sfarmer76's Full Review: Bruce Sterling - The Zenith Angle
A glitzy fiction book, spawned by Hugo Award WinnerSterling, has newly arrived in paperback. The Zenith Angle, told in thirteen chapters, is centered on newsworthy events that occur within the time frame of September 1999 thru April 2002. This encompasses everything from the burst of the Tech Bubble all the way up to Post-9/11 Hysteria, and Brucemilks every moment for what it’s worth. The Austin,Texas author is still chiefly known for co-authoring The Difference Engine with William Gibson, but The Zenith Angle – his fourteenth book – will most likely broaden his readership. Dr. Derek “Van” Vandeveer is our protagonist in this particular title, and his pleasant little family life, with wife Dottie and toddler Ted in fictional MerwinsterNew Jersey, is apocalyptically detonated when audacious Arabs suddenly decide to collide two jumbo jets into two very tall buildings just across the Hudson River.
Nobody would expect a sci-fi author (who usually writes about events transpiring 40-80 years into the future) to write a comic novel based on the aftermath of a present-day American tragedy, but Sterling pulls it off, and it works for the most part, thanks to the sharply drawn characters. Sterling treats us to some ‘face time’ with iconic billionaire Tom DeFanti at his Pine Crest,Colorado ranch, in the scene setting Prologue. DeFanti encounters an Internet entrepreneur whom he refers to simply as The Dot-Commie, at his rustic remote cabin, and we’ll see if you can pick him out later in the collection.
During the next thirteen chapters, Sterling throws in; a wallflower astronomer, her young son, a Swedish au pair girl, a Black Ops Agent, two Bollywood film stars, a Chinese neighbor, a CIA translator, a cyber cop named Jeb, a doddering grandfather, a legendary hacker known as The Weevil, an Ex-Enron employee, a skeptical Major General, an Indian caretaker, and just for good measure – a lovesick, vodka-drinking Russian colonel. Then he hits purée.
Requisite plot points begin to revolve around acronym soup, black ops satellites, cool office furniture, cyber security, Donald Rumsfeld, economic swindlers, gunplay, a fully-stocked Humvee, a Grendel-ized computer network, hijacking of hardware, political turf wars, product demonstrations, shopping on eBay, two-career couples, workaholic habits, and one really, really large, Internet-connected telescope.
Of course, there’s a Deadly Space Weapon that has to be disarmed at the heart of all this cultural, military, political, and scientific intrigue. A spy satellite that has to be destroyed figures in. And some foreign spies needing to be dispatched do too. Pencil in a few extra military thugs – running around in the background – that need to be ‘extraordinarily rendered,’ and you have a fresh Molotov Cocktail awaiting you. Let’s just say “Van” has a chance to get his shots in. And takes them."Let's Roll Indeed!"
I have the feeling that Sterling dashed this work off on deadline. The characters and textures drive the story – while the plot floats light and loose. I initially sensed that things were going in a different direction when I approached the final chapter, and I was a little disappointed with the resolution. I think Bruce could’ve developed it a little more if he’d wanted to, but I imagine he faced serious time constraints. I can compliment the scribe, however, on the fluidity of this book – as I read it in just two sittings.
Despite the slightly limp ending, I strongly recommend this entertaining novel of the near past. However, let it be known that I can name at least four characters (Tom DeFanti, Robbie Vandeveer, The Russian Colonel, The Weevil) in The Zenith Angle, that never got so much as a second scene, and they deserve to be revisited. I was distinctly annoyed, in fact, that The Weevil did not figure into the final plot resolution. That “Van” did not patch things up with his father – Robbie. Also, further displeasing me, the fact that industrial scion Tom DeFanti was not returned to the helm of his corporate fiefdom. Perhaps Sterling will be kind enough to provide us with an update on these entrancing characters one day.
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