The Caryatids

A pretty good book. Suffers in relative quality in reminding me of The Windup Girl (multiple morally ambiguous viewpoints set among an environmentally devastated planet) while not being anywhere near as good. Still, there's a lot of interesting stuff here, pulled together in an effective story. It's over infatuated with the device of cloning as a perspective device and the beginning is very slow, but it was quite engaging by the end. Solidly in the category of a good and worthwhile SF book, it's short of great I believe mostly in that 1) it goes with a type of shallow satire for a long section, rather than committing to a future dystopian or doomsday premise and 2) having one major character who just bugged, especially her implausible motivation (blow everything up!). Opening well after the main devastation, the book doesn't spend much time tracing the changes that have doomed old norms, instead it engages with the different new organizations that have adapted to thrive. The Acquis, the Dispensation and China form the main powerblocks, with one viewpoint character assigned to each. The first two are each interesting, primarily for the contrast. The Acquis are a type of mildly transhuman adaptation in the direction of Green collectivism. Easily the most benign, yet with enough creepy, coercive and austere elements to not feel too idealized. The main interest I found in this angle was the negotiations they were forced into, having to balance their intentions with their relatively weak power. A community that had succeeded at immense odds in reclaiming a bit of the globe against collapse--and now finds that they still have issues to deal with, that their success attracts attention, that in order to work with a broader humanity they have to cut deals with a group that doesn't share their principles, and finally that their very success might have been gained through a heavy ethical cost precisely because of their form of principles. It's a very nice scenario, and while the negotiation scene early in the novel is rather drawn out, it has enough ambiguity to be compelling. The Dispensation is interesting for contrast, but is less compelling in its own right. A type of disaster-capitalism that now strikes me as having parallels with the portrayal in Market Forces, they focus on hype, entertainment, ultra-adaptation. What's most interesting about the Dispensation is that they don't appear as center stage of their own setting--a lot of authors using this would have made them the center of a dystopia that needed to be challenge. Instead, while there's a lot to obviously condemn about the way they operate, it's shown as an understandable and eminently human structure. Still, this plot strand tens the most to shallow satire over more substantive world-building, and despite some nice character growth is the weakest part of the book. Finally there's China, the only nation that's maintained it's identity and power, albeit at a pretty staggering cost. The

I am baffled at why The Caryatids has received so many negative reviews on here. I am in so much puzzlement over how people could honestly write these things that I wouldn't be surprised if a rival publishing house has paid people to pan the books of its competition. I suspect, however, that Bookmarks Magazine summed up the reason when they said that "Books of big ideas often polarize reviewers, and Bruce Sterling's latest novel is no exception." This is a book of ideas for people who like to think and be mentally stimulated. There are so many wondrous new technologies and concepts described in The Caryatids that people in our media saturated society who are already suffering from information overload may be turned off by it. If you're the type of person who wants simplicity from their reading, and thinks that the latest Star Trek or Warhammer 40,000K novel is an example of great science fiction, then The Caryatids probably isn't going to be your cup of tea. I've also noticed that whenever a novel's protagonists don't have a traditional morality it tends to be polarizing. As the "most helpful" negative review states "there wasn't a single character sympathetic enough for me to care about, much less consider an interesting or worthy protagonist. None of the main characters seems to have any ethical code or system at all". I've seen several people cite amorality of protagonists as their main reason for disliking two other great works of fiction, Jack Vance's Cugel novels (arguably the best novels Vance ever wrote) and Hugh Cook's The Chronicles of an Age of Darkness decalogy. It seems absurd and childish to me, but apparently a lot of people can't get into a novel unless the main character thinks and acts in a way that conforms to their own values. Why should it matter that a character has an "ethical system" or is "sympathetic" or is "worthy of being cared about"? I don't see how this has anything to do with whether the book is good or not. I've been a long time science fiction reader, I grew up reading Clarke, Gibson, Cherryh, Stephenson, Shirley, Asimov, Delany, Walter Jon Williams, and countless other authors. I do believe Sterling's The Caryatids is among the best science fiction novels I've ever read, and definitely the best I've read all year. It's so intellectually stimulating, relevant, and exciting, my only disappointment was that it wasn't longer. Don't be misled by the negative reviews on here, my advice is to pay more attention to the professional reviews in magazines like Publishers Weekly and Locus, which from what I've seen are more likely to recognize the worth of The Caryatids and give it the praise it deserves.

In 2060 the world is divided into three areas of influence fighting over the remaining resources of fallen nations. The Caryatids are four remaining female clones of a mad Balkan genius and war criminal who influence these divided worlds - and with a coming environmental disaster, they may prove the only keys to saving the world. An outstanding, gripping novel of survival evolves, perfect for any science fiction library.

Bruce always seems to be able to see just over the horizon line of the future. It's like neopolitan futurist ice cream, three flavors of "WTF how did this world happen?" Human cloning? No big deal, just another scandal, minor compared to the rivers that don't flow anymore. I've been reading this dude since his first book, and he belongs in this list of names: Neal Stephenson, Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross, Ken Macleod, Iain M Banks, Neal Asher. Maybe the future doesn't have to have a unifying narrative, because it's like what they say about China - it's so big, that everything you've heard is all true.

In 2060 the world has changed from nations competing for resources into three major groups fighting one another for supremacy of an earth beyond the brink of pandemic collapse. Each wants control of the dwindling resources once coveted by countries. Headquartered in Los Angeles is the Dispensation based on the amalgamation of money, entertainment and high tech. The Green crowd Acquis still hopes to build a utopia on the dying planet. Finally the only nation still breathing, China survives by destroying its people as expendable pawns. In addition to the geo-political-corporate rivals, there also exist three Caryatids female clones of a Balkan war criminal living on a space station and their brother. The Dispensation control Radmila tries everything to ignore her roots. The Acquis own Vera who wants to save her birthplace Mljet Island, Croatia. In China Sonja is a highly regarded medical expert who risks her life to help others. Finally there is also their brother Djordje the businessman. With the globe nearing its final death, Dispensation's John Montgomery Montalban, husband to Radmila and lover of Vera and Sonja, tries to unite the Caryatid women in a desperate Hail Mary plan. His problem is that the female clones hate one another almost as much as they loathe their orbiting mother. This is a superb cautionary science fiction thriller that makes the case that even a super-person or three is not enough to clean up mankind's path of environmental destruction as long as world leaders and complacent people prefer to bushwhack with alibis any efforts to turn around the trends. The wannabe hero has a superego that has him believe only he can broker the deal to save the world. Fascinatingly the titled females share much in common as clones and with their hatred, but each is different in outlook bringing uniqueness to the mix. Although the story line in some ways feels like three novellas (each female's tale) tied together with a save the world in spite of humanity overarching theme, fans will relish this post-apocalyptic dying earth saga. Harriet Klausner