JackWilliamBell's Full Review: Bruce Sterling - Distraction
Summary: Fast paced novel about politics and social change in near future America. Up to the standard of Sterling's best work. Recommended.
Overall Rating: 11111110 (seven bits out of eight)
Cyberpunk Rating: 11111000 (five bits out of eight)
You could say that all of Bruce Sterling's stories are about hacking contradict in one way or another. (Hacking in this context is defined as the process of getting a system to produce a desired result through non-approved methods.) Sometimes exactly what is being hacked is a little murky (the Shaper/Mechanist works, 'The Artificial Kid' and 'Involoution Ocean'). But his major novels have all been about hacking something specific.
In 'Islands in the Net' Sterling wrote about hacking communication systems and data flows. In 'The Difference Engine' he (with William Gibson) wrote about hacking steam and steel. In 'Heavy Weather' it was tornadoes and airflows. In 'Holy Fire' it was culture and art.
His latest novel, 'Distraction', fits right into the trend. Only now his characters are hacking *politics*...
'Distraction' begins in November of 2044, right after the Senate elections. But a Senate seat is no prize: the Federal Government is broke, 'Emergency Committees' operate without oversight, the military can't pay their bills, Louisiana is very nearly a separate country and Wyoming is on fire. Things are, quite frankly, a mess. America is on the ropes folks. One more shot to the jaw and Uncle Sam will be down for the count.
And nobody outside the American borders cares. The French are supplying Louisiana. The Dutch are talking tough. China has whipped the USA's butt economically by pirating software and other intellectual property, *over the Net the USA built*, until it no longer has any value.
Inside the borders you find pretty much the same story. Many people have been so displaced by economic change and/or by the rising oceans that they have become road gypsies with a new way of life; using high technology turned to street use to survive without money. Others are part of the corrupt infrastructure. And some just don't give a damn.
Oscar Valparaiso is one of the exceptions. He gives a damn. He is also a multimillionaire (after hyperinflation that probably doesn't mean as much as you might think) and a crack political operator. The kind of guy who could make Clinton's problems look like the Republican's fault. But Oscar has a personal problem -- he isn't entirely human (sorry, no spoilers here, but it has nothing to do with ET or cyborg body mods).
Oscar is also a stuck-up little prig that wouldn't last two minutes in a biker bar. But he has winning ways. He can manipulate people individually nearly as well he can manipulate the masses. This is partly because Oscar can focus really well; he is a master tactician. He has the proof. He has just won a Senate seat for a billionaire architect who was given no chance at all. And now he is a new staffer on the Senate Science Committee and he is on his way to investigate the' Collaboratory, a biodome experimental complex near the hick town of Buna Texas.
Before he is done he will find himself at odds with 'Green Huey', the satrap of Louisiana. Insane assassins spurred on by a network spambot will attack him. One group of dropout nomads, the Regulators, will kidnap him and Dr. Greta Penninger, a scientist from the Collaboratory. Another group of nomads, the Moderators, will take his side in a revolution. And Oscar will find that manipulation is something you get much more often than it is something you give.
It is a compelling read. Sterling has always known how to create great characters and get them into interesting situations. Recently ('Holy Fire') he has even learned to build on those situations in what seems like mild and logical steps that go disastrously wrong -- his earlier novels tended to bludgeon the reader for scene after scene, while here he leads you step by weird step into an all too plausible, and nasty, future.
Many hardcore Cyberpunks complain about Gibson, Sterling and Stephenson mellowing out, as if they have no right to mature and develop in their art. Those same people will not enjoy this novel near as much as they would if Sterling had never edited 'Mirrorshades' or wrote a single Shaper/Mechanist story. But the same outpouring of brilliant ideas and extrapolations happen in 'Distraction' as in any other Sterling work, they are just better integrated into the story instead of occasionally getting in the way (although I always forgave him for that anyway).
If you read Sterling at least partially for those ideas you will not be disappointed. The nomad gangs and their reliance on networks to organize (and operate their internal economic system built on respect) are well thought out and rendered. The throwaway bits like the U.S. Airforce blockading a road for a fake bake sale to raise money for the electric bill rings true to anyone who has spent time in a third world country. The political references bespeak good research and read like a lampoon of our current political situation.
If you read Sterling for the story, you will enjoy yourself tremendously. I liked this novel. It had everything Bruce Sterling has led me to expect, along with a main character I could root for even when I could never bring myself to like him. It isn't 'Schismatrix', but that isn't a slam. 'Distraction' is just different and perhaps even better overall.
If you read Sterling because he writes Cyberpunk, 'Distraction' does have some good old computer hacking scenes. Certainly the point of view is not standard for a Cyberpunk novel, but it does give an interesting new perspective on some very Cyberpunk tropes. Read it!
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.