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33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Tepid entertainment..., June 26, 2004
Zenith Angle is a ho-hum thriller in the Tom Clancy spy-novel with realistic techonology mould. It's by longtime SF writer Bruce Sterling and it's about the most mild 'thriller' you can imagine, with some of the least believable characters this side of reality TV. At least the book is short, with big type. I don't really want to dump too hard on Sterling: I actually laughed at a few of his amusing turns. But he covers much of the same territory as, say, Crytonomicon, while his main character is completely stereotypical "computer genius". This pretend character, who's technical background is of the Hitchcock "McGuffin" variety, is unlike any real hackers, crackers, or computer programmers you're likely to meet. The fine use of that loveable plot device--the deus ex machina--is on display here. It's all a bit disappointing. I mean: some of Stephenson's recent books had half the plot of this thin marshmallow, but the writing was so brilliant it hurt to put down. By intentionally drawing comparisons with Stephenson, Sterling is just asking to be lambasted, if not roasted over hot coals or forced to edit his next novel on a PDP-11. On the other hand, this is about as intelligent as, say, Da Vinci Code and intended for the same middle-of-the-road non-technical audience. Using his ultra-slick, but apparently content-free Wired magazine credentials, and considering Sterling's not after impressing the grungy 2600 audience with this stuff, I guess he succeeds. I mean, I managed to READ the accursed thing. Nonetheless, this book will be entirely forgotten inside of a month. Buy it in paperback, if you must (although it is too short to be good beach reading). If you like Sterling, buy something else of his, like Islands in the Net and shun this book so he gets back to honest work.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Leaves me cold, June 4, 2004
I am a fan of Bruce Sterling, have been on his Viridian list for years and have his blog subscribed. Having said that, _The Zenith Angle_ is a bit of a disappointment. Bruce Sterling can be uneven like this. I absolutely loved _Schismatrix_ and _Holy Fire_; I adore his short stories, particularly _The Bicycle Mechanic_, and the _Globalhead_ ones; _Distraction_ left me in awe and with a vague feeling that I'm missing something not running for office, but the hero being such a wunderkid strained my credibility. On the other hand, _The Difference Engine_ bored me with its improbabilities and made a "style over substance" impression. Zenith Angle suffers from breaking what I consider the seminal rule of good literature -- that it should not be about exceptional superheroes, but about normal people in exceptional conditions. I find it hard to care for a supergeek who by his technical superpowers comes out of most any hurdle. Similarly, all other characters are painted with a rather broad and very bold stroke. It makes for fast-paced action and some great puns, the book is hard to put down, I must say. But afterward comes the reflection -- what was all that about, really? The ending is plain bad. In just one chapter all assumptions are turned over, and out of the blue our hero turns into a regular James Bond whereas good guys become villains. It's worse than comic-book-like; I actually caught myself wondering if this is not some sort of elaborate joke on the part of Bruce. The author's political convictions shine not too subtly throughout the book's pages. Their relevance will be verified in the coming years; but I am afraid that because the book is so engaged in the current discourse, it will age fast, and be forgotten quickly. There are nice touches of Bruce's insight into the human condition in the ever-transforming world that give the book a redeeming value, though.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Save your money, September 26, 2005
The prologue starts out with great promise. The writing style is a little clunky, but I figured he was just getting warmed up. Mr. Sterling spends a considerable amount of time building up the first character we meet. Don't get too attached, as he plays almost no part in the remaining 4/5's of the story.
Some novelists are quite adept at building one character or scene per chapter, bringing them all together at some point toward the middle of the story. At first you think that is what is happening in The Zenith Angle, but it's not. It's just a random collection of very loosely related events that don't tie in very well at the end.
If you are at all technical in the computer field, this book will irritate you. Given the various descriptions of the Internet and associated technologies, it's painfully obvious Mr. Sterling has no clue how computers communicate with each other, or how the Internet really works. At one point the main character builds an "entirely secure" OS over the course of a few weeks, with a budget of $100,000.
As laughable as that is, the only reason for this new operating system is to introduce a hacker type who attacks the ultra secure OS. The hacker shows up, attacks the OS and then vanishes from the story. There is no tie-in, no recourse later, and he never shows up again. It's a random short story in the middle of the main story.
And random is the key word for this novel. 30% of the way through, there is no direction to the story. Random characters and situations arise which do nothing to advance, or clarify the story line.
After thrashing around for 200 pages with no plot, Mr. Sterling tries to find some message to leave the reader with. Out of the blue, he attacks Microsoft. This is bizarre, to say the least. He spends a few pages attacking Bill Gates for the amount of money he has, the success of Microsoft, etc. Then he gets on the soap box to tell us how nifty Open Source is. Sadly, there is no tie-in between this and his previous blathering. The overwhelming message you take away from this book is that Mr. Sterling appears to have been on a mission, but you're not even positive of that. He throws out several "messages" for the reader. The book has almost nothing to do with the zenith angle, or terrorism. It's more a microphone for him to air his fairly disjoint thoughts on several loosely connected topics.
As one reviewer pointed out, if you're ADHD, this book is for you. But to maximize your enjoyment, be sure to skip your meds for a few days prior to reading it. The writing style is irritating if you're able to hold a coherent thought for more than a second or two. Consider reading 300 pages of "Van opened the door. Van closed the door. Van inserted the key. Van started the engine. The engine was loud. Van doesn't like Microsoft because it's the evil empire. Van put the car in gear. The car started moving. "
All in all, The Zenith Angle sounded like a good read but was a major disappointment. Save your money.
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