The Difference Engine

by William Gibson, Bruce Sterling

1855: The Industrial Revolution is in full and inexorable swing, powered by steam-driven cybernetic Engines. Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time. And three extraordinary characters race toward a rendezvous with history - and the future: Sybil Gerard - dishonored woman and daughter of a Luddite agitator; Edward "Leviathan" Mallory - explorer and paleontologist; Laurence Oliphant - diplomat and spy. Their adventure begins with the discovery of a box of punched Engine cards of unknown origin and purpose. Cards someone wants badly enough to kill for...

Part detective story, part historical thriller, The Difference Engine is the first collaborative novel by two of the most brilliant and controversial science fiction authors of our time. Provocative, compelling, intensely imagined, it is a startling extension of Gibson's and Sterling's unique visions - in a new and totally unexpected direction!

Genres: Science Fiction, Steampunk, Fiction, Alternate History, Cyberpunk, Fantasy, Historical Fiction

429 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1990

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

William Ford Gibson is an American-Canadian writer who has been called the father of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction, having coined the term cyberspace in 1982 and popularized it in his first novel, Neuromancer (1984), which has sold more than 6.5 million copies worldwide.

While his early writing took the form of short stories, Gibson has since written nine critically acclaimed novels (one in collaboration), contributed articles to several major publications, and has collaborated extensively with performance artists, filmmakers and musicians. His thought has been cited as an influence on science fiction authors, academia, cyberculture, and technology.


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William Gibson. (2007, October 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:30, October 19, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?t...

Reviews

[Jindroush]

Rád bych dal víc, ale nemůžu. Přitom jednotlivé úseky mě celkem bavily, dokonce víc než průměrně, ale jako celek to u mě nemůže obstát:

- jednotlivé části jsou nešikovně propojeny (tedy způsobem, který mi nevyhovoval)
- chvílemi jsou tam úplně psychdelické "iterační" scény, které se tam podle mě nehodí
- co je problematické, je zasazení reálných, ale mně zcela neznámých postav to nereálných situací, např. jmnéna jako Brunel nebo Egremont mi nic neříkala, ani nevím, zda měla. Propojení se situací v Americe mi pak také dost unikalo. Zapojení Japonců taktéž