Customer Reviews

Distraction

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Bruce Sterling eats Neal Stephenson's lunch with Distraction, a near-future techno-political thriller that's strongly reminiscent of Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and Interface (which Stephenson and his uncle wrote under the pen name Stephen Bury). I don't mind this because I loved those other books, though it's strange to see Sterling borrowing rather than being borrowed from.

Sterling's technological and political speculations are interesting and plausible, and his plot moves right along, propelled by informal but evocative language and a lot of humor. The best part of the book, though, is its protagonist, Oscar Valparasio, who combines the genius and audacity of Lois Bujold's character Miles Vorkosigan with a personal reserve and opacity that makes us even more interested in finding out what he's really like. Sterling actually manages to keep Oscar mysterious even though we're seeing through his eyes throughout the book.

Distraction is mostly about the ride -- like another of my favorite Sterling books, Heavy Weather, it has little pretension to epic scope or deep literary meaning -- but it has enough depth to make it a worthwhile read. My chief complaint is that it drowns in cynicism towards the end, leaving us with a downbeat and overlong ending and nothing much in the way of climax. A classic character like Oscar deserved a better sendoff.

I've recently felt compelled to re-read 'Distraction', and I've been really enjoying myself. The character of Oscar Valparaiso has snuck up on me and won me over; my copy is all marked up in pink and purple highliner. There are so many great and clever lines.

The people who don't like the plot are probably looking for a conventional Triumph of the Individual Against All Odds adventure. "Distraction" is that rarity in speculative fiction, character-driven Sci-Fi. For an S-F novel to be character-driven, the character(s) must be recognizable and well-observed, but also modified by some speculative concept. The ability to observe well a person who cannot yet exist requires an intuitive vision that, if successful, confirms the whole genre of Sci-fi as a literary artform. I think Bruce Sterling pulls it off.

The whole delightfully wierd rambling plot, about feuding anarchistic nomad bands and the power-grappling over a national
biological laboratory by 16 political parties and neurological Gumbo a la Bayou, are loaded with flip ideas and throw-away shaggy-dog genius, but are ultimately a... well, a distraction. The real story is about Oscar himself, whose plight as the ultimate outsider seems like it must be a sublimation of something the author knows about personally. I'm sorry to say that I worry that Oscar's in-vitro birth as a genetic experiment in a black-market off-shore Columbian Mafia baby-selling operation may be occurring in real life right now. How the scary dark unavoidable abuses of our unprecedented technology impact on human souls is the real subject of this book.

Oscar's dark alter-ego, Green Huey, says to him,"I finally got you all figured out... You're always gonna have your nose pressed up against the glass, watchin' other folks drink the champagne. Nothing you do will last. You'll be a sideshow and a shadow, and you'll stay one till you die. But, son, if you got a big head start on the coming revolution, .... you can goddamn have Massachusetts." But Oscar consistantly chooses quietly perserving his own dignity over exploiting his tremendos gifts, which would only re-enforce his alienation. 'Distraction' is for anyone who's ever found their nose pressed up against the glass in this present bewildering Cyber-Age.

I have read one or two of Bruce Sterling's short stories butonly picked this novel up on the strength of it's Hugo nomination. Iam glad I did! This is gloriously cynical satire. Sterling examines the twists and turns of a very plausible future US political landscape. Worryingly plausible!!

Other reviews here have alluded to the main characters of this novel being two-dimensional. I disagree - Sterling's protagonist is engaging and witty, brilliant and suave and wonderfully flawed to boot. I found great pleasure being in his company for the duration of the book.

Much of the book is cleverly and compellingly written in dialogue form - allowing the author to warm to his subject through his characters instead of off-loading his political philophies as wordy exposition. Sterling handles this expertly, drawing the reader in and entertaining them thoroughly in the process.

Worth the bother? Definitely!

Bruce Sterling has changed tack from the elegaic feel of his previous book HOLY FIRE for a fast and furious satire of the American political system. In the form of a genetically mutated political spin doctor and a brilliant neuroscientist, the hero and heroine are hopeful monsters, brilliant outsiders able to see a better future that no one else can, and have set out against the odds to bring it on, even if it kills them. Readers with short attention spans have accused the characters of being two dimensional when the opposite is true; Sterling depicts them from a standpoint of total objectivity, as if they were specimens being examined from the outside, yet with complete understanding of their inner workings. The twists and turns are fast and furious, and the portrait of an insanely fractured American political system is exhilarating and not improbable, with a deeply cynical twist at the end when the President unveils his solution to America's political mess... a twist so unexpected that even the hero loses his remaining shred of innocence. As the world changes, so the protagonists adapt, and thrive, retaining their curiosity to see what comes next. A wise and funny novel, filled with enough throwaway ideas that usual fill up dozens of lesser writers' books.

Bruce Sterling's Distraction is a rather brilliant book. Between its extrapolation on current political trends and its classical cyberpunk themes, it creates a ride that shouldn't be missed.

Unfortunately, a few minor problems damaged my enjoyment of the story. The most fundamental is that the main character's true intentions throughout the book tend to be rather hard to follow. Though this is generally a good thing because it allows for a more realistic, non-linear motivation, I really felt a craving for a touch more direction. If only there had been a couple more of scenes where he took a reality check with his majordomo and explained his end goals, this book would have been perfect.

Also, the ending left me wanting more. Perhaps this is the mark of a truely good story, that you do not want it to end. In this case, however, I feel that the book simply ended too soon for me to truly feel a sense of closure. Now, if a sequel is in the cards, I take my last remark back and eagerly await the conclusion.

I would hate for the above, however, to stop anyone from reading this book. Perhaps it is not as good as Gibson's Neuromancer or Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, but it is definetly as good as any other middle-future work on the market today. (Including Gibson's latest which, while more lyrical than Distraction wasn't nearly as much fun.)Anyone with an interest in the future, research, or in American politics should pick this up.

Having read _Holy Fire_ and _Heavy Weather_ I have to say that I enjoyed this Sterling the most, and I've enjoyed all three very much indeed.

Sterling's writing is quirky, intelligent, and real. He makes implausible situations (such as a cold war between the US and the Netherlands) feel both believable and appropriate.

The characters are wonderfully drawn. I was in love with Oscar-- the fast-talking campaign manager who isn't quite human but can always find the angle in a situation. I believed in his odd relationship with the unlikely and awkward Dr. Penninger simply because it was so improbable but at the same time so true.

I can understand why the ending felt unsatisfying to a lot of readers, because it fails to hand you simple or predictable resolution. Indeed, a lot like life, the plot almost fades away, leaving us with the main characters' relationship as the primary movement in the novel. Oddly appropriate for a book written about a time where everyone seems to be frantically sitting still, but grantedly atypical for science fiction.

OK, the first thing that you need to know is that this is an above-average Bruce Sterling Novel. Translation: buy it and read it as soon as you can. Put off sleep or friendly relations with your loved ones if necessary. Bruce Sterling is the most insightful writer about the near future currently on the planet, and he also writes better dialogue than anyone else in science fiction. His work reminds me of the plays of GB Shaw, in that one finds oneself always agreeing with the last person who spoke, even if what he or she says represents a 180 degree reversal from what was said on the previous page.

This is a political novel. Sterling is a deeply conflicted guy about politics. All of his protagonists are two-fisted individualist types of the sort more or less familiar from Hollywood movies and highschool US History textbooks (except that here they're about five hundred per cent more articulate and interesting). Clearly, though, in a part of his mind he believes that these sorts of people will come to seem redundant - faintly ridiculous, even - in a world where technology and environmental change have accelerated to the point at which the only way for human life to be made livable is to have everything run by a rich, benevolently paternalistic quasi-socialist central government. As a socialist myself, I'm more comfortable with his vision of the future than I am with his views about what's truly admirable in human nature, but some of his most endearing system-bucking characters both here and in his best book, _Holy Fire_, do sort of give me pause.

In _Distraction_, unlike in _Holy Fire_, the internal conflicts of Sterling's world-view appear to have interfered with his plotting of the novel a bit. He doesn't seem to have been entirely sure what to do with his two main characters, Oscar the political hack and Greta the neurobiologist, at the end of the book, and they seem to just sort of drift off into nowhere as the story concludes. Reading the last few pages I felt like I was watching Sterling throw up his hands in despair at the prospect of finding any way to reconcile what's best about American individualism with the social realities of the near future, which made me a bit sad. Maybe he's right, though.

While I love Bruce Sterling and read everything he writes, he dissapoints me as often as he astounds me.

Dissapointments: Heavy Weather, Difference Engine.
Astonishments: All short story collections, Islands in the Net (to some extent), Holy Fire (to some extent), and now Distraction, which I love.

This book is, by far, my favorite of his long works.

The insight into today's world as it becomes tomorrow is brilliant (infowar).

The inverted racial status quo seems obvious and yet no one has done it before (that I have read) and it is very funny.

The ending is so sad and yet so full of hope-- not on a societal but on the human scale of the characters. It is this mature frisson of happiness without having acheived one's early dreams that reeks of maturity (in a field known for its arrested emotional development). This impressive acheivement so eclipses the "despite all of the banal existential angst in the last 200 pages, got married, moved to Austin, and lived happily ever after" of Heavy Weather (gee, where did he get those ideas? Hint: check the bio in the back of the book.) that I cannot believe they were written by the same person.

But be warned! I read the first chunk of the book under the influence of mind altering substances, and my decreased intellectual capacity interacted with the text in a dissatisfying way. It was only when I read it straight, with full mental faculties, that I comprehended its brilliance. For this reason I say perhaps the low average rating it has received here speaks to the fact that it is a book for people with some brains left working.

If you are looking for a sophisticated intellectual confection of idea and character, with a healthy sense of humor, I recommend this book highly.

Together with Stephen Bury's `Interface', a new category - political SF. Though `Distraction' more in the cyberpunk underdog tradition, a nobody becomes a minor bit player only to be swept back to nobody by waves of events much, much greater than himself. No pauper to prince here - good - 've quite outgrown those stories.

A rich, swiftly moving plot which grips, and lets the author take us through a grand tour of his imagination. What a tour it is! Sterling has a million ideas a minute, his future is compelling, complete and entierly frightening. Great portrayal of the rot that is Washington, don't know how much of that is fiction, how much fact.

Comparable with the best of Stephenson, Gibson.

Bruce Sterling addresses every major topic of our time. It is a transformational futurists view of the social impact that biotechnology, nanotech, and a global network may have. The sheer number of concepts that have been intertwined and projected into the future are staggering. It is a massive vision, and yet it is told simply and with a sensitivity for suspense and overall appeal.