Distraction

Having read _Holy Fire_ and _Heavy Weather_ I have to say that I enjoyed this Sterling the most, and I've enjoyed all three very much indeed.Sterling's writing is quirky, intelligent, and real. He makes implausible situations (such as a cold war between the US and the Netherlands) feel both believable and appropriate.The characters are wonderfully drawn. I was in love with Oscar-- the fast-talking campaign manager who isn't quite human but can always find the angle in a situation. I believed in his odd relationship with the unlikely and awkward Dr. Penninger simply because it was so improbable but at the same time so true.I can understand why the ending felt unsatisfying to a lot of readers, because it fails to hand you simple or predictable resolution. Indeed, a lot like life, the plot almost fades away, leaving us with the main characters' relationship as the primary movement in the novel. Oddly appropriate for a book written about a time where everyone seems to be frantically sitting still, but grantedly atypical for science fiction.

I think my brain is wired to Sterling's style. Even when his story endings are not completely satisfying (as in Holy Fire), I always enjoy the ride. I personally enjoyed the sort of meandering way he started Distraction and then led up to the actual story around page 90. He has the ability to create worlds that I find constant pleasure in exploring. Even little things like the description of the small riot at the beginning of the novel, or the politics of science (not so little). I loved the manic "doable"ness of Oscar, and the story definately picked up for me (even though I was enjoying it anyway) when he first returns to D.C. I always like it when a writer (especially a science fiction writer) takes a character or situation, and pushes it beyond the limits of the conventions set up by the author. This is also why I enjoyed Greg Egan's "Distress". Too many science fiction writers create these worlds, amd then seem terrified to change them too much. Gibson hasn't done it for me since "Neuromancer", but Sterling always provides me with clever bit's of dialogue to chuckle over, funny notions to ponder, and other fascinating ideas that manage to scratch that one itch buried somewhere in my grey matter that few other writers can access.

Together with Stephen Bury's `Interface', a new category - political SF. Though `Distraction' more in the cyberpunk underdog tradition, a nobody becomes a minor bit player only to be swept back to nobody by waves of events much, much greater than himself. No pauper to prince here - good - 've quite outgrown those stories.A rich, swiftly moving plot which grips, and lets the author take us through a grand tour of his imagination. What a tour it is! Sterling has a million ideas a minute, his future is compelling, complete and entierly frightening. Great portrayal of the rot that is Washington, don't know how much of that is fiction, how much fact.Comparable with the best of Stephenson, Gibson.

Bruce Sterling has changed tack from the elegaic feel of his previous book HOLY FIRE for a fast and furious satire of the American political system. In the form of a genetically mutated political spin doctor and a brilliant neuroscientist, the hero and heroine are hopeful monsters, brilliant outsiders able to see a better future that no one else can, and have set out against the odds to bring it on, even if it kills them. Readers with short attention spans have accused the characters of being two dimensional when the opposite is true; Sterling depicts them from a standpoint of total objectivity, as if they were specimens being examined from the outside, yet with complete understanding of their inner workings. The twists and turns are fast and furious, and the portrait of an insanely fractured American political system is exhilarating and not improbable, with a deeply cynical twist at the end when the President unveils his solution to America's political mess... a twist so unexpected that even the hero loses his remaining shred of innocence. As the world changes, so the protagonists adapt, and thrive, retaining their curiosity to see what comes next. A wise and funny novel, filled with enough throwaway ideas that usual fill up dozens of lesser writers' books.