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The Caryatids (2009)

by Bruce Sterling(Favorite Author)

3.23 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0345460626 (ISBN13: 9780345460622)

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

Del Rey

review 1: Bruce Sterling is the 3rd in my triumvirate of distopian, cyber-punk-ish authors, the others being William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. While I've read most if not all of his work he's never really grabbed me by the collar and shaken my mind as the other two have. Nonetheless, he has some merit.This particular work is full of Big Ideas, as others have mentioned, but those ideas are presented in a way that distracts from the point. Perhaps the style is intended to reflect the condition of Sterling's world of 2060 - broken, unsettled, randomly energetic, and divided into three main camps that are not exactly mutually antagonist but are not entirely mutually neutral either. That makes for a certain incoherence that distracts from the story.Still, those Big Ideas are really Big... more Ideas with, perhaps, some basis in his self-extinguishing Viridian Design movement. It's almost (almost,mind you) impossible to argue with an ecological disaster in the near future. It's almost impossible to argue with a political and economic world system teetering on the brink of implosion. What genetic experiments will go awry in the future is anyone's guess but go awry they will as have nearly all of them in the past.So, in sum, Big Ideas presented in a skittering, jump-cut manner makes for a work that is difficult to love. Ah well . . . there's always a re-read of Ananthem.
review 2: I'm never really sure what to think when I read books like those by Sterling. It took me a while to get into this one, but I think it was worth it. My only quibble, without giving anything away, is the problem I have with most books like this: the characters seem almost too corrupt, with very few redeeming qualities or at least not enough of any to make me truly sympathize with them. Still, this book's settings and concepts are very thought provoking, especially since the time frame is only a little up-time from us. less

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