Customer Reviews

Globalhead: Stories

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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.

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."

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.

There are some definite losers here, like "The Sword of Damocles," an experiment that, well, failed. However, there are some incredible stories here--"Our Neural Chernobyl" is outstanding, and the incredible "We See Things Differently," about a future in which Islam is in ascendance and America is in decline, still gives me chills just thinking about it.

While not every story is a masterpiece, Bruce Sterling shows his understanding of cyberculture in stories like "Our Neural Chernobyl," a fictitious review of a book about the history of DNA manipulation. Sterling integrates this understanding with the "beat" culture as well, creating enjoyable and meaningful works such as "Jim and Irene," the story of a drifting phone-phreak and a widowed Russian lawyer, and "Dori Bangs," a what-if fiction based on the lives of two real-life hip-culture tragedies. This collection is a must-read for any cyberfreak or beat poet.

None of the stories in this anthology are duds, but a few ("Are You for 86?") have an indulgent, smug flavor to them. But all are worth reading, and a few are truly wonderful. "Our Neural Chernobyl," a fictional book review about a popular science tome recounting a plague of increased intelligence, is hilarious. "The Shores of Bohemia" is a mind-bender set in what _seems_ like a low-tech future, but is actually something far more wonderful and terrible.

-Stefan Jones

In this book, you will find 11 stories by Bruce Sterling and two collaborations. All but one of the stories has prviously appeared in magazine form between 1985 and 1991.

Most of the stories here are well worth reading. Especially "Hollywood Kremlin" and "Are You For 86?" which introduce Leggy Starlitz, one of Sterling's enduring characters. Also, the two collaborations, "Storming the Cosmos" and "The Moral Bullet" respectively with Rudy Rucker and John Kessel, are very good.

There are also one or two stories here which quite fankly should not have seen the light of day. "The Sword of Damocles" is the sort of exercise often tackled in writer's workshops and that is where is should have stayed.

There is not as much hard science in here in some of Sterling's other books but that does not detract from this collection. Indeed, a number of the best stories would escape all but the broadest definition of SF.

In the Leggy Starlitz tales, Sterling lays out lots of technical trivia in the same style as do many thriller writers. His facts are often wrong and self contradicting. Often laughably so and that does detract from the writing.

This is not the best collection to introduce you to Sterling's short fiction. I would recommend "A Good Old Fashioned Future" as an introduction but if you read and enjoy that and want more, you will not be disappointed by this book.

If you enjoy this book and want to read something in the same vein, I'd suggest William Gibson's collection "Burning Chrome" or the anthology "Mirrorshades" edited by Bruce Sterling.