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Schismatrix Mass Market Paperback – June 1, 1986

by Bruce Sterling (Author)

4.6 15 ratings

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THE FUTURE OF MANKIND CAN TAKE ONE OF TWO DIRECTIONS...

The Mechanists are ancient aristocrats, their lives prosthetically extended with advanced technology. The Shapers are genetically altered revolutionaries, their skills the result of psychotechnic training and artificial conditioning.

Both factions are fighting to control the Schismatrix of humankind.

The Shapers are losing the battle, but Abelard Lindsay--a failed and exiled Shaper diplomat--isn't giving up. Across the galaxy, Lindsay moves from world to world, building empires, struggling for his cause--but more often fighting for his life.

He is a rebel and a rogue, a pirate and a politician, a soldier and a scholar. He can alter the direction of man's destiny--if he can survive..

SCHISMATRIX

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Ace
Publication date

June 1, 1986
ISBN-10

0441754007
ISBN-13

978-0441754007
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Bruce Sterling
664
Paperback
$16.00
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ace (June 1, 1986)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0441754007
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0441754007
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.6 ounces

Best Sellers Rank: #2,262,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #106,967 in Science Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 15 ratings

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About the author

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Bruce Sterling

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Bruce Sterling, author, journalist, editor, and critic,

was born in 1954. Best known for his ten science fiction

novels, he also writes short stories, book reviews,

design criticism, opinion columns, and introductions

for books ranging from Ernst Juenger to Jules Verne.

His nonfiction works include THE HACKER CRACKDOWN:

LAW AND DISORDER ON THE ELECTRONIC FRONTIER (1992),

TOMORROW NOW: ENVISIONING THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS (2003),

and SHAPING THINGS (2005).

He is a contributing editor of WIRED magazine

and writes a weblog. During 2005,

he was the "Visionary in Residence" at Art Center

College of Design in Pasadena. In 2008 he

was the Guest Curator for the Share Festival

of Digital Art and Culture in Torino, Italy,

and the Visionary in Residence at the Sandberg

Instituut in Amsterdam. In 2011 he returned to

Art Center as "Visionary in Residence" to run

a special project on Augmented Reality.

He has appeared in ABC's Nightline, BBC's The Late Show,

CBC's Morningside, on MTV and TechTV, and in Time,

Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times,

Fortune, Nature, I.D., Metropolis, Technology Review,

Der Spiegel, La Stampa, La Repubblica, and many other venues.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

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Arash Mohebbi

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2014

Verified Purchase

A truly seminal work of post Gibsonian science fiction. God I wish they would reprint this book.

Helpful

Bill

Spread thin, mankind struggles to hold itself together.

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2017

Mankind has scattered throughout the stars, inhabiting every celestial body with enough size and value to justify a colony. Within these communities various cliques spring up, each propagating their own model for an orderly society. Over time new cliques form, pushing old ones to the fringe in an ongoing war of politics and economics.

The story follows Abelard Lindsay as he navigates the tumultuous sea of ideologies. Each chapter reads like its own short story. Abelard repeatedly reinvents himself to adapt to changing circumstances, sometimes changing so drastically that it’s hard to believe this is the same character.

The text itself is a good, challenging read. The story raises numerous questions about society and identity, but rarely lingers on any one topic long enough to reach any conclusions. Instead it is left to the audience to engage these topics further. It’s difficult to walk away with any real conclusions, and I believe that’s by design. It mimics the central challenge of the story, maintaining a sense of self in an ocean of ever changing ideologies.

+Strong Ideas
+Strong Setting
*Challenging Writing
*Complex Characters
*Fragmented Plot

4/5

2 people found this helpful

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Herr Frog

This is good old-fashioned "hard science fiction"

Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2007

I sometimes wonder whatever happened to good old-fashioned science fiction, the traditional type stuff of Arthur C. Clark and Isaac Asimov. Seems the old sci-fi has diversified into so many subgenres now I can't locate the good stuff. But you could hardly ask for a better sampling of traditional space adventure than this.

And overall, much like other famous space adventure novels, the vast scope and plot of "Schismatrix" serves at least somewhat as a metaphor for our own present day world. It's the story of a society divided, and a series of covert wars among the different schisms, and the life of one lone maverick who tries to stand clear of all of them and find prosperity and greatness separate and apart.

As an aside, I think the genre Bruce has been identified with, "cy6erpunk," is more ephemeral than most fashionable genres, and is often just a trendy buzzword. There is little or nothing in this novel to identify as cyberpunk but plenty to describe it as traditional science fiction much like Asimov or Roddenberry would write. If Bruce ever wrote cyberpunk this wasn't it IMO.

Bruce is a high-energy writer who is well-known for his short stories. In fact, a few of them took place in this same Schismatrix universe, and were later included I think in the "Schismatrix Plus" collection. One of my very favorite shorts of his is one of these and can be found also in the collection "Crystal Express."

I found this to be a pretty easy read, and like much traditional science fiction, is not extremely emotional stuff, but focuses much on science and technology. It is not without some emotional depth, but anyway is focused on the loner protagonist, who is in fact pretty alien in his ways compared to us. I think Bruce empathized with him to some extent though.

I'd say if you like sf and want a good intro to Bruce, this is a great way to go. But I'd suggest the "Schismatrix Plus" instead, because the shorts included there, while not essential to this plot, are great reading also, and help fill out this universe a tiny bit. And besides, if you are some science-fiction-readin' weirdo like me, you will finish this book in a heartbeat and be ready for more.

6 people found this helpful

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Garrett J. Menning

Dizzying future history of humanity

Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2004

In Schismatrix, Bruce Sterling takes us on a high-velocity spin through the future of our species. He follows the long career of Abelard Lindsay, genetically altered using the revolutionary technologies of a group called the Shapers, in a series of adventures and intrigues that take him across the solar system in a decades-long battle with the ancient Mechanists, whose power comes from the use of their own, prosthetic technologies. These and other competing groups are knitted together into the Schismatrix with the arrival of a species of powerful aliens called the Investors.
Sterling has a fertile and unruly imagination, describing the welter of new societies and political systems that develop along with the dizzying advance of technology and the interaction between humanity and the Investors. Reading this book is like taking a ride on a bullet train across colorful new territory-fascinating and exhilarating, but not wholly satisfying by the time the trip is through. The ride is simply too fast and jarring to allow the reader to fully digest or understand the experience.

7 people found this helpful

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Erich L. Swafford

Prophetic

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2006

I've read this novel 4 times, which beats Dune and The Silmarillion by one.

This is easily one of the most richly imagined futures ever conceived.

As far as it being "inacessible": go read one of those awful Dune prequels if you want to be spoon-fed your predigested pap. Come back when you grow up...

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