james_d 's review for:

The Difference Engine by William Gibson

3.0

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Overall, this book was ok, but I didn't think it was Gibson's best work (I haven't read any other Sterling). Gibson is good at writing dark worlds and morally ambiguous antihero protagonists, which works well in hardboiled cyberpunk, but not quite as well in steampunk. I thought the ending seemed kind of rushed. The book follows three protagonists, then has a series of what amount to newspaper articles that summarise events around the story, then an epilogue. I would have liked a bit more resolution on how the third protagonist's ending led to the epilogue. One thing that I found very interesting was the discussion of the effects of increasing mechanization on employment, of the use of technology for surveillance, of war and racism, and of pollution. While this book seems ultimately more optimistic than some other *punk, the way these issues were presented seemed very reminiscent of how they appear today, so it hit very close to home. If you really like Gibson or prefer darker and edgier steampunk, this is a good book for you.