape storage. I also would have thought that something better than Velcro® would have been invented? Finely, early in the story, Lindsey sports a credit card which was really no different than the chipped card in my wallet. These artifacts existed alongside more prosaic future technologies that are still nearer now than they were in the story. (Like compact tokomaks.)
Summary
I’m a fan of old timey cyberpunk. I loved this book. It’s a story contemporary with [b:Neuromancer|6088007|Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1)|William Gibson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554437249l/6088007._SY75_.jpg|909457], although it’s more like Vacuum Flowers (my review) in its space opera aspect.
You may have noticed I was generous with quotes in this review? The story was also very well written in that edgy and gritty style cyberpunk borrowed from hardboiled. I’m glad I Eye-read this, so I could, at points, linger over the prose.
The author packed an enormous amount of ideas into 236-pages. The story was also an embarrassment of world building riches. Just about every chapter contained one.
However, the book was an artifact of science fiction at its time (1985). Politics, technology and human limitations are not popular themes in contemporary science fiction. Whilst themes absent from this book, like gender now are. In which case, reading it felt fascinatingly, old fashioned, like viewing a Tesla coil.
Still I really liked it. It was packed full of ideas and a great piece of narrative craftsmanship. A recommended read for those interested in artifacts of a bygone science fiction genre.