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Schismatrix Plus

3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 · rating details · 1,673 ratings · 66 reviews

Schismatrix Plus, is Bruce Sterling's new trade paperback. For the first time in one volume: every word Bruce Sterling has ever written on the Shapers-Mechanists Universe.

In the last decade, Sterling has emerged a pioneer of crucial, cutting-edge science fiction. Now Ace Books is proud to offer Sterling's stunning world of the Schismatrix--where Shaper revolutionaries stru...more

Paperback, 336 pages

Published December 1st 1996 by Ace Trade

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May 08, 2013 Terry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, favorites, space-opera

What a great read this was. I've never been much of a fan of cyberpunk and I'm not particularly a fan of the authors generally noted to be founders of the genre (William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, etc.), but I really loved this book and it has put Bruce Sterling near the top of my list for sci-fi writers. Sterling does an excellent job of melding his cyberpunk ethos with a space opera-ish background that is combined with the 'Grand Tour' of the solar system structure (cp. The Ophiuchi Hotline by J...more What a great read this was. I've never been much of a fan of cyberpunk and I'm not particularly a fan of the authors generally noted to be founders of the genre (William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, etc.), but I really loved this book and it has put Bruce Sterling near the top of my list for sci-fi writers. Sterling does an excellent job of melding his cyberpunk ethos with a space opera-ish background that is combined with the 'Grand Tour' of the solar system structure (cp. The Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley or Vacuum Flowers by Michael Swanwick) to create a really delectable sci-fi romp. (Though perhaps "romp" isn't quite the right word.)

_Schismatrix Plus_ is composed of the novel _Schismatrix_ along with all of the published short stories in the same Shaper/Mechanist universe (I wish there were more). The Shapers and Mechanists are the two major offshoots of humanity who have colonised the solar system in a slower-than-light-speed cosmos. The Shapers are a faction devoted to the improvement of the human form and mind through genetic engineering and are known for their somewhat aristocratic and elitist bearing, while the Mechanists are those who instead chose the path of merging the human form with machine technology in the quest for immortality and transcendance. The Earth kicked both factions out at some point in the past and is now considered interdicted by both.

In _Schismatrix_ itself we follow Abelard Lindsay, an aristocrat from one of the earliest space habitats orbiting the moon, who was sent to be trained as a Shaper 'diplomat' in his youth and who is ultimately betrayed by his childhood friend and colleague Philip Constantine as they try to overthrow the gerontocracy of their republic (not really a spoiler as this happens early in the book and is the main impetus for the plot). Lindsay is sent into exile and thus begins his great tour of the solar system where he comes across many of the human factions and organizations vying for power.

The solar system that Sterling creates is a colourful one and is filled with interesting characters and groups, some aligned with one or the other of the Shapers and Mechanists, and some looking out only for themselves. These include a prostitute/banker who becomes an ecosystem in herself, a playwright-Mechanist, a group of space pirates who are also their own nation-state, and a clan of Shaper terraformers. Throughout his adventures Lindsay is both shaped by, and shapes, the human ecumene around him, at first simply trying to survive and later working towards fulfilling his great dreams for a post-human future for humanity. Added into this heady mix is a first contact with aliens that throws off the detente of the Shaper-Mechanist war. The story really is a tour de force as we follow Lindsay's rising and falling fortunes and get a glimpse of wide swathes of the fascinating human solar system created by Sterling.

Sterling's world is further fleshed out by the short stories included here: "Swarm" - a chilling tale of Shaper meddling in things best left alone, "Spider Rose" - the tale of a Mechanist loner who gets more than she bargains for when she trades with aliens, "Cicada Queen" - the story of an innovative Shaper that ties in with some of the events of _Schismatrix_, "Sunken Gardens" - a tale of competition and terraforming to achieve a new post-human dream, and "Twenty Evocations" - a somewhat experimental story detailing snapshots of the life of the Shaper Nikolai Leng.

Alastair Reynolds has acknowledged his debt to Sterling in the creation of his own "Revelation Space" universe and I'm a little surprised that there aren't more sci-fi writers mining the myriad of ideas that Sterling throws off with seeming effortlessness in these stories. This really is a great ride and is highly recommended for lovers of sci-fi.

Also posted at Shelf Inflicted (less)

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Mar 01, 2010 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature-disguised-as-science-fic, black-comedy, spy-vs-spy

I had written Bruce Sterling off as a relic of the cyberpunk era, big mistake. The wow factor is pretty big on this. Mind mutating, WTF, idea per sentence science fiction with shades at time of Bester, Triptree jr. Delaney, Barrington J. Bailey(who blurbs it) William S. Burroughs, and Ballard. Dense, filled with absurd humor and grotesque surreal visions, as human future and form breaks and cascades into increasing odd shapes. I feel a little buzzed after finishing this. This and a couple of sho...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Duane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Having read the Shaper/Mechanist stories in their paperback anthology form, I was familiar with the worlds amd mechanics of the cycle. The story covers a lot of levels, the one that struck me most was the underlying theme of young vs. old that shapes a lot of events in the story. Sterling's characters read a lot like Gordon R. Dickson's-you can identify with them readily enough, but they don't seem to be fully-fleshed out until there's a conflict of some kind. At least Sterling's characters have...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Ryan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, cyberpunk, favorites

I picked up this book based solely on Alastair Reynolds insane props:

"I owe an equally obvious debt to Bruce Sterling, whose 'Shaper/Mechanist' sequence blew my mind on several levels. Sterling's future history, even though it consists of only a single novel and a handful of stories, still feels utterly plausible to me twenty years after I first encountered it. Part of me wishes Sterling would write more 'Shaper/Mechanist' stories; another part of me admires him precisely for not doing so. Read...more

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Mar 28, 2012 Zachary Rawlins rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am a huge fan of cyberpunk literature, but I've never particularly enjoyed Bruce Sterling's offerings. Not that they were bad - he is far too accomplished a writer for that - but I simply never found his visions of the future particularly compelling, and he lacked the vivid characters and powerful language of William Gibson or Phillip K Dick.

There is, of course, an exception - Schismatrix. While he isn't the first author to move cyberpunk sensibilities into space - Gibson did a USSR themed spa...more I am a huge fan of cyberpunk literature, but I've never particularly enjoyed Bruce Sterling's offerings. Not that they were bad - he is far too accomplished a writer for that - but I simply never found his visions of the future particularly compelling, and he lacked the vivid characters and powerful language of William Gibson or Phillip K Dick.

There is, of course, an exception - Schismatrix. While he isn't the first author to move cyberpunk sensibilities into space - Gibson did a USSR themed space story in Burning Chrome - Sterling's wrold has the most complete vision, and the best ideas.

The idea, spoiler free, is that the Earth has been abandoned for ill-defined reasons, leaving the rest of humanity to struggle along in clusters of space stations, habitats, and space ships. Much of the remaining population is involved in a war between Shapers - genetically modified humans - and the Mechanists, who favor life-extending cybernetics and AIs. While various paradigms come and go during the relatively long timeline, terraforming is at the crux of the book. The way Sterling focuses on the radical social fracturing and experimentation, the ecological and genetic engineering, and the technology needed to transform humanity into a species capable of surviving in space is utterly fascinating. Even better, there are a number of fascinating characters scattered through out the book, though the lead character, Abelard is often little more than a cypher or a guide to the events at hand, and his personality fades in significance and prominence as the story goes on.

Near the end of the book, the subject matter moves in the direction of aliens, damaging the claustrophobic solar system that Sterling had imagined. While the aliens are themselves quite original, the inclusion of a world outside of the tiny island habitats moves the story in a space-opera direction that seems at odds with the rest of the book. Also, the author lingers a bit too much on the philosophy of trans-humanism for me.

Still, an excellent read, and perhaps the best fusing of cyberpunk and space SF that has been done.(less)

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Nov 01, 2010 Artur Coelho rated it 5 of 5 stars

Schismatrix é um dos melhores romances de FC ciberpunk que já li. Trata da Schismatrix, um futuro utópico/distópico com uma humanidade a aproximar-se da transcendência e a colonizar todo o sistema solar. Há várias clivagens entre a humanidade: existe uma interdição que efectivamente isola o planeta Terra de todos os contactos com a humanidade espalhada pelo sistema solar em estações orbitais e colónias em asteróides. Os filhos da terra isolam-na, e desprezam-na como um mero poço de gravidade. A...more

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Jul 11, 2012 zxvasdf rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

This has got me scratching my head at the definition of cyberpunk. The picture everyone has is pretty much console cowboys navigating some virtual reality dreamscape from a gritty rough and tumble noirish realspace. If that's cyberpunk, then Sterling has taken the pretension way past its defined forms.

Schismatrix is centrally about a political and violent conflict between two general factions of humanity, one of whom prefer genetic alterations over the cybernetic modifications of the other. Our...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Stephen Thomas rated it 3 of 5 stars

SUNDOG MILLENNIUM HEIRS

Sterling has an impressive imagination. He’s created a rich, complex, and intriguing universe occupied by a range of so-called ‘posthumans’, chief of whom are the Shapers and Mechanists. These two groups have opposing philosophies and are in conflict with one another throughout these stories. This is reflected in the work, which is heavier on both personal and political machination than on story. There’s nothing wrong with that except Sterling sometimes fails to keep the...more

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Sep 07, 2011 Guilherme rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2011, favorites

Este livro contem uma história principal e cinco contos todos levemente ligados ao mesmo universo cyberpunk ou pós-cyberpunk ou lá como lhe queiram chamar.

Os contos são assim-assim, mas a história, chamada Schismatrix, é muito boa.
Aliás, Schismatrix é das mais original leitura de ficção cientifica de que me lembro.

Demora um pouco a perceber o que raio se passa (da primeira vez desisti passadas 10 paginas sem perceber nada) mas assim que "engata" é uma viagem alucinante pelo futuro da humanidade....more

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Jan 01, 2013 Will rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's clearly early Sterling, but you can see the bones of his themes there -- world building led by a politician and thought leader rather than a technologist, bizarre pointillist relationship patter, the youthful mad urge to self-immolate, the tendency of the old to placid routine to better hide their terrifying competence in the face of chaos.

That being said, there's mawkishness in here as well -- the conflict between Abelard and Constantine is manufactured and handled like a set piece and it...more

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Nov 05, 2012 Krzysztof rated it 2 of 5 stars

Sterling is clearly not "my" author.

First of all, despite this being the classic of cyberpunk, it crosses firmly into space SciFi - it has aliens, intergalactic travel, terraforming etc. It shares many of the themes and some of its style and aesthetics with what I define as the core Cyberpunk genre (ie. a near-future city full of futuristic, but not too much, technology - including cyberspace), but lacks some other elements which I thought are crucial to what constitutes the genre. So that came...more Sterling is clearly not "my" author.

First of all, despite this being the classic of cyberpunk, it crosses firmly into space SciFi - it has aliens, intergalactic travel, terraforming etc. It shares many of the themes and some of its style and aesthetics with what I define as the core Cyberpunk genre (ie. a near-future city full of futuristic, but not too much, technology - including cyberspace), but lacks some other elements which I thought are crucial to what constitutes the genre. So that came as a surprise.

I've read only one other book by Sterling, "Holy Fire", and it feels to me like I now know what Sterling is about. He's got great novel ideas, a passion for creating artistic/scientific/political groups along with their agendas, a clear fascination with age and how technology can influence people's longevity, he puts his focus on posthumanism and what that term can mean... and for the life of him, he's unable to create a coherent narrative to bind that all together, nor call to life characters who reinforce the feel he's got planned for the book, and he's very clumsy with actually making the reader feel invested in the plot.

The events of the book focus on a central character, Abelard Lindsay, as he moves from enterprise to enterprise, facilitating his innate talents for always coming out on top of things. He is the "power behind the throne" during several events, and we see him involve himself in politics, science and art... but there's really nothing else I could tell you about the character. There is no clear sense of what his goal is, or his motivations - and the same goes for the main antagonist of the story, who at one points just decides he wants to off Lindsay (as far as I understand, for no particular reason at all), and then we see him in several situations in which he gains power... only what that power actually does and means is extremely vague.

The whole Shaper-Mechanist conflict in the whole setting is very non-specific. Despite the two factions apparently hating each-other's guts, we frequently see them cooperating and coexisting in peace. It's supposed to be a non-military, but political and economic conflict plus some assassinations to make things interesting, but you just never get to see ANY of it in motion or understand HOW it's done.

All we ever get from Sterling in Schismatrix is mentions of arbitrary events within a span of many years, and important plot-points are made note of, but not witnessed. It's as if somebody retelling "The Lord of the Rings" focused on Tom Bombadil, maybe a little bit of Rivendell, off-handedly mentioned Moria, and jumped right to the end while omitting all the battles, all the details of the journey, and making casual remarks about character-defining moments as if they didn't matter.

Bottom line is, I'm not a fan of how Sterling chooses to present his, admittadly, interesting and novel ideas. It feels like a jumbled mess of "Oh, and look at this thing I devised" and "Hey, see this? Interesting idea, isn't it?" with very little to hold it together in any meaningful sense.

The short stories are only marginally better, but share with the novel a major flaw - an ending which doesn't feel relevant in any sense. Neither of them ends in a satisfying way. I'm not 100% sure, but given this and "Holy Fire", this is just what Sterling does, and I guess it can be appealing, but only to hardcore SciFi fans who don't mind that an author lacks the will or skill to present his ideas in a coherent and understandable manner.(less)

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Aug 22, 2011 claire rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, sci-fi, speculative-fiction

Sterling's novels are surprisingly devoid of innovation or vivid imagery. I really enjoyed his short stories in Globalhead, which were often funny and full of big ideas. Schismatrix' prose is wooden, and he takes an awfully long time doing awfully little to explore an admittedly false dichotomy between the Shaper and Mechanist factions while never bothering to explain why there exists such an ideological conflict between the two. It's also worth mentioning that here, as well as in his Holy Fire,...more

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Aug 04, 2008 Logan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Futures geeks and adrenaline junkies

Recommended to Logan by: Colin

Shelves: dystopian-fiction, scifi-fantasy

This was the science fiction odyssey that I've been longing to read all summer. I'm glad that I finally found one that captivated me from start to finish as I was starting to think I might be burnt out on the genre- a frightening thought.

Sterling's book collects a number of stories all set within his Shaper-Mechanist universe, with his first novel Schismatrix forming the backbone of the story. Following humankind's ascent into the stars, Sterling creates two competing directions for our evolutio...more

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May 16, 2008 Nicolas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cyberpunk, dystopie, humanité, immortalité, mémoire, near-space, politique, post-humanité, voyage, top, rayon-fantasy-et-sf

J'avais lu ce livre il y a déja quelques années, et en avait étéé positivement émerveillé. Car après la déferlante du cyberpunk, Sterling nous revenait avec une oeuvre aux dimensions épiques, embrasssant dans sa fresque futuriste de très nombreuses visions de l'humanité et une rencontre avec les extra-terrestres.

J'ai cette fois-ci été un peu plus touché par le côté humain du personnage principal (auquel on ne peut décement pas donner le titre de héros, puisqu'il passe l'essentiel du roman à fuir...more J'avais lu ce livre il y a déja quelques années, et en avait étéé positivement émerveillé. Car après la déferlante du cyberpunk, Sterling nous revenait avec une oeuvre aux dimensions épiques, embrasssant dans sa fresque futuriste de très nombreuses visions de l'humanité et une rencontre avec les extra-terrestres.

J'ai cette fois-ci été un peu plus touché par le côté humain du personnage principal (auquel on ne peut décement pas donner le titre de héros, puisqu'il passe l'essentiel du roman à fuir : sa femme, ses anciens amis, ses responsabilités, l'humanité). Toutefois, à cause d'une éducation étrangement écartelée, sa fuite n'est pas réellement éperdue, mais massquée la plupart du temps derrière des motifzs nobles. Et ce sont ces motifs qui vont nous permettre de visiter les endroits les plus interlopes que cette humanité spatiale a conquis : des stations spatiales quasiment abandonnées, des centres diplomatiques et commerciaux de contact avec les extra-terrestres, et enfin le centre de terraformation de Mars.

Et à chaque fois, comme lors de la première lecture, j'ai été ébahi devant le sens de la mise en scène dont sait faire preuve l'auteur pour nous rendre des décors tour à tour inquiétants, merveilleux, totallement invivables, ou tout simplement dangereux.

Un autre point intéressant dans ce roman, c'est la philosophie évoquée par ce personnage. Car même si les objectifs qu'il défend évoluent (mais quels objectifs n'évolueraient pas au cours dde périodes de vies de plusieurs siècles - en passant, c'est un point commun avec Les menhirs de glace, qui montre néanmoins plus en détail les limites de la mémoire - qui sont néanmoins évoqués ici avec ce que j'appelerais de la finesse, à défaut d'un terme plus approprié), il garde tout au long de sa vie une confiance claire en les capacités d'une bonne négociation à éviter tous les conflits, confiance qui sera régulièrement trahie par d'autres humains qui ont moins foi que lui en les capacités de la diplomatie. Peut-être que, dans ce cas, l'un des postulats de Sterling a été de donner corps à la phrase célèbre qui dit que la guerre est la continuation de la diplomatie par d'autres moyens, mais j'en doute.

Je parlais du côté humain du livre en préambule, mais je m'aperçois que je ne parle que du personnage principal. Or tous sont traités avec la même finesse, qui leur permet d'exisster avec une réelle force. C'est ainsi le cas des différents personnages secondaires, mais aussi de l'humanité dans son ensemble, qui garde dans l'espace toutes ses bassesses, comme les luttes d'influence, mais aussi toutes ses grandeurs, comme la capacité à créer et à imaginer toujours un monde meilleur.

Tout ça fait de ce rtoman une oeuvre incroyablement clairvoyante, je trouve, même si elle présente certains défaults, comme par exemple un certain manque d'unité.

Peut-être que ce manque d'unité est dû à nos limites d'humains actuels, incapables d'embrasser des espérances de vies se comptant en siècles, mais je crois plutôt que c'est la variété des lieux dans lesquels l'auteur promène son personnage principal qui m'a donné cette impression.

Notez bien qu'il s'agit d'un défaut minime, rendu encore plus mineur d'ailleurs par les nouvelles suivant le roman, qui ouvrent de nouveaux aperçus sur l'univers autour du héros, même s'il s'agit plutôt de l'univers à la fin du roman, avec une planète Mars quasiment colonisée.

Enfin, dans tous les cas j'ai beaucoup aimé cette oeuvre qui, en mon sens, apporte beaucoup de fraîcheur au space-opera en en étant un, par le décor, sans en être un, par le manque d'action, rempalcé ici par une vue beaucoup plus contemplative de ce décor, au demeurant magnifique.(less)

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Dec 27, 2009 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, omnibus, science-fiction, 2009, to-review, to-re-read

SHORT VERSION: (not a real review)

• 1st: "Swarm" — reeeeeally liked; I can see why it's so popular and well known — reminds me of Blindsight — except that Blindsight was probably in-part inspired by this...?
• 2nd: "Spider Rose" — reminds me of that PKD story "Beyond Lies the Wub"
• aspects of the main novel (Schismatrix) cued in my mind visions of: "this is Neuromancer on extraversion" (but mostly I think that b/c they're contemporaries?); also cued: "smatterings of this show up in Accelerando...more

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Jul 21, 2008 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who don't mind good literary technique

Shelves: genre, scientific

Another goodreads reviewer wrote: "It is creative, but one of the characteristics of this book is that the author writes as if the story is happening in our present world, so he does not define words and key elements just as an author writing in the present wouldn't define terms they assume are collective knowledge." They gave this book one star. One star!

It's times like these I realize how crazy some people are. The above technique is one of the marks of good science fiction, as opposed to the...more

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Aug 18, 2011 Christopher Newland rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-time-favorites

A stunning achievement. It was all downhill for Sterling after this one. The Mech/Shaper universe is one of the most unique and rich imaginative worlds I have ever encountered in fiction. The raw brutality of life in space, as well as within competing political and sociological ecosystems is vividly portrayed.

Well worth your time if you enjoy mature scifi.

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Jan 03, 2011 Sahil Raina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

This book was a combination of a couple of books and several short stories. I read this book for the sake of exploring the universe that Bruce Sterling created (Shaper-Mechanist) but, somehow, I don't feel that I fully comprehended the universe, despite having read the entire collection via this book. The stories themselves were quite interesting.

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Jan 17, 2011 Steven Colyer rated it 5 of 5 stars

My favorite sci-fi novel ever, one of the few about the exploration and settlement of our solar system, and the cultural changes between biology-enhanced and machine-enhanced future humanity. Perfect ending. The "Plus" is for the additional short stories in Sterling's verse, all of which are contained in this one volume.

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Feb 09, 2010 Aneel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Clearly one of Sterling's earlier works. Covers a lot of the same conceptual ground as Holy Fire: what will societies do to maintain control in the future, what kinds of changes will result because of vastly expanded lifespans. Definitely less fully realized. I didn't think that the short stories added much.

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Mar 30, 2013 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

A deep question about what makes life worth living embedded in an entertaining sci-fi world of biological vs mechanical thinking.
My favorite quote:
"You are a young race and lay great stock by your own cleverness.
"As usual, you fail to see that intelligence is not a survival trait."

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Jan 11, 2012 Guillaume Richard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I couldn't find any other way to say it a more literate way: "what a slap in my face..."

Schismatrix is definitly a must-read for who's fed up with usual sci-fi concepts dealing with possible happenings for humans when we'll start establishing colonies into space. It brings new ideas, trying to define humanity far beyond the "shape" of it.

It could be frightening indeed but it's sure going to be marvelous.

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Dec 29, 2008 Avocados rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting thought pieces on a future life where humans live on man-made space stations. Good exploration of man and machine. However, the story as a whole lacked character development. I didn't really care what happened to the main character, nor was he very likeable.

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Nov 23, 2007 Brian Lane rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Cyber-punk devotees, sci-fi fans

I recommend this to speculative fiction fanatics who want to get the full dose of Sterling's fast moving futurist ideas on near-term (medium term?) human society as it would evolve when distributed over the solar system. His ideas on first contact are also very clever - but the descriptions and ideas on how economics and science accelerate (especially on what and who has value) and morph over time are the best - it made me think differently about recent human events related to brick and mortar/e...more

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Feb 06, 2011 Joem rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was my return to scifi, and I suppose my return to regular reading in general. It's a wonderfully epic story that appropriately spans generations, due to the life-extension premise, while following the main character.

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Jul 13, 2009 Nuno Magalhães rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, ficção-científica, favorites

A história de Lindsay e da evolução do schismatrix, o "mundo" espacial da pós-humanidade, até ao seu final. Uma história fantástica, recheada de imaginação, sobre a evolução da humanidade para o pós-humanismo, nas suas vertentes modeladoras e mecanistas, e, finalmente, para a grande transcendência. Ficção científica na verdadeira acepção do conceito.

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Mar 15, 2008 Buzz rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a newer edition of Sterling's Schismatrix that includes some related stories that he never published. Schismatric is a complex story about two political factions that takes place (if I recall correctly) about 400 years into the future, as taken from the vantage point of a boy's long life of a couple hundred years. It can't be characterized by that alone, because it is very intricate and nuanced. It was a very difficult read for me because Sterling's writing is so concentrated. This is th...more

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Aug 02, 2010 Alexander Veee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, read-2010, books-i-own, cyberpunk

"Knowledge was power. And in seizing knowledge, humanity had gripped a power as bright and angry as a live wire. At stake were issues vaster than any before: the prospects were more dazzling, the potentials sharper, and the implications more staggering than anything ever faced by humanity or its successors.

Yet the human mind still had its own resources. The gifts for survival were not found only in the sharp perceptions of the Shapers, with their arsenals of brain-stretching biochemicals, or th...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Bpaul rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-sci-fi

Not bad at all. I don't read a ton of Sci Fi, but I wanted to hit some of the "cyber-punk" mover and shaker books, so came to this one.

Don't take 3 stars as anything but a good, solid read. No complaints.

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Sep 05, 2009 Joe GR rated it 3 of 5 stars

I debated on 4 stars because of the surprising # of original ideas in this book. Even though it was written in the 80s, it doesn't seem dated (other than the use of "tapes" hundreds of years in the future :)

The "cramped prose" style wasn't my favorite. As others have noted, it's more like a collection of stories set in our solar system's future with the only connection being one character who runs through them. But he's not a well-developed protagonist, so the stories aren't as involving. Still...more

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About Bruce Sterling

Michael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his seminal work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre.

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Quotes from Schismatrix Plus

“Let's throw his ass out the airlock," suggested the Speaker of the House.
"We can't do that," said the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He was a feeble old Mechanist who was subject to nosebleeds. "He is still Secretary of State and can't be sentenced without impeachment by the Senate."
The three Senators, two men and a woman, looked interested. The Senate didn't see much action in the government of the tiny Democracy. They were the least trusted members of the crew and were outnumbered by the House.” — 1 person liked it

“Stripping's bad form, these days," he said. "It's lost all meaning. People do it just to punctuate a conversation.” — 1 person liked it

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title link	preview: Schismatrix Plus
avg rating	preview: Schismatrix Plus Goodreads rating: 3.95 (1673 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/161296.Schismatrix_Plus?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309282782l/161296.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/161296.Schismatrix_Plus?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling[/url]

Schismatrix Plus

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