Islands in the Net [Import] [Paperback]

Bruce Sterling (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Legend paperbacks; New Ed edition (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099552000
• ISBN-13: 978-0099552000
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,319,760 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly underrated, though not for everyone, April 29, 2002

By 

W. A. Norris (Redmond, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Islands in the Net (Paperback)

This is one of the gutsiest SF novels I know of. Bruce Sterling has set his novel in one of the most incredibly detailed, well thought out futures ever developed. He's thought about his world geopolitically, economically, ideologically, and on a host of other levels, including how people live on a day to day basis. His people have internalized genuinely different ideas because of the world that has shaped them. In this sense it is most like some of the best Heinlein novels.

The world Sterling creates alone would make this worthwhile reading, but his characterization is strong and unconventional, and he tells an extremely interesting story that travels all over the world. This isn't really a fast-paced pageturner, and it isn't immersed in hard-science details about how things work in the future--it's more like real life for most of us, where technology is part of the background, and just works. So if those are the kinds of things you value in a SF novel, this may not be your book. But the traditional virtues of plot, characterization, and setting make this an outstanding novel.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reply to [e-mail], July 27, 1998

By 

W. A. Norris (Redmond, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Islands in the Net (Paperback)

I found Laura, the protagonist, not at all a stock character. Certainly she was an ordinary everywoman, as intended, but this is exactly the type of character you almost never see in science fiction. She's not a technical uber-guru or a speed-freak street-warrior, but those stock types are hardly a benchmark for realism in characterization. As for the settings, I've lived most of my life in Texas, and could sense how comfortable Sterling was with Texan characters in the first few pages. While I've never been to the other settings, I found the story evocative, and especially felt like he was working from a substantial map of Singapore in his head from having spent a fair amount of time there.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intricacies abound in "Islands", May 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Islands in the Net (Paperback)

The most cogent and well-realized examination of power--in all its forms--that I've read. Sterling presents a dense future. Readers can squabble about minor technical mispredictions, but the overall effect is timeless; this is a very unsettling and very prescient novel.