Customer Reviews

The Artificial Kid

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With "The Artifical Kid", a young Bruce Sterling demonstrated his excellence in writing comedic novels, to which he would return much later, in full force, in novels like "Holy Fire" and "The Zenith Angle", among others. While his second novel isn't nearly as polished as his later classic "Schisimatrix", it does explore in embroyonic form, some of the same issues of identity and what it means to be human, that he did quite remarkably well in his mid 1980s work. I couldn't help but laugh as I worked my way through the pages of Sterling's early novel, observing that it's nearly as funny as some of Harlan Ellison's best satirical short fiction. For anyone who wishes to understand Sterling's development as a leading member of the cyberpunk literary movement, then this early novel of his is required reading.

I found this book in the library, of all places, back when I was in junior high school in 1982. Crouched between all that hoary Silverberg and Simak that I didn't want to read, it said "Psssst!". I haven't been the same since. The Kid jumped out and smacked me across the forehead with his lush, tweaked-out postpunk setting and sweeping, interconnected plot. A little bit of old-world pangalacticism, a little futuristic DIY chopsocky, a bunch of toungues in cheeks, and loads of high-tech wetware polymers and lurching biomasses, from before wetware polymers and lurching biomasses were cool. And all the while, Sterling's trademark core of optimism shines through.

It's taken the world about ten years to catch up to this baby, and it's about damn time. If you don't know Bruce Sterling, this is a fine place to start. Now, where's my Smuff?

John Zero (jzero@onramp.net), Dallas, Texas

This is such a strange, imaginative, interesting novel -- it's sad that it was out of print for ages, and then Wired Books brought it back, only to let it fall back out of print! Anyone who likes Bruce Sterling's other stuff should go to abebooks.com and try to find a used copy of this!

I'm a complete geek and avid reader of hard sci-fi. I like Neuromancer from William Gibson, Snow Crash and Diamond Age from Neal Stephenson, and Diaspora and just about everything else from Greg Egan.

But I can't recommend "Artificial Kid" by Bruce Sterling. The ideas behind the story are good. His descriptions are visibly good, but it reads neither like a good story, nor like a tech manual.

The problem isn't isolated to this book either. "Difference Engine" also reads slowly. I can't even pinpoint exactly what it is, other than Bruce Sterling's writings are VERY slow to read and hard to stay focussed on the story. It's almost as if the acting is poor. Dialog, inner and outer, just seems adolescent.

Sterling's The Artificial Kid works best as an adventure story with intense action, whose closest relatives would be Japanese anime pictures. He also tries to make this a novel of ideas (longevity, personality worship, identity politics), but they remain largely undeveloped. Nevertheless, its an entertaining book.

This was actually Sterling's second novel. Involution Ocean was the first. Most people forget Involution Ocean because it was not cyberpunk. The Artificial Kid is okay, but weak for Sterling. His later works were much more imaginative. The Sterling completist must get this one. For others it is a good read but don't expect a classic.

This is the book which got me hooked on Bruce Sterling. A less poundingly gritty world than Gibson's and more playful as a result. It brings together aspects of fame and change - and the adolescent desire to seek one while shunning the other - in an enjoyable combination. The focus is still the action which let me read (and re-read) it for the escapist element.

A wealthy man indulges in a sociological experiment, but creating his
own personal corporate society. The incredibly wealthy live above the
planet, those not so, on it.

The media is king, and a reality violence show is the main
attraction. This is sport by way of Rollerball and The Running Man, and
the best protagonist of this mayhem is The Artificial Kid.

This is Bruce Sterling's first novel. It is rough, unpolished, and uncompromising. It is vastly better than his more mature works. Highly recommended

The Artificial Kid was a fairly short but fun read. The Kid himself is a great character and his friends were all pretty original as well. For the first few chapters it looks like it might be a highly entertaining adventure. After that it gets sort of bogged down and takes a new direction, but on the whole I found it worth the effort. I liked the various warring clans, the individual combatants, the follicle mites and the whole concept of televised (or the equivalent) combat art.

Things I didn't like about the book (don't worry, nothing really revealing here): the Flying Island, Crossbow and the Chairman's transformation, a climax you wouldn't exactly call exciting. Also, the Crossbow Body was a pretty shaky and only vaguely accounted-for concept.