Science news and science current events, research and discoveries.
Top science news articles and science current events stories from the past week.
Science Resources
Science RSS News Feeds
Earth, Life and Space Science RSS News Feeds.
|
 |
 |
 |
| View Larger Image | Schismatrix Plus (Complete Shapers-Mechanists Universe)
by Bruce Sterling
| | List Price: | $15.00 | | Price: | $10.20 | | You Save: | $4.80 (32%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 212636 | | Studio: | Ace Trade | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 336 | | Publication Date: | December 01, 1996 | | Publisher: | Ace Trade |
| |
EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Amazon.com
Bruce Sterling has called his Shaper/Mechanist novel Schismatrix "my favorite among my books." It is a detailed history of a spacefaring humanity divided into two camps: The Shapers, who prefer genetic enhancements, and the Mechanists, who rely on prosthetics. Sterling also published five Shaper/Mechanist stories between 1982-84, which have been collected with the novel in this compendium volume. This book represents the definitive collection of what is arguably Sterling's most intense work, offering a hard, gritty look at humanity as it pushes and claws its way to the stars. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 36 reviews)
|
A Glimpse Into a Post-Human Future 
Schismatrix is a meditation on what it means to grow older, both individually and as a species. Unlike most of Sterling's later work, it's set in the distant future; and, stylistically, it reminds me of Roger Zelazny's work in a way that Sterling's other novels don't. But the themes of this book will be familiar to Sterling's fans and, if the writing isn't up to the standards of his best work, the ideas certainly are.
Although I'd probably recommend Holy Fire (Bantam Spectra Book) as a better starting point for new readers, I'm impressed that someone so young (at the time) could write such a good book about characters so old. The additional stories collected here aren't outstanding, and they're available elsewhere, but they gain from being read alongside the novel.
August 07, 2008 | |
Sterling's Best
Since "Neuromancer" and the accompanying cyberpunk explosion, Sterling (and many others) has been unfairly relegated to Williams Gibson's shadow. Too bad, because while "Neuromancer" has dated (most near future stories do), "Schismatrix" seems to be getting better and better.
"Shaper revolutionaries struggle against arisocratic Mechanists" is the dust jacket blurb, but this is a gross simplification. Sterling covers a century in the life of Abelard Linsey, Shaper Rebel, compressing it into two-hundred-and-fifty hurtling pages. No words are wasted. The episodes fly: Linsey's exile; his theatrical program; the Red Consensus; the asteroid clave; the arrival of the Investors; and so on. Just when you think the story can't go any further, Sterling starts another unpredictable chapter. The pace is relentless, decades slashed from the narrative (if Sterling had written Dune it would be twenty pages long) as Lindsey's stock rises and falls.
Sterling is a master of the short story: the ability to evoke time, place and character quickly and concisely. Here he evokes a civilisation in chaos -- using Linsey as our eyes and ears -- by giving us bare glimpses of fashion, technology, art, conflict. It's like taking every iconic moment of the twentieth century and watching it in fast forward.
But if you're expecting Cyberpunk, forget it. While there might be some common elements, Sterling is working with a whole other set of textures. The closest thing to Cyberpunk is the "Spider Rose" short-story in the accompanying suppliments (all good, too). If anything, Schismatric might be the first "post-cyberpunk" novel.
Whatever it is, I continue to reread it regulary.
January 27, 2008 | |
A major leap forward for SF
I read a lot of science fiction, both the classics and newer ones. I am happy to say the this book has really got me back into Science Fiction when I was starting to think that I hadn't read anything truly groundbreaking since Arthur C. Clark'es "The Light of Other Days."
Schimatrix Plus, despite its complexity (it can easily be labeled "hard" science fiction) details the life of our main character, whose age spans hundreds of years. It probably won't move you to cry, but it will give you plenty to think about.
August 22, 2006 | |
Includes The Novel Schismatrix And (Plus) All Related Stories, 2-1/2 Stars 
I really wanted to like this novel. It had a clever name, an amalgamation of the Great Schism that separate Catholicism and Protestantism, and Matrix, like the movie with the same title. (Note: the novel is pronounced Shiz-mat-rix, with a short a, rhymes with schematics). A classic cyberpunk title. However, this novel is anything but user-friendly. I don't know if pharmaceuticals are needed for appreciating this novel, or if the author used them when frantically writing, in between vacuuming the roof of his house and such. The novel moves at such a frantic pace that within one sentence the entire setting can change and this happens more than a few times. It's difficult to know the point of the plot; perhaps that life is worth living. The novel is a cross between Heinlein's Time Enough For Love, Bester's The Stars My Destination, and petting a sea urchin.
In a shocking act of consideration, the publishers have included all of Sterling stories related to the Shaper-Mechanist War. That would be the full length novel, plus five stories. The stories were written before the novel, which was the order I read them in, although after reading the novel last, I can't say whether or not to recommend reading in that order. The stories are interesting and enjoyable. In fact Sterling seems to excel with his short stories. His story "Flowers of Edo" is where I got interested in his style. I would recommend his short stories, but this novel is another matter.
Humanity has balkanized into a number of factions, with the Shapers and Mechanists being the most powerful. The Shapers have reshaped their bodies genetically. This includes such drastic things as replacing all the E. Coli in their intestines with enzymes. The Mechanists are like the Borg of Star Trek, they use mechanical prosthetics to enhance themselves. If you think the Mechanists are the cleaner of the two, think again. Cockroaches and bacteria are prevalent in Mechanist environments. Every five years the Mechanists need to have the bacterial growth scraped and UV-burned off their skin. That's one thing prevalent throughout his writings, this sort of creepiness. Expect more of it.
However, don't let the war make you think this is some majestic good vs. evil epic space war. Battles are mostly low key. There is lot's of narration and dialog. Sterling self-claims his crammed prose. No kidding. Adjectives rule supreme in this novel; as many as possible are crammed into each sentence. If one would do a histogram of adjectives, this novel would be on the far right tail of the bell curve. Here's an excerpt: " He always wore his spacesuit, [something something], and [multiple length modifiers] body odor came through its [multiple adjectives] collar with [multiple adjectives] pungency." Sentences like this go on and on and on and on and on and on and on throughout the novel. And there's no shortage of hyphenated words, like long-fermented, eye-watering. On one page, there were no less than 11 hyphenated words, plus one triple one.
Similar to the prosthetics of the Borg, the sentences themselves seem interchangeable. Here's another excerpt of a dialogue:
"What was your brigade?
I'm no Cataclyst.
I have your weapon here.
Constantine pulled a ... vial from his ... jacket ..."
You may as well interchange your own sentences: `The tree fell in the forest; it made no sound' or `the space ship went into orbit; it's boots were muddy.' Give it a try. It'll make as much sense.
There are times when the novel seems profound. I would find myself backtracking at times to understand some point, and I would go back 5, then 10, then 20 pages to try to understand something and would just give up and go back to where I was. It's hard to say you read this novel, it's more like your eyes glance over the words, and on occasion you absorb some of it. Since the novel fluctuates from the profound to the mundane an average of 2-1/2 stars seemed appropriate.
March 25, 2006 | |
Prophetic
I've read this novel 4 times, which beats Dune and The Silmarillion by one.
This is easily one of the most richly imagined futures ever conceived. And it has aged better than just about anything else written in this era (early 80's).
As far as it being "inacessible": Go read one of those awful Dune prequels if you want to be spoon-fed your predigested pap.
Come back when you're ready.
January 12, 2006 | |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| |
|
|
|
|
