Globalhead [Mass Market Paperback]

Bruce Sterling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1994

Featuring thirteen satirical short stories, a unique collection includes scientific superstars, a rock singer who is the voice of the people, and two lost souls who drive off the edge of the world and find each other.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Spectra (October 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553562819
• ISBN-13: 978-0553562811
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.3 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,899,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hits and Misses, August 16, 2003

By 

D. W. Casey (Sturbridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Globalhead (Mass Market Paperback)

This collection of short stories contains some interesting "hits" (Hollywood Kremlin, Storming the Cosmos, We See Things Differently, Are you for 86?) and some disappointing "misses" (The Sword of Damocles).

Sterling is at his best when he is discussing alternative futures close to our own, and he has done his homework in studying two rival cultures that play roles in his alternate universes -- the Muslim world and the world of the old Soviet Union. He creates memorable characters (the international arms dealer/hustler Leggy Starlitz, for instance) and generates a lot of thought-provoking ideas (Will Turing-conscious AI's embrace Islam? Was the Tunguska blast really caused by an alien speacecraft? Will Islam become the dominant superpower -- threatened only by American rock and roill? Will genetically engineered pets capable of human-like thought and speech exist?).

Sterling's prose here is not of the quality of William Gibson's, or indeed, as good as Sterling is in other works, such as Schismatrix, or The Difference Engine. It is a good collection of stories, for the most part, and makes a good companion on a trip to the beach.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars C'mon, man, you can do a lot better than this . . ., February 22, 2006

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Globalhead (Mass Market Paperback)

I first met Bruce back in the `70s, when he was one of the young Texas SF authors who regularly appeared at IguanaCon in Austin, so he's been at this awhile. While he has talent, he's not the best Texas has to offer -- that would be Howard Waldrop and the late Chad Oliver. Unfortunately, Sterling's stories from the 1980s and early `90s, of which there are thirteen in this collection, are heavily politics-dependent, and they don't always wear well ten or fifteen years later. As in "Hollywood Kremlin" and "We See Things Differently," they postulate a Soviet Russia or a Middle East that really haven't changed -- but things have changed, a lot. He also has a habit of launching into stories brimming with neat ideas, stories that would actually make good novels, and then running out of steam (or becoming bored?) and simply stopping instead of ending. This is the case in "The Moral Bullet" (which, in fact, led to his novel, _Holy Fire_ -- sort of) and "The Unthinkable." The best stories in this collection are those that step entirely outside our world, especially "The Shores of Bohemia" and "Are You for 86?," and maybe "Dori Bangs."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Intriguing Mix Of Sterling's Short Stories, December 26, 2001

By 

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

This review is from: Globalhead (Mass Market Paperback)

Admittedly this isn't Sterling's best short story collection, yet it does contain an intriguing set of 11 tales which run the gamut from slightly hard science fiction ("Storming The Cosmos") to humor ("Hollywood Kremlin"). Sterling is at his finest writing lean, lyrical cyberpunk prose in the tales I mentioned. Yet anyone expecting a literary classic comparable in quality to William Gibson's "Burning Chrome" may be disappointed. Still, Sterling, as always, is intriguing to read for his ideas and his uncanny knack at conjuring plausible near future scenarios, as well as his fine writing.