"I'm an entertainer in the military-entertainment complex." -- Bruce Sterling Polemicist, provocateur, futurist, 'visionary in residence', Bruce Sterling has been out there, personally sharpening the cutting edge of science fiction for more than thirty years. From his first story "Man-Made Self" in 1976 to his latest "Kiosk" in 2007, Sterling has written science fiction that is fast-moving, sharply extrapolated, technologically literate, and as brilliant and coherent as a laser, as he himself once said of William Gibson. His "Shaper/Mechanist" stories were an essential part of the cyberpunk movement of the '80s, just as his "Leggy Starlitz" and "Chattanooga" stories wrangled the near future of the '90s better than anyone else. Whether writing about the deep future in Schismatrix or the deep present in Holy Fire, he has developed into the best science fiction writer working in the world today. Born in Texas in 1954, Sterling has traveled the globe writing and working for The New York Times, Nature, Wired, Newsday, and a number of industrial design magazines. His short fiction has appeared in almost every major publication in the science fiction field. His novels include far future adventures Involution Ocean and The Artificial Kid, Schismatrix, John W. Campbell Memorial Award winner Islands in the Net, The Difference Engine, Heavy Weather, Holy Fire, Distraction, and The Zenith Angle.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Sterling (Visionary in Residence: Stories), the godfather of cyberpunk, demonstrates his full range, from far future to forgotten past, in this well-stocked career-spanning collection of his finest SF pieces. His blend of uncompromising realism and irrepressible optimism shows up wherever his protagonists do, whether working for a stranded alien in Crusader-era Palestine (The Blemmye's Stratagem), investigating a mock space journey inside the cavern left from a Chinese H-bomb test (Taklamakan) or just hanging around (literally) in 2037 Chattanooga, fixing bikes and foiling a black ops agent out to protect her senile senator boss (Bicycle Repairman). Sterling is both Cassandra and Scheherazade, always forced to spill the ugly truths about what's to come in spite of our unconcern, but always willing to see if the doom can be held off for another night by one more good story. Readers who like a hard-eyed view of the future combined with a wry wink at the past, with a few inventive postmodern narrative kicks mixed in, will be greatly rewarded. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Sterling's speculative fiction dazzles from the get-go, bombarding the reader with one extraordinary concept after another. The Sharper/Mechanist stories depict posthumans living in a society divided between those who have been modified by genetic engineering and others who have been altered by technology. But Sterling's early sf and fantasy are as likely to be set in the past as in the present or near future. Dinner in Audoghast is a startling cautionary tale of a society convinced it has reached the pinnacle of sophistication; in it, the guests at a feast in the Ghanaian empire that prospered a millenium ago arrogantly dismiss a fortune-teller's (highly accurate) apocalyptic prophecies. In Flowers of Edo, denizens of Edo (later called Tokyo) quixotically battle new technologies imposed by Western powers. The Leggy Starlitz stories feature that hero, a crafty opportunist with a can-do attitude. In Hollywood Kremlin, Starlitz smuggles contraband as the Soviet Empire crumbles and Armenian-Muslim antogonism brews. This significant retrospective of Sterling's career reveals a prescience that is bold and astounding. Segedin, Ben
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
good synopsis of Sterling's works,
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This review is from: Ascendancies: The Best of Bruce Sterling (Hardcover)
Bruce Sterling fans will find nothing new here, sadly. But the selection of his best works will be a pleasant reread. While newcomers to Sterling's works can get an excellent synopsis of why he is so highly regarded. The stories in this book originally appeared in sundry magazines, scattered over 20 or so years. The diversity of topics speaks to a versatile writing ability.
As to what is be the best story, this might not be a useful question. Readers' tastes will vary widely enough to make difficult any sort of consensus judgment. My personal favourite would be the Dinner in Audoghast, for its piognant evocation of a lost culture. It also differs strongly from the cyberpunk flavoured tales for which Sterling is renowned.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly entertaining fantasy in sci-fi clothing,
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This review is from: Ascendancies: The Best of Bruce Sterling (Hardcover)
Bruce Sterling, one of the best practitioners of science fiction and every kind of writing that can be presented using the tropes of sci-fi, i.e. fantasy, finally allows us to get a glimpse of his entire range of literary creativity. The stories are unlike most of the contemporary science fiction that fill up the extremely boring volumes edited by gardner Dozois, or some of the other pretenders. They are fresh, fast, driven equally by plot & characters, and very tightly told. Sterling gives too hoots about propagation of politically correct themes through fiction, and concentrates on creating stuff that you are bound to remember as "one hell of a story". The contents of this massive collection are: -(*) Introduction by Karen Joy Fowler (*) Foreword by Bruce Sterling Part I: The Sharper/Mechanist Stories 1) Swarm 2) Spider Rose 3) Cicada Queen 4) Sunken Gardens 5) Twenty Evocations Part II: Early Science Fiction and Fantasy 6) Green Days in Brunei 7) Dinner in Audoghast 8) The Compassionate, the Digital 9) Flowers of Edo 10) The Little Magic Shop 11) Our Neural Cherynobyl 12) We See Things Differently 13) Dori Bangs Part III: The Leggy Starlitz Stories 14) Hollywood Kremlin 15) Are You for 86? 16) The Littlest Jackal Part IV: The Chattanooga Stories 17) Deep Eddy 18) Bicycle Repairman 19) Taklamakan Part V: Later Science Fiction and Fantasy 20) The Sword of Damocles 21) Maneki Neko 22) In Paradise 23) The Blemmye's Strategem 24) Kiosk I can try to list some of my favourties among favourites, but that would not be very good for you, the prospective reader. These are wonderful stories, and if you feel like reading them, after you have read this incompetent review, my work here would be done. Highly recommended.
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