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Black Swan (A cyberpunk story) Kindle Edition

by Bruce Sterling (Author)

27 customer reviews

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“We started reading Black Swan and couldn’t put down our Kindle until the last word.”
[Brain Pickings]

2009 Sidewise Award Nominee

Bruce Sterling brings us a tale of espionage, cyber-threats, alternate realities and intrigue in “Black Swan”, a dark and cyberpunk novelette.

Luca is a technology blogger looking for anything newsworthy. ‘Massimo Montaldo’ is the nickname of hacker living on the fringe of society. What can happen when these two very different people meet each other?
Massimo has discovered something, something that could shift the balance of power among the superpowers of the world. A Black Swan.
What is a Black Swan? “A black swan, when it arrives, cannot even be recognized as a black swan. When the black swan assaults us, with the wingbeats of some rapist Jupiter, then we must rewrite history.”
As a journalist, Luca must investigate, learn the truth – or should he? What if this is all beyond him, beyond his ability to fully grasp? Memristors? Euro-Liras? Spies and the possibility of an Alternate Italy?
What if the risk is too high, the danger too great?
Warring between what is safe and what is right, Luca had to decide if reporting the truth is worth the risk…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre.

"Black Swan" is a novelette. 9250 words.

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Product Details

File Size: 537 KB
Print Length: 34 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: 40k (September 8, 2010)
Publication Date: September 8, 2010
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B0042G0RRY
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

X-Ray:

Enabled

Word Wise: Not Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Not Enabled
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #378,677 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #432 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Cyberpunk
- #446 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > One hour (33-43 pages) > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
- #486 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > One hour (33-43 pages) > Science Fiction & Fantasy

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Customer Reviews

3.1 out of 5 stars

5 star		23%
4 star		22%
3 star		22%
2 star		11%
1 star		22%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

thought provoking read

By D Earle on April 1, 2011

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

This is an interesting story about a technology journalist who receives the greatest tipoff in his career, only to be taken into an alternate universe.

It is thought provoking about what events do and do not shape our histories and what alternative histories might exist. The story revolves around the much touted idea of a black swan event, which totally disrupts the sequence of history - or the absence of such events.

The writing is a bit rough in places and at times I had reread sections to establish the flow of events. But this made up for by the imaginative content.

I have one general gripe with alternate universe stories. Why is it that authors propose that alternative universes are going to be populated by genetically identical people, living very different lives? Patterns of probability suggest that if alternate universes existed, the societies may have some general resemblance, but the chances of two people being genetically the same are very, very low. Anyway, there is a little twist in this story which might just redeem the storyline from this problem.

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10 of 13 people found the following review helpful

A SF short story about us

By Davide Bianchini on September 25, 2010

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

"Black Swan" is yet another story about parallel universes. So the good part of it isn't the weird travel between alternate realities, which has already been (and better) exploited lots of times in SF literature.
The fun and interesting of this novel comes from the divertissement Sterling builds up adding people and historical turning points to the different worlds he writes about. More, Sterling is one of those authors who use fiction to report their sociological thoughts without any need to add any scientific proof to support them.

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20 of 28 people found the following review helpful

Do not read previous review.

By Amazon Customer on September 24, 2010

Format: Kindle Edition

This SHORT story is more proof that Sterling is one of the better writers of this time and genre. the story was compelling and interstimg. It left me wanting more.

I was let down by my fellow reader that gave this story a 1 star. Not because the story was bad, prose unreadable or other countless reasons. They chose to rate it one star because they felt they were over charged for a short story. Poor form my fellow reader, should have kept your dismay between Amazon and yourself. Instead you took it out upon the writer and his peice of work. You my friend should be banned from using the internets.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Decent read but nothing great!

By Karteek on May 8, 2012

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

The book is about an encounter of a technology blogger with his secret informer. The encounter starts off with a large tip from the informer that could potentially change the path of technology but sharply delves into multiple universes and what makes them so different.

The book is thought provoking in terms of how histories are shaped and how major changes in the course of history might be triggered by events that one might least expect.

However, the plot is flimsy and apart from the philosophical undertone it offers nothing exciting. Do not buy this book if you are looking for a regular cyberpunk plot.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Olivetti like it could have been

By Amazon Customer on October 12, 2011

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

I am partial to this short story, as it is set very close to my hometown, and because it mentions some alternate realities of Italy, Olivetti and microelectronics which would be almost a dream for me, still wondering about the "whys?" of the fall of the eporediese company in the Eighties.
I really liked the characters and VIPs that happen to be around the focus of the narrator, and the way they relate to their real-world counterparts.

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

Outliers in History

By Kitsune on September 13, 2011

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Luca is a tech journalist who's getting very valuable information for his career. Although, in order to understand that, he's taken to an alternate world where he knows that ideas can be History outliers that creates divergences and real big changes.

Based on the "Black Swan Theory", Sterling creates an idea of human being and society that feels so close to us and makes us question about "what if..."

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

A neat alternate world story

By Arthurwyatt on December 5, 2011

Format: Kindle Edition

A neat alternate world story with an interesting spin. I do wonder what Nicolas Sarkozy did to Bruce Sterling to provoke this.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Sterling still has it! Great novellette, well worth the price.

By christopher neitzert on May 19, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Nope, no spoilers here, but this short story is worth way more than the two bucks i payed to download it, for it is an existential mind-ogle. Such to the scale that I would like to see it made into a movie, or better yet a full length novel. Sterling still has "it", if you are a fan and haven't read this, do it now. If you are not a fan, but enjoy dystopian post-industrial age cyberthrillers then you will enjoy this and at this price, how can it be wrong.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Fan. Disappointed.

Just not sure what this was really about. Seemed like a short story the author wrote for himself. Not worth reading.

Published 1 month ago by Chris S.

Seemed like it ended before it really started

I was expecting a lot more. The story just seemed to end abruptly

Published 5 months ago by Amazon Customer

Three Stars

I enjoyed what there is of this story, but the ending left me wanting more.

Published 9 months ago by Stephen Saville

Two Stars

Not a novel. A very short story.

Published 12 months ago by James D.

A great story!

This would be an excellent starting place for anyone who has never read Bruce Sterling before! The prose is well written, the story is interesting (and pretty short), and it leaves... Read more

Published 13 months ago by Sarah E Holdgrafer

Felt poorly designed and executed.

Black Swan is the story of two men in two of many alternate-reality Turins, that can be traversed using a properly configured laptop. Read more

Published 13 months ago by Filippo A. Salustri

Fantastic!

I bought it without any reference. Such a huge good surprise.
I recommend it for sure. Compre farinha de rosca!

Published 18 months ago by Amazon Customer

SPOILER ALERT!

Want to witness a mob style hit? This story is typical out of body cyber punk (at first). People use technology to be where and who they are. Read more

Published 19 months ago by gmitch

Enjoyable short story

Its not too often you see the old SF trope of interdimentional travel done well, this is a case where it is done right and with an up to date twist.

Published on February 26, 2013 by Chris Barker

interesting but too short

I liked the use of the metaphors even with that kind of plot

I will recommend this book to a friend

Published on January 22, 2013 by Cecilia

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