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A review by davidgillette
Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling
3.0
God. Sterling is obviously a genius. Schismatrix is packed with awesome ideas. The universe is extremely, extremely cool. I would write fanfic in this world. I think the short stories are better in the sense that they're more fun to read. "Swarm" and "Spider Rose" are absolute classics, with nice little plots that tie bows around everything at the end. "Twenty Evocations" is awesome.
The novel, though, drags a bit. I think it's important to read if you want to get into the mechanics of SF ideation, because it does that so fruitfully and well, but it's all a bit dreary. Which might be a necessary part of living hundreds of years in space. I dunno.
The aliens are basically too cool for words. I love the Fortuna Miners' Democracy. The Geisha Bank is a perfect, crazy, SF idea, complete with a weird obsession with prostitution (not that it doesn't make sense; the sex standard is a hell of a lot more sensible than the gold standard). I love the nonsensical Shaper/Mechanist divide and totally buy it. I would be a Shaper. The decay and desolation is all fantastic. The names are awesome: Abelard Tyler Lindsay! All that being said, though, I never thought that Sterling really developed his characters as he should have. He time-jumps through the interesting relationship development between Lindsay and Nora. And the supposedly epic conflict between Constantine and Lindsay never got under my skin like it should have. Plus, there's some meaningless cyberpunk violence (rather like regular meaningless SF/adventure violence, but bleaker—see The Dark Knight). So, yeah. An epic, important, terribly well-done book that I didn't enjoy reading a whole lot and now skim mainly to go, "Yeah, awesome," without thinking about the actual story too much. Intergrate plot, character, and ideas/worldbuilding, you sacks of dicks!
(No disrespect to Mr. Sterling. You're a mad genius and can kill me with your brain.)
The novel, though, drags a bit. I think it's important to read if you want to get into the mechanics of SF ideation, because it does that so fruitfully and well, but it's all a bit dreary. Which might be a necessary part of living hundreds of years in space. I dunno.
The aliens are basically too cool for words. I love the Fortuna Miners' Democracy. The Geisha Bank is a perfect, crazy, SF idea, complete with a weird obsession with prostitution (not that it doesn't make sense; the sex standard is a hell of a lot more sensible than the gold standard). I love the nonsensical Shaper/Mechanist divide and totally buy it. I would be a Shaper. The decay and desolation is all fantastic. The names are awesome: Abelard Tyler Lindsay! All that being said, though, I never thought that Sterling really developed his characters as he should have. He time-jumps through the interesting relationship development between Lindsay and Nora. And the supposedly epic conflict between Constantine and Lindsay never got under my skin like it should have. Plus, there's some meaningless cyberpunk violence (rather like regular meaningless SF/adventure violence, but bleaker—see The Dark Knight). So, yeah. An epic, important, terribly well-done book that I didn't enjoy reading a whole lot and now skim mainly to go, "Yeah, awesome," without thinking about the actual story too much. Intergrate plot, character, and ideas/worldbuilding, you sacks of dicks!
(No disrespect to Mr. Sterling. You're a mad genius and can kill me with your brain.)