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A review by mburnamfink
Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling
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.