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Schismatrix Plus
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
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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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
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
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
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
"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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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'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
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
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
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'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
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
• 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
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
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
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.
Well worth your time if you enjoy mature scifi.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
"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
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
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
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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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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“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
"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.”
“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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Oct 25, 2012 08:48am
Oct 25, 2012 09:31am