false 347434 2 "Like Tom Clancy on PCP." That's how Bruce Sterling describes his fin-de-siècle head trip, <I>Zeitgeist</I>, a typically Sterling spectacle packed with verbal flash and digerati wit, along with the expected rail-gun-steady stream of well-thought-out ideas and references. His self-appraisal, as it turns out, is right on. This is a guy widely considered "another, hipper Alvin Toppler" (in the words of cyberpunk godfather John Shirley), an effortlessly intelligent master of both style and substance.<p> Fans will recognize <I>Zeitgeist</I>'s antihero protagonist Leggy Starlitz from Sterling stories "Hollywood Kremlin," "Are You for 86?" and "The Littlest Jackal." The well-connected, world-class fixer is part mystic, part sleaze--sort of Uncle Enzo meets Templeton "Faceman" Peck--and his latest hustle is plying the Third World with merchandise from his all-fake, all-girl band, G-7. (Its seven talentless, Wonderbra-wearing members are known simply as the American One, the French One, the German One, etc.)<p> Starlitz makes use of a shady, flamboyantly weird network of state officials, bodyguards, photographers, and other assorted players to push the merchandise--action figures, lip gloss, shoes, you name it--on what one of G-7's savvier members calls the "Moslem hillbillies." But things get surreal as G-7 girls start dying, characters start explicitly referring to their purpose in the narrative, and one of Leggy's associates conspires to break G-7's most sacred rule: that the whole enterprise must end by Y2K. <I>--Paul Hughes</I> 337727 2000 Zeitgeist total:198|5:33|4:80|3:62|2:18|1:5| 198 712 272 9 3 1 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 14 19:15:14 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 01 21:57:32 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Sep 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 12:11:12 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 15 20:45:18 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Jan 05 15:58:32 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 15:58:32 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Mon Jun 04 11:32:35 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 20 14:57:27 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 06 07:15:22 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 02 09:12:52 -0700 2007 1 0 false false Thu May 08 12:57:11 -0700 2008 Fri May 09 06:45:59 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Thu Sep 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 20 12:00:05 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 04 16:20:20 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Tue Jun 12 10:10:45 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 18 13:36:52 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Wed Jun 20 09:17:30 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 24 09:47:22 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Sun Nov 08 15:48:18 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 08 15:48:18 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sat Nov 07 22:36:15 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 07 22:36:15 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Fri Nov 06 16:47:59 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 06 16:47:59 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Nov 03 14:50:54 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 14:50:54 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Tue Nov 03 06:45:14 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 06:45:14 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Thu Oct 29 18:40:54 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 29 18:40:54 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Oct 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 24 05:07:22 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 24 05:14:29 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Oct 23 09:11:05 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 23 09:11:05 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Oct 21 19:28:47 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 21 19:28:47 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Oct 11 20:04:56 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 11 20:04:56 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Oct 10 05:20:52 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 10 05:20:52 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=347434