A Good Old-Fashioned Future

by Bruce Sterling

Other authorsEric Dinyer (Cover artist)
Paperback, 1999-06

Status

Available

Call number

PS3569.T3876

Publication

Bantam Spectra (New York, 1999). 1st edition, 2nd printing. 288 pages. $6.99.

Description

From the subversive to the antic, the uproarious to the disturbing, the stories of Bruce Sterling are restless, energy-filled journeys through a world running on empty--the visionary work of one of our most imaginative and insightful modern writers. They live as strangers in strange lands. In worlds that have fallen--or should have. They wage battles in wars already lost and become heroes--and sometimes martyrs--in their last-ditch efforts to preserve the dignity and individuality of humanity. A hack Indian filmmaker takes the pulse of a wounded and declining civilization--21st-century Britain. A pair of swashbuckling Silicon Valley entrepreneurs join forces to make a commercial killing--in organic underground slime and computer-generated jellyfish. A man in a Japanese city takes orders from a talking cat while pursuing a drama of danger and adventure that has become the very essence of his life. From "The Littlest Jackal", a darkly hilarious thriller of mercs and gunrunners set in Finland, to a stark vision of a post-atomic netherworld in his haunting tale "Taklamakan", Bruce Sterling once again breaks boundaries, breaks icons, and breaks rules to unleash the most dangerously provocative and intelligent science fiction being written today.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member figre
This collection starts out nicely. “Maneki Neko” is a fine example of …well, not cyberpunk, but the science fiction that takes computers and lifts them to an extreme not expected. Here, working together in the net, everyone’s life is made better. Mind you, this still manages to keep a hint
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of Big Brother to mar the landscape. The next story, “Big Jelly” is just about as hard science fiction as you can do, bringing it all up-to-date with the concepts of bioengineering. At this point I was quite excited about the collection and was looking forward to more. But then the stories kind of trail off. By the end of the book, with the kind-of linked stories “Deep Eddy”, “The Bicycle Repairman”, and “Taklamakan” (which all move along fine, but don’t have much to make them stand out) it had become a bit of a task to complete. Sterling is a good writer, and it shows in spots within this collection. However, it is obvious that this is just a collection of things written over a period and thrown into a book. And the writing is not strong enough to warrant every word being included.
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LibraryThing member nx74defiant
Maneki Neko never underestimate the Japanese gift giving culture.

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1999

Physical description

288 p.; 4 inches

ISBN

0553576429 / 9780553576429
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