The Artificial Kid (Context (San Francisco).) [Paperback]

Bruce Sterling (Author)

Book Description

Series: Context (San Francisco). | Publication Date: August 1997

The ultra-rich satellite-dwellers orbiting the planet Reverie love to tune in to the televised exploits of the world's best professional combat artist, The Artificial Kid. But when an enemy discovers a secret from The Kid's murky past, The Kid must face the fiercest battle of his life, placing the fate of the entire planet in his hands. First published in 1980.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The entertainment industry rules on the planet Reverie, a world founded by Moses Moses as an experiment in corporately controlled equality. Instead, the experiment has caused Reverie to mutate into a landscape of decadence and class separation. Miles above the surface, the ultra-wealthy live in orbital homes, watching the surface citizens' home-produced videos of sex and extreme violence. The title character of The Artificial Kid, Arti, is the most popular of the Combat Artists. These futuristic mirrors of professional wrestlers or American Gladiators confront each other in superhero-esque battles (although the Combat Artists' contests are real) within a complex system of honor, ritual, and conduct. Arti has reached the height of his fame--equally loved by his fans and friends and despised by his competitors. However, he is not entirely who he seems to be, and when the planetary founder mysteriously returns, The Artificial Kid finds himself embroiled in a battle for power that's not ready for prime time. Bruce Sterling, best known for his nonfiction work, The Hacker Crackdown, and the classic cyberthriller, Islands in the Net, presents a seminal, vivid, and turbulent future in The Artificial Kid. The Artificial Kid is a work of satirical social commentary with the breakneck pace of a Hong Kong action film.

Product Details

• Paperback: 309 pages
• Publisher: Hardwired (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188886916X
• ISBN-13: 978-1888869163
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,598,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious, Delightful Early Bruce Sterling Novel, September 15, 2007

By 

John Kwok (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Artificial Kid (Context (San Francisco).) (Paperback)

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Artifical Kid really did change my life..., October 23, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Artificial Kid (Context (San Francisco).) (Paperback)

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 ([e-mail]), Dallas, Texas

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fun and clever, May 24, 1999

By 

Sean Burke (Ketchikan, Alaska, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Artificial Kid (Context (San Francisco).) (Paperback)

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!