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The Zenith Angle (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "With eager screams of hunger, little Ted Vandeveer drove his parents from their bed..." (more)
Key Phrases: Air Force, Tony Carew, Michael Hickok (more...)
2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Zenith Angle, futurist Bruce Sterling's first novel since Zeitgeist (2000), tells the story of Derek "Van" Vandeveer. As The Zenith Angle opens, Van sits peacefully at his breakfast table, enjoying life as a new homeowner and happily married man, with a new son and a fortune in stock options. Then the morning news reports a jetliner has crashed in nearby Manhattan--colliding with the World Trade Center. Like many other Americans' lives, Van's will never be the same. He leaves his corporate job to work fighting terrorism for the U.S. government. He soon finds himself sequestered at a top-secret undisclosed location while his fortune vanishes, his former company sinks into a morass of lawsuits and arrests, and his wife and son move to the far side of the country. And as Van is transformed from cyber-whiz to spook, he finds himself changing in ways he would never have imagined.

A novel from Bruce Sterling is always cause for celebration, and The Zenith Angle is one of the finest contemporary novels and finest techno-thrillers of 2004. Sterling operates at the cutting edge of both technology and pop culture, and he possesses innumerable literary strengths. However, his strengths don't usually include deeply-penetrating character development, and that injures the believability of The Zenith Angle, which is the portrait of a man undergoing an enormous and shocking transformation. --Cynthia Ward



From Publishers Weekly

The godfather of cyberpunk abandons SF in this satiric look at the high-tech security industry after 9/11. Dr. Derek Vandeveer gives up his high-paying job in private industry in order to try to help the government plug the nation's most serious computer security leaks. Unfortunately, he soon discovers that many of the worst problems are either too expensive to fix or impossible to deal with for political reasons. Vandeveer finds himself living in a slum in Washington, D.C., up to his ears in red tape and surrounded by a cast of would-be cyber warriors and failed dot-com entrepreneurs. Even worse, he's paying for the equipment he needs out of his own pocket. Worst of all, Vandeveer's wife Dottie, a world-class astronomer, is off on a mountaintop in Colorado. Meanwhile, something or someone is playing games with America's most sophisticated spy satellite and Vandeveer stakes his reputation on solving the mystery. Sterling (Zeitgeist) knows the world of cyber-security inside out, and he does a fine job of talking the talk without losing his readers. The Vandeveers have a convincingly believable geek marriage and their scenes together are particularly well done. Sterling has always been more comfortable with satire than action, however, and the shift near the end to techno-thriller mode isn't entirely successful. Still, this novel should please the author's fans, many of whom will be interested in the latest innovations in computer security.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Del Rey; First Edition edition (April 27, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0345460618
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345460615
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,034,109 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Bruce Sterling
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With eager screams of hunger, little Ted Vandeveer drove his parents from their bed. Read the first page
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Air Force, Tony Carew, Michael Hickok, Space Force, The Weevil, Erlette House, Derek Vandeveer, New York, Bell Labs, General Wessler, Range Rover, National Security Council, New Jersey, Skunk Works, Star Wars, Cheyenne Mountain, Special Ops, Bill Gates, Homeland Security, Kelly Johnson, White House, Dottie Vandeveer, Fawn Glickleister, James Cobb, Jim Cobb
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Customer Reviews

41 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
2.8 out of 5 stars (41 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Tepid entertainment..., June 26, 2004
By Addison Phillips (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Leaves me cold, June 4, 2004
By Tomasz Tarchala (Warsaw, Poland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Save your money, September 26, 2005
By Piscean (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Zenith Angle (Mass Market Paperback)
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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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars a let down
when a new bruce sterling novel comes out, i'm first in line to buy it, as i was with this novel. the zenith angle ended up being so disappointing that i only just recently... Read more
Published 1 month ago by D. Gardner

2.0 out of 5 stars This story from Sterling isn't very sterling.
I normally absolutely adore Sterling, his 'Zeitgeist' holds a place of honor on my bookshelf; I found it to be witty, poignant, and full of strangely likable characters. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Lucas Moore

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Free SF Reader
I might give this a 3.25 perhaps, it was reasonable enough, but probably not a 3.5.

A hardcore geeks ends up being involved with security and security agencies of the... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Blue Tyson

5.0 out of 5 stars I really enjoyed this book
Being a programmer and a geek, I really enjoyed reading this book. Yes, some of it is implausable, and there a few rants in there, but I didn't like the book less because of that... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Jim G

1.0 out of 5 stars Er, it's considered a "thriller"??
This is way down on the boring end of Sterlings' writing. Three-fourths of the way through and pretty much nothing has happened. Read more
Published on April 26, 2007 by Andrew Otwell

2.0 out of 5 stars Where's the beef?
A peculiar book. Sterling's descriptions of technological gadgets and governmental processes are convincing, but Zenith Angle seems to be missing some things. Read more
Published on August 30, 2006 by joe_n_bloe

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining to near the end, where it flys off the rails
..
Bottom line: Sterling's obligatory 9-11/dot-bomb novel/rant. Entertaining almost to the end, where it suddenly flies off the rails. Read more
Published on May 18, 2006 by Peter D. Tillman

1.0 out of 5 stars really awful
I only read through it because it was written by Sterling, who is one of my favorite living authors. I wish I hadn't bothered to finish it. Read more
Published on March 26, 2006 by Robert Delancey

4.0 out of 5 stars A tale of a post 9/11 world
It's a new world out there. September 11th happened and security became issue number one. But, as Bruce Sterling points out in his novel, The Zenith Angle, this means more than... Read more
Published on January 22, 2006 by mrliteral

4.0 out of 5 stars funny, yeah
Ha, ha. A death ray mounted secretly mounted on a remote mountaintop by an evil genius, a two-fisted protagonist wielding a Buck Rogers blaster, a U.S. Read more
Published on October 6, 2005 by Christopher Oneil

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